NOON: Election Update From The Hedgehog Central War Room

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Noon

Comfort Food Monitor:
No appetite


Los Angeles- Awaiting report from embedded source on the Bush Campaign in Ohio. Turnout is so heavy, all staffers are swamped.

An obscure shot on CNN minutes ago, may hold the key to this election. The "bumper shot", or the video which news shows use just before cutting to commercial, featured a scene from a Florida polling place. The video was shot in the dusk of morning before the polls even opened in Florida. A line of 50 people were waiting to vote. Near the rear of the line was a lone African American mother accompanied by a young child. She was trying to encourage the child to be patient. Before 7:00 a.m. in the morning.

Few television viewers probably even noticed this scene as it was broadcast.

What kind of mother, of any race, religion, or creed, would care so much about voting in this election, that she would be willing to be there early, before she had to go to work, taking her small child to.....wait in the dark.

Was she there because she was voting for the status quo? Or was she willing to make this sacrifice of her time because she is demanding change? Was she voting her pocketbook, or was she voting her heart?

These are the questions that will determine the outcome of today's historic election. Hedgehog Central has no polling data, just gut instincts. Most pundits would instantly guess this American woman to be a Kerry supporter, economically-challenged, and angered about the alleged mistreatment of Floridian African American voters in 2000.

I'm going to make a different call. Not as a media consultant, not as a public servant, not as a commentator, but as a mother:

My prediction is that I was watching a religious woman from central Florida with an early job and a daycare drop-off to make, answering the call of her minister to get out and vote. Who could benefit from a better economy than her? Or more government programs?

There is only one thing that mothers care more about than their children going hungry, and that's protecting them from danger. I suspect that this young mother was waiting in line to vote for Bush, part of the near 18% conservative, religious, African American vote, particularly in the South, who support the President's values and believe he will protect this country.

There is no question that the Democrats have organized like never before to get out the vote. But not in decades have Republicans been as passionate about an election as they are about this one.

If that one glimpse of life is any indication, tonite the American people may thank George W. Bush...with a mandate.

Sonja Eddings Brown