As I train for the Arava Institute bike ride in May (300+ miles) (http://arava.kintera.org/2006israelride/jasonglasgow) I've had a great chance to snap pictures of my favorite elections photos. I've posted them at Phanfare. My favorite ones are the spoofs. Elite chocolate has been running adds on the radio (which I have not heard), and put up hundreds of billboards (which I have seen) showing their cow logo and pretending as if there is a Cow party. With 31 different parties including one called "Green Leaf" whose platform is to legalize marijuana, one could easily believe that there could be a cow party that wants the government to subsidize chocolate. In this country anything could happen. Today after biking around Park Ra'anana on my new (used) road bike, I stopped at the Sushi restaurant to pick up take-out dinner. Guess what, they too have gotten into the act with an election style poster asking you to vote "SameSame". There has been lots of talk about how this has been one of the more boring elections. I'm not sure if I agree. The various polls have come up with wildly varying numbers, and Kadima has been slipping in the pools just about every week. It looks like there could be some surprises tomorrow. Certainly the original numbers from November 2005 of 42 seats for Kadima -- which would have given it a huge amount of power in forming a coalition do not look like they will materialize. If Kadima only gets 32 seats it will have to work very hard to form a coalition.
I've taken a few cabs lately, and I never miss the opportunity to ask the drivers about the election. Yesterday's driver says he's voting Lieberman -- the "Fat Russian" (his words, not mine). According to the driver, the Russians have fought the Muslims in Chechnya, and know that force is the only way. The day before the driver insisted he wasn't voting. What's the point, the politicians are all corrupt. I tried to convince him to vote, using the public service announcement argument -- "don't let anybody else decide for you", but I don't think I was very convincing. It's amazing -- with 31 parties -- including at least 1 campaigning for clean government (see election posters), there is no excuse not to vote.
