Don’t Forget to Vote

By Danielle Fugazy, M&A Magazine

November 3, 2008

I love how everyone today will tell you: 'Don't forget to vote.' As if you could. This has been the longest, not to mention most expensive, election ever. John Edwards was the first candidate to throw his hat into the ring and that was on December 26th, 2006. In other words, we have been living through this presidential election for almost two years.

The part that gets me is that after two years you would think that we'd totally understand each candidates' position on just about everything. I have been listening to the speeches, reading up on the candidates and checking the facts on sites like factcheck.org. However, here we are on election day and I realize that despite my best efforts and two years of campaigning, only two things are certain: Sarah Palin doesn't mind being the butt of jokes and "Joe the Plumber" got way too much air time. Everything else is up for debate, depending on how you see it and how many different versions of the same promise you have heard.

Every poll I have seen has Barack Obama winning. I tend to believe the polls are right, partly because, for a really long time now, Obama has been the favorite on online gambling web sites, which tend to be right, and because he outspent John McCain by almost double on the campaign trail.

If the polls are right and Obama is our next president, there could be real changes to private equity. Obama believes in regulating the financial system, ending excessive borrowing from the banks and limits on compensation in the private sector. On the other hand, he will probably be more interested in making things easier for private equity firms interested in investing in infrastructure projects and energy companies. However, none of these items will be too high on his agenda. I guess two years in the making gave both candidates enough time to put out enough mixed messages so no voter could ever be sure what the candidate really stands for. So as we cast our votes today I guess we are really just hoping for the best without any real assurance about what's to come. Living through a campaign for two years didn't make anything any clearer.

Danielle Fugazy
Danielle.fugazy@sourcemedia.com