But gleaning through the sometimes confusing, sometimes deliberately misleading and partisan and sometimes well formulated, insightful comments by various talking heads I understood the issues better and I saw firsthand how the concept of ?marketplace of ideas? was used and misused. Most of the Democratic Party commentators seemed to think that this election was primarily an election based on Bush?s value war- the culmination of the culture war of the Progressive America versus the values still held dear by the people of the hinterland. The Governor of Nebraska, a Republican said, ?Bush is a likeable guy. He is actually in person a down to earth common America. People like him because he is someone who you can spend an afternoon with, watching a football game and drinking beer.? The other guy said: ?We are voting for a President not for Survivor. It?s not a matter of who you like to drink beer with; it is a matter of who is most suited to lead the country for the next four years.? As the cable channels got more and more excited and started to lose all the semblance of their earlier cautiousness, I found refuge with Charlie Rose and his roundtable discussion of issues with Bill Moyers, the host of NOW on PBS, Joe Klein of TIME magazine, David Halberstam , author/journalist and Meena Bose, Professor at West Point. Bill Moyers was exasperated at the Presidents record and Joe Klein and David Halberstam seemed to agree with Moyers? assessment but Ms. Bose seemed to be more optimistic. Joe Klein said that the real divide in the country was not between the rich and the poor as Senator Edwards suggested but it was between the Secular Pluralists vs. Religious Conservatives. And Bush was firing up his base of social conservatives or evangelical Christians by evoking hot button issues like gay marriage, abortion and tax cuts to mask his poor record at Iraq and economy. David Halberstam thought that the extremism in the media is evident on the talk radio?s prevalence. That there was no civility of discourse anymore and the ?meanness of spirit in talk radio? had made politics too fuzzy to talk about real issues. He spoke of the time that he visited somewhere in Deep South and heard on the talk radio that the ultimate devil of American society was Hilary Clinton. Of course all the hosts and the callers were guys who seemed like they would like to watch football and have a beer with Bush. Bill Moyers expounded the fact that this election was the most ideologically polarized election in a long time in history. He said, ?The candidates do not matter at all.? It is not what their abilities are it is who you identity with and those voting against Bush were voting against the Right wing conservatism. Meena Bose questioned her colleagues? assessment of the fact that there was no political centre now and she seemed to think that all this polarization was just campaign rhetoric. Moyers responded, ?But Sean Hennity is spouting hate 24/7/365 and so is Michael Moore.? In the end it seemed like it was Charlie Rose himself had a better advice. He said, ?No matter who wins the election, we have to talk more.? He is a talk show host. He should know. *** Then Ohio started to act up. It seemed to be careening dangerously the way Florida did, circa 2000. The results were ?Too close to call.? At about 11 PM Bush had a slight margin of about 100,000 votes over Kerry. The networks were tallying the totals in their own way. At 11 PM FOX had Bush 210/ Kerry 144, CNN had Bush 234/ Kerry 188 and MSNBC had Bush 210/ Kerry 206. Indecision 2004, indeed! *** Over at NBC, Tim Russert and Tom Brokaw were talking about the issues. Russert, voicing over a map of America where the two coastal states were Blue and the vast land mass between New York and California and the entire South was Red, said, ?The Blue states care about economy and health care and they support Kerry whereas the Red states care about moral values and they came out in droves to vote for Bush.? He talked about how Bush?s mind Karl Rove masterminded the strategy to rile up the ?conservative base? to bring people out to vote. Ohio, the battleground state, was the perfect example. It could be clearly divided into a Blue State on the North and a Red State on the South. You can tell how an Ohioan will vote based on if he lives to the North or the South of the Mason-Dixon Line. And Russert said that Ohio had lost 250,000 jobs in the last 4 years which should favor Kerry. But the more important issue in this year?s ballot is the referendum banning gay marriage that is being voted on in Ohio this year. The referendum will rile up Bush?s entire core base of social conservatives to vote. And guess what, they voted against gay marriage and for Bush?s victory on the same day. *** Over at MSNBC Chris Matthews held the RED and BLUE map of America and told his viewers, Kerry could fly from New York to California never having to fly over a Blue state. The ideological divide then was a geographical divide too. My cousin said, ?Damn, I did not know Americans were this conservative. In Nebraska Bush won by 60-40 margin. We need to move to California.? He was especially amused by Idaho where the margin for victory for Bush was more like 75-25. ***