Things I Am Peeved About This Morning -- Part One

To be clear -- I am disappointed in, not peeved about, the election results.  I would have very much (very very much) liked to have seen a different result.  I'm, in fact, very nervous, in a lot of ways, for the direction in which this country is going.  But, again, not peeved.  People voted, the votes were counted, we've got a result.  I believe in the system, and take some level of comfort in the fact that it worked.

There are things I am peeved about, however.

-I'm peeved that after all of the attempts of MTV, Michael Moore, and the "Vote or Die" campaign, all things considered, the number of 18-24 year-olds who voted is about the same as it was last time.

-I'm peeved that my political party did not nominate an electable candidate.  I blame Iowa.

-No, really.  I'm not so much peeved at the electoral vote system -- what I'm peeved at is the PRIMARY system.  Specifically, the non-simultaneous-primary system, by which people in just a few states are given an inordinate amount of power over deciding who the parties will actually run.

-I'm peeved at the exit polls, which predicted results before voting had closed in some states.  And were extraodinarily wrong.

-I'm also peeved at the pre-vote polls.  A few years ago, we had a proposition on the California ballot -- can't remember what it was -- might have been the one to eliminate affirmative action.  Pre-election polls said it was a dead heat, too close to call.  (Ditto the exit polls.)  But when we actually voted, it won by a landslide.  The talking heads concluded that people lied to pollsters -- they were too embarassed to admit they were voting for the option that was considered "politically incorrect."  But in the privacy of the voting booth, they voted for it.  Where was the lesson learned from this?  I am peeved that the pollsters are still relying on the old paradigms and not trying to account for the fact that people tend to lie when they're voting for what appears to be an unpopular option.  (And if they can't account for it, they ought to just give the heck up.)