MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza This is the second to the last weekend before D-Day, D for decision. For candidates, D is for deadline, eight days before voters get out the vote on Monday, May 9. In elections past, elections were held on a Tuesday, but what’s past is past. For one thing, elections will never be cheap again. Past and present, voters are reminded by media and the civic-minded to “go out and vote,” which is the wrong way of saying “get out the vote,” a matter of semantics and idiom. (Likewise, many people mistake manifesto for manifest and premier when they mean premiere.) To get out the vote means do your duty, cast your vote and convince as many people as you can to do the same. Except for one senatorial candidate who pulled out two days ago after seeing the handwriting (not handwritings) on the wall, the season’s battlecry is “No retreat! No withdrawal!” Vowing that he will not quit until he receives a sign, boxing legend Manny Pacquiao said that on the contrary, the Lord has fortified his spirit to carry on; he has not received any “divine construction” (instruction?) to drop out. Ping Lacson will soldier on, banking on the soft votes of those too shy to proclaim their choices. His survey score is low, but so what? How come no member of the audience in their townhall meetings has ever been asked to take part in an election survey? As running mate Tito Sotto put it, there’s “unverified information” that a group is offering their services “for hire.” Those townhall meetings, by the way, do one better than rallies: Sometimes the interaction produces answers and solutions on site. “Nakaka-touch, everywhere we go!” enthused Isko Moreno. The warm bodies and their white-hot enthusiasm, he said, are a sign that in the end the “silent majority” will prevail. VP Leni Robredo’s Pinks have adopted the emblem of a many-petaled, many-hued flower, but we have yet to see it bloom on the big screen. BBM’s latest in a series of ads features a bird’s-eye-view of the green-and-golden beauty of the islands as pinwheels are passed from hand to hand. Sara Duterte’s one-liner tickles the heart and your funny bone: “Inday will always love you.” Touché!