Super Tuesday

Cross cultural exchanges at times erode one's ability to be clever, and hence the title of this post is ever so clear, so so not clever, and so so straight forward. Tomorrow is election day in the U.S.A. and although we are all here: in Buenos Aires, or elsewhere in Argentina, or South America, or somewhere, it is, to quote Steven Colber from the Daily Show on the 2004 election "an electoral Hiroshima to make Armageddon seam like Yahtzee," or rather that was on the Bush-Dukakis campaign. For 2004 he simply claimed "it is the most important election of our lifetime." So tomorrow is that day that much of the world has been looking towards. We will all eagerly await for the Daily Show to show us just how funny politics are. Lately, with guests such as Michelle and Barack Obama, the election has been legitimately, or illegitimately presented to us, depending on the comic bent of John Stewart.

But in all seriousness, and I am not taking away from the intelligence or informed nature of the Daily Show, there certainly are better, and more complete news sources from which to observe the election from afar. Why is it that I am writing on the election anyways, assuming that South American Explorers members consist of a more diverse background than U.S. citizens? Something in the winds tells me the recent fluctuation of the Argentine Peso, or Bolivian anti-drug funds, or the ongoing crisis in the Congo for that matter tends to be in some way or another associated with the U.S. The trends in the Hong Kong financial market were dipping the other day, which also might have had something to do with this possible recession thing happening in the states (and please exploit the vagueness of that word recession as most U.S. mainstream media have also done). So, if ever there was a moment when the whole world were looking at the U.S.-which there has been-another one is right now, and as early voting problems in states like Colorado and Florida already have turned on the flashing lights, Obamas' lawyers gear up to insure a flagrant free voting arena tomorrow, Fox news is in pregame mode, Bradley is on alert, and the U.S. prepares for the possible first ever wartime party exchange in the big house.

All the U.S. citizens abroad have already, so we hope, cast their votes and tomorrow will be a long day of speculation and observation, three to six hours ahead of the mark, which might make for a long night. If you need a place to observe election coverage here in Buenos Aires, The Sacramento at El Salvador 5729 will have television coverage from 9pm on, coming from CNN world. If you need conservative coverage you can find it on Fox News, if you are looking for an independent media perspective Democracynow will be doing a five hour special coverage of the results at www.democracynow.com