From Holden:

The New York Times asked a selcction of bloggers what they thought the turning point was in this election.

Each responded in his or her own way. Greg Djerejian chose the bizarre (Kerry’s disrespect towards Iraqi thug/PM Allawi was the turning point), Wonkette went for derisive Bush jibes (then settled on his inability to admit a mistake, especially in reference to Iraq), Kaus characteristically chose the irrelevant (Bush’s failure to challenge Kerry’s vote against Poppy’s war in 1991) as did Lorie Byrd (the Democratic convention?!), and Joanne Jacobs (the Beslan massacre?!?!). The PowerLine guys of course cited their blog (Rathergate), Instahack repeated the Republican excuse du jour (the LIBERAL MEDIA wanted Kerry to win and began working towards that goal in July), while only Kevin Drum hit the nail on the head (Bush blew the debates).

But it was our buddy Tom Burka of Opinons You Should Have who gave the best response:

Mars, Bitch!

Even before he started his campaign in earnest this year, President Bush made a crucial and perhaps fatal misstep when he announced a manned mission to Mars in January – and then abandoned the initiative as hastily as he had adopted it. In doing so, the president alienated the increasingly important group of voters who have given up and “just want to get off Earth.”

“Bush misunderestimated the importance of the ‘Get me out of here’ bloc,” said Dr. Herb Flaggellum, a former thyroid doctor-turned-pundit.

Exit polling will almost certainly show that in a sea of issues baffling undecided voters, Mr. Bush’s lack of commitment to expensive space exploration was a deciding factor in the election today. That, and his failure to wear a receiver and earpiece in the first debate.