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Show Election isn't over yet Election 72. Now that George McGovern has lost the election to Richard Nixon (in the polls, anyway; what happens hap-pens on November 7 is mere formality) perhaps we can turn our attention to more important im-portant and interesting things, like the pro football season or another chapter in the Howard How-ard Hughes saga. Not so fast. Many of us resent re-sent having the election results re-sults predetermined by the media, before we've even had a chance to cast our ballots. Certainly, right now Nixon has a strong (and perhaps unbeatable) lead over McGovern, Mc-Govern, but so far the important im-portant issues have yet to be raised and seriously debated. But the campaign isn't over yet. The same polls that show Nixon with large leads also show that 30 to 40 percent of the electorate is still highly volatile, leaning one way or the other but uncertain as to their final choice for President. The media campaigns have barely even begun, and it is hard to imagine a Democratic candidate for President, the candidate of America's majority ma-jority party, receiving only 30 percent of the total vote. McGovern has, of course, been hurt badly by the Eagle-ton Eagle-ton disaster, the divisions in the Democratic Party, Nixon's moves toward China and Russia Rus-sia and his efforts to downplay down-play the war as an issue, and by a remarkable public indifference indif-ference to the campaign thus far. But in a year of surprises, from Nixon in triumph at the Great Wall to McGovern in victory at Miami Beach, it's still dangerous to rule out any more unexpected events. McGovern Mc-Govern may be down, but he's not quite out. And we may yet get a real campaign (after the President emerges from Camp David) that both excites and educates the voters. Certainly George McGovern, Richard Nixon, and the American people deserve as much. |