For most of the day, Michael Bérubé's excellent blog was offline, no doubt due to an attack by nefarious right-wing assholes. Concerned, I asked him if he had a message to pass on to my numerically small but existentially enormous readership. Here's what he sent me:

Aside from LBJ and FDR, no Democratic nominee for President has won 50 percent of the popular vote since . . . no, wrong . . . not even close! c'mon, think antebellum . . . yes, that's right, it's Franklin Peirce.

Unreal, no? But true. Clinton never cracked 50; neither did Carter, Kennedy, Truman, Wilson, Cleveland, or of course Tilden.

The point is clear: Kerry needs your vote, wherever you are. There are no safe states. Everything hinges on getting out every last damn vote in every last damn precinct in the land. We will take the Electoral College, folks, but we also need to do what no Democrat save for LBJ and FDR has done since the Democrats were the slavery party.

Popular vote majority: it's up to you.

As best I can tell, Bérubé's website is up and running once more. But his advice is perfect regardless.

Mode: sparky
Muse: the television in the front room