But seriously, what a crazy election. My last post was a bit of a downer. Obama was down in the polls and the election looked very much up in the air. Fortunately, right now he's looking really good. He might be in the best position he's been in during the entire election. He's up about 4 points in most national polls, and he's looking strong in state polls. He appears to be holding on to all of Kerry's states from 2004, and he's looking solid in Colorado, New Mexico, and Iowa. Virginia is looking like a real possibility, and states like Nevada and Ohio look like a tie right now.
I think the turn in the race is probably attributable to a few things. First, polling has shown that voters are becoming increasingly aware of how misleading and nasty McCain's ads have been. He was banking on people not bothering to even check how untrue they really were, and, fortunately some members of the media started to call him out on it. Second, opinions of Sarah Palin have taken a nosedive in polls, and are likely to get worse as people see how painfully bad she was in an interview with Katie Couric. It may have been kind of fun and exciting at first, but I think the thought of Palin as back-up to a 72-year-old with a history of skin cancer may be starting to terrify people. This election is serious business.
Here's CNN's Cafferty telling it like it is:
But this week it's been all about the economy and the current crisis. I think that's reminded people how serious this election is. I think people know that McCain offers no real solutions. I think Americans are ready for a change. When things turned all serious (i.e., no more "lipstick on a pig") and Obama started to pull ahead in the polls, McCain had to go all maverick-y and pull another political stunt. He "suspended" his campaign to deal with the economic crisis and called for the debate to be delayed. Unfortunately, neither really ever happened. His ads kept running, his campaign offices were open, he did several major TV interviews, and, from what I've heard, his trip to DC was mostly a photo-op.
The choice is pretty clear, folks. Like Roger Cohen put it:
I’m going to try to make this simple. On the Democratic side you have a guy whose campaign has been based on the Internet, who believes America may have something to learn from other countries (like universal health care) and who’s unafraid in 2008 to say he’s a “proud citizen of the United States and a fellow citizen of the world.”On the Republican side, you have a guy who, in 2008, is just discovering the Net and Google and whose No. 2 is a woman who got a passport last year and believes she understands Russia because Alaska is closer to Siberia than Alabama.
And things like this remind me why I like Obama. From the opening of his speech at the Clinton Global Initiative this week:
Since CGI is about deeds, not just words, let me tell you about four specific commitments that I will make on four issues that CGI has focused on – climate change, poverty, education, and health – if I have the opportunity to serve as President of the United States.
The dude gets it.
Anyway, the debate tonight should be good viewing. But keep this in mind:
In his WSJ column advising the presidential combatants on the (possibly) upcoming debate, Karl Rove observes that "Mr. Obama must avoid the pervasive sense of nuance that weakened his performance at the Saddleback Forum."
Rove is, of course, correct. Nuance kills in politics. So does thoughtfulness.
Does anyone else find this highly depressing, especially considering the complexity of our current problems?
Yes.
Finally, a bit of fun. Sarah Silverman's plea to young people to visit their Jewish grandparents in Florida and persuade them to vote for Obama is hilarious. Enjoy.
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