Heads roll on Halloween

What is it about Halloween that causes heads to roll? Maybe it is the notion of jack-o-lanterns or pumpkins. Maybe it’s appropriate because of Ichabod Crane the a fictional character in Washington Irving's short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which was first published in 1820. Who knows, but this Halloween, heads rolled . . .

In Kabul, the former Afghani Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah who had challenged President Hamid Karzai, announced that he would be withdrawing from next weekend's runoff election, effectively handing the a victory to the incumbent president. Of course, because of how late it is there is no confirmation yet as to whether or not Abdullah will remain on the ballot, regardless of whether or not he has dropped off. As the White House is debating whether or not to send more troops to Afghanistan, one must think about whether or not the US has the best partner in the top seat in Afghanistan (we are of course not making an inferences in the Counterpoint blog that we either do or do not).

In regards to staying on the ballot, the NY-23 Congressional election might have three people on the ballot with only two officially running. The GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava also took the opportunity to withdraw from her race. Plagued with issues and a loss of support by the GOP, Scozzafava, whose political career is most likely over, has possibly helped the GOP by withdrawing from Tuesday’s election. By in affect “shutting down” her campaign, she has most likely provided a boost for Doug Hoffman, who already had the support of 50 percent of GOP voters, according to a newly-released Siena poll. He is now in the perfect position to win over those Republicans who were still supporting Scozzafava. While Hoffman is a conservative and not necessarily the GOP candidate, he would most likely caucus with the Republicans in the House.

In both instances the writing was on the wall, and neither Abdullah nor Scozzafava would have won, as is indicated by polling. And, unlike Gene Hackman’s character in Donald Petrie’s “Welcome to Mooseport”, there will probably be no redemption for either candidate on election or runoff day.

For the rest of us, we have survived another Halloween, but be careful of your head. . .