History could repeat in this year's el I want to tell you about an election.

by DREW PRITT
guest columnist

It features a popular state governor who is running on the record of reform and economic prosperity in his state versus a rather dull, weak, and seemingly unwinnable vice president.

The benefits of the vice president is that he is in an administration that has had one of the best economic recoveries in 60 years.

The incumbent president, while tarred by some scandal, is still popular enough in the polls that some columnists and admirers fancifully talk of revoking the 22nd Amendment and running him for vice president.

Another issue is the ethnicity and religion of one of the nominees running.

The governor is ahead in the polls early on, but after the convention, his race tightens.

By the book and like clockwork, his front-running campaign grinds on.

Almost like Thomas E. Dewey in 1948.

He has chosen as his running mate ­ an elder statesman figure, who while highly experienced, is clouded in ethical questions over his financial portfolio.

The vice president has had to face a tough primary and has chosen a running-mate who makes religion the centerpiece of his campaign mantra.

While the polls show the race tightening, the columnists and most of the American public figure the party in power will be turned out on election day for the new, fresh-faced governor with the interesting name.

The race turns on a negative ad, and regardless of the debates, or even the debates on debates, the vice president ends up the surprise winner.

Albeit by a 53 percent to 47 percent margin.

Do you think I am describing the 2000 presidential race in a nutshell?

If so, you are wrong, it's actually the 1988 presidential race. Strange how history mirrors itself.

Your vote counts.

In 1988, the shift of a small number of votes in Ohio or California would have made Michael Stanley Dukakis the president of the United States, not George Bush.

I am personally voting for Al Gore Jr.

But your vote counts as much as mine, so use it!