Gabe is our liberal blogger.

In one of my strange, quixotic dreams this weekend, I was standing shoeless in the Alaskan wilderness. It was November 5, and six toes were frozen to the point that when poked, they snapped off. Suddenly, I heard a loud noise coming my way - it was John McCain, on a snowmobile, holding in his left arm an uprooted flagpole. Wrapped around him was Sarah Palin, violently screaming in her peculiar accent, “We won, Jahn! We won!”

While my dream might only come true in a horrible Saturday Night Live skit, the reality of John McCain and Sarah Palin winning is more than possible. This shrilling reminder came to my attention right before I went to sleep last night, when I came across VoteForChange.com’s ad appropriately titled “Bad News.”

If you’re an Obama supporter, you might be more than irked by seeing John McCain’s face plastered onto an NBC News projection box, declaring him the “44th President of the United States.” If you’re a McCain supporter, get a towel before you wet yourself. I thought I could never say this, but after watching that ad, Tom Brokaw, you broke my heart.

With national polls continuing to project a close race, we must ask ourselves how this election will affect us both as Americans and as individuals. How much will gas cost when you commute daily from home to work? Will your job be given to a man in Bangladesh? When you travel, will you be mocked by that sketchy local who calls you a stuhpad Ahmericahn? Will you have health care options if, God forbid, you are diagnosed with a life-threatening illness? Will you be able to marry the person you love? How much of your salary will you have to pay in taxes? Do you want to have the right to an abortion?

Ask yourself these questions, and then think about which candidate you would be most happy to see in that NBC News projection box. On November 5, you might not find yourself in the Alaskan wilderness thawed and toeless, but you might find yourself unsatisfied that you hadn’t participated in an election that directly concerns your future.

Read Gabe’s previous post | Read his conservative counterpart.