Counting Chickens before they hatch?

John, pick up the phone and call a guy named Stephen! Well it won’t happen obviously, but if John Kerry could learn anything from Stephen Harper’s campaign for Prime Minister it would be not to mention your transition team before there’s actually a reason for transition.

The Kerry forces somehow let slip that Joe Biden is going to be a member of John Kerry’s cabinet come Wednesday morning and the Bushies packing up and moving back to Connecticut/Texas/parts unknown! As Mr. Harper could advise, letting the word get out only seems presumptuous and a tad arrogant in the final stages of a campaign.

There has been a raft of other names tossed into the mix as the campaign enters the final days, but with polls suggesting not only a close result and possibly a resulting lengthy recount period, a transition team may be the last thing Kerry should be working on.

Recount adjudicators and a battalion of lawyers for the necessary court challenges might be a more worthwhile team to assemble. With visions of the Florida fiasco dancing in everyone’s head but on a grander scale, the possibility of a long drawn out process of determining the next President is very much in play.

But for Kerry keeping a low profile on the transition team stories might be a wise strategy, no one likes a guy who takes for granted the affection of the voter. For every name thrown up for consideration the Kerry forces may lose votes on Election Day. Should the Kerry crew need any more incentive to keep a low profile on transition they need do no more than give Harper a call.

At the mid point of the Canadian election he was keeping pretty close company to the Prime Minister and like Kerry in some polls actually was leading at one point. Giving him cause to discuss transition plans with party insiders.

But when it came time to swear in the new cabinet, it was Paul Martin’s name called out as Prime Minister, Harper’s transition team was left to ponder what might have been. For the Kerry gang just some food for thought, as they tread the final days until November 2.