How did this happen? How is this presidential race so close now, after months of Mitt Romney stumbling and bumbling his way through a zillion gaffes?
I just can’t believe that we’re down to the wire like this, that Mitt — he who refuses to release tax returns!, who changes his position the way some people change socks!, who thinks Russia is our biggest foe and Iran is landlocked! — is now nearly neck-and-neck with Obama.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gj8Ut6E0cA&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
I am freeking out. Are you?
YES!!!!!!!!
LP, thank you for saying this. I have this terrible gnawing anxiety about this election. (different that my baseline anxiety). Grrr, how did this happen? Someone (Scotty?) help reassure me by explaining that it’s all going to be ok and the electoral college is a lock.
I never for a minute stopped freaking out because, as all Jews know, freaking out is the only thing that stops bad things from happening, and even that only works some of the time.
I felt confident for a very long time, including in the days following the first debate. I thought things would bounce back to normal. I didn’t anticipate that Mitt would suddenly turn into Obama Lite, and that nobody would call him on it!
He is the most baffling candidate ever. Just flows with the breeze, changing core positions hither and yon, and nobody seems to mind. What the?!
I am not freeking out. Given the state of the economy, Mitt should have run away with this long ago. Obama established a powerful lead over the end of the summer and the beginning of the fall. Every race tightens at the end. Read fivethirtyeight.com, close your eyes, breathe and smile.
L.A. people may enjoy going on this trip. (I can’t go — I’m working on a local ballot measure — but it will be fun with good people.)
A few minutes with fivethirtyeight.com and 270towin.com suggest that it will all come down to Ohio plus one other swing state (Nevada, Colorado, Iowa). Fivethirtyeight has Ohio at 73.4% chance of an Obama win and Nevada at 75.9% chance of an Obama win, which are pretty good odds. (This assumes victory for the prez in Pennsylvania (92% chance), Michigan (97%), and Wisconsin (82%).) If Obama takes Ohio, he needs only one of these 3 other swing states. Even giving Virginia and Colorado to Romney (both currently just barely going blue), Obama wins with Ohio and Nevada. GET OUT THE VOTE!
Yes, I’m freeking out as well. I know a couple of former Obama supporters who now refuse to vote for him on principal. T-mo and I did phone banking on Tuesday night, and I hate to be so cynical, but I’m not sure how much good came of it. That said, I would rather do something than nothing, and I’m sure that a few people were persuaded to go out and vote, and vote for Obama, and perhaps that will indeed make all the difference.
Mr. Godfree? Whaddya think?