FOR all the pre-election anxiety about things that could go wrong fraud, intimidation, voting-machine malfunction, acts of God no one seriously considered the possibility that it might come down to a good old-fashioned squeaker.
She won a squeaker last autumn, barely defeating a Democratic opponent whom she outspent ten to one and who announced that he will run again this time, no doubt, with greater financial support from national Democrats, who smell blood.
But the Chinese say the measure could lead to a trade war.In this section New sins, new virtues Wanted: fresh air Ghost in the machine Reprints Related items Climate change, health care and the budget: A squeaker, with more to comeJul 2nd 2009 America's climate-change bill: In need of a cleanJun 27th 2009Brazil takes a similar position.
It turns out that Proposition B, the Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act, passed in a squeaker.
But Americans have not forgotten how in the last squeaker of this sort, in 1960, Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago manipulated the vote for John F. Kennedy.
Already, the SEIU's Mr Stern fears that the voting will be very close: the "epitome of a squeaker".Unionism, but not as we know itBut even if Employee Free Choice becomes law, it is unlikely on its own to indicate any long-term reversal in the decline of unionism, reckons Richard Epstein, a law professor at the University of Chicago who opposes the bill.
They might discover that, as well as the squeaker, the toy had a button inside one tube which activated a light, a keypad that played musical notes, and an inverting mirror inside one of the tubes.
The place had an air of what Mark Twain once called "the serene confidence which a Christian feels in four aces".In this section A squeaker, with more to come Eight months later Curiously slow Fairness for firefighters Happy new year More money, more problems Fair to foul and back again Two cheers for America ReprintsToday, this serene confidence has long gone.
In that, perhaps, he mirrored the ambivalence of Quebeckers at large.The hardliners wanted a third referendum soon after the 1995 squeaker, and disliked their premier's go-slow approach.
Antiquated sewage systems in New York City and in towns and cities further up river cannot handle storm surges.In this section A squeaker, with more to come Eight months later Curiously slow Fairness for firefighters Happy new year More money, more problems Fair to foul and back again Two cheers for America ReprintsThe Netherlands still retains an interest in its former New Amsterdam.
The big question haunting the Republican Party has been whether the evangelical foot-soldiers could be bothered to do the grunt work or even turn out to vote (Karl Rove blamed Mr Bush's election squeaker in 2000 on the fact that 4m evangelicals stayed at home when they heard of young George's drunk-driving conviction).
