If George W. Bush winds up taking the election, I know who gets an office in the West Wing, if there is any justice in the world.
Me. Although I might settle for a consular job in an insignificant, yet warm, country to be named later, if pressed. Costa Rica would do.
I am, of course, one of the mysterious absentee Floridian voters you have been reading about. And I am, all of a sudden, a force to be reckoned with. As a Canadian friend asked via email: 'How does it feel to be one of the most powerful men in the history of the world [for the next few days, anyway]?'
It feels okay, I guess.
A week ago, no one gave my vote a second thought - including, to be honest, me. When you vote by absentee ballot you are supposed to do it well before the election.
So I had filled out the forms, sent in the ballot and had done with the whole annoying, time-consuming process weeks ago.
By election day, I was just another giddy expat with an American-flag pin in his lapel, following the horse race on the telly at the Ritz-Carlton like everybody else.