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The 2008 election is bound to make history in several ways. Most observers concentrate on the concept that having both a woman and a black candidate in place for the highest offices is historic in itself. This may be historic, but it is hardly unexpected. American society in general has made great strides in balancing the rights of the formerly disenfranchised Blacks and women among us. As both groups are becoming more equitably treated in terms of employment, legal protections and educational opportunities, nearly anyone could have predicted we would arrive at this point at some near future time. Likewise, since both cannot win the vote, one or the other must come in second-this will NOT mean that America is inherently racist or sexist as some groups are already proposing.

The true history-making events in the current election cycle have less to do with the physical attributes of any of the candidates and far more to do with the willingness of so many to twist every fact simply to win. This is not new to this election, although the frequency and expense of doing so is likely unprecedented. Election fraud is not new-and not particularly American: history is filled with elections subverted to special interests and includes murders, scandals and outright ballot-box stuffing and theft. Regardless of how well-loved JFK has turned out to be, there is plenty of evidence that the Chicago and Texas Machines had a large corrupting influence on the outcome of his election. Since that time, it is a standing joke that the dead vote in Chicago-and in Detroit, New York, Miami, St Louis, Dallas, Madison and nearly every large city where corrupt political parties have a large constituency who are willing to subvert the will of the rest of the people to gain success for their own ends. Since many of New Orleans, and now Galveston's dead floated out of their home districts, I suspect we soon will see gerrymandering revolving around the relocation of the coffins.

As with nearly any political change, the road to widespread falsehood and corruption is a long one; we have watched it unfold with every successive election in the form of "reforms" for campaign contributions, disclosures and iron-clad voting procedures. In the electronic age, one should reasonably expect that the average citizen should be relatively well-informed on the issues and their candidate's views well before the first Tuesday in November. They should be able to make an informed decision and go to the polls to

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