One week to go... only seven days to go until the Rumble in the Jungle... the War to Settle the Score.. the Mega Powers Collide. Are there any other corny euphemisms I can use to describe the Bush/Kerry clash? It’s going to be bloody people. And close! I’ve been poring over statewide polls and the electoral map to try to make sense of what’s going to happen and the only thing I can be sure of is that nothing is for sure! So many states are polling statistical ties that it is impossible to gauge who will have the better turnout. Will Bush benefit from longtime voters returning to the polls as they always do? Or will Kerry benefit from the large influx of newly registered voters... who seem to favor him by a 2 to 1 margin and are NOT accounted for in the existing polls!

The following states won by Bush in 2000 are now too close to call : Florida, Ohio, New Hampshire, Missouri, Colorado, Nevada, Arkansas, West Virginia, Virginia

The following states won by Gore in 2000 are also too close to call : Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, New Mexico.

That’s 9 red states up for grabs and 5 blue states up for grabs. Combine this with my belief that newly registered voters will turn out in droves, and I am boldly predicting, today on this blog, that John Kerry WILL be elected President of the United States. But I’m still nervous as hell.