Down, Again!

Well, all it took was a few minutes of TV this morning and checking out a few news articles and blogs to dash my hopes again and bring on the fear. The polls today show another narrowing of Obama's lead. Who are these people that respond to the polls? They never call me! Did you get a call? 

Then I checked my email and saw this message from MoveOn:  "Dear MoveOn member, I don't mean to ruin your day, but we can still lose ....." Well, that did it -- instant despondency! 

Then I checked the online news sources that I look at almost every day. The headline of the Zorn blog at chicagotribune.com caught my eye: "08 reasons Barack Obama might lose next Tuesday." I thought, "Oh, no! This is the guy who wrote "08 reasons Obama will run" in January 05 and "08 reasons Obama will win" in January 2007. Why is he losing faith now??" So I had to read this new article.

Zorn lists these 8 reasons Obama might lose:

1.  "Bittergate"

His reference here is to Obama's statement about small town Americans clinging to their guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them. While I happen to believe that statement is thoughtfully accurate, I guess gun-toting, evangelical religious racists didn't like it. Too bad.

2.  He's played too much defense.

Zorn's point here is a bit convoluted -- he says that Barack didn't attack McCain's (this is too funny -- I just accidentally typed then corrected this spelling of McCain's -- McCaint's!!!) character and judgment and had to answer the relentless attacks on his character and judgment by McCain.

3.  He was more dismissive than responsive to festering issues.

I think this has been a real Catch 22 in this campaign. It is a narrow path between "he doth protest too much" and "he's hiding something."

4.  He left points on the table.

Zorn regrets that Obama did not capitalize on McCain's association with Renzi and G.Gordon Liddy. Well, maybe he should have, but I like the idea that Obama did not stoop to McCain's level.

5.  Biden's blunder.

We all know that Joe sometimes engages his mouth before his brain. And we also know that his statement about an inevitable crisis test was taken out of context by the McCain campaign. But you got to love Joe and I think he redeemed himself in his interview with a local Florida TV station. Check it out --

6.  The economy now looks more like a chronic woe than an urgent crisis.

Zorn thinks this may give McCain an edge -- I don't think so...

7.  Smoke

With all the rumors, insinuations, guilt by association going around, some people may think "where there is smoke, there's fire." But I know if you ask any trained fire fighter, there can be lots of smoke without any flame.

8.  He's African-American

Duh..... so? I really think people should start changing how they phrase one's ancestry. For example, I'm not German-American. I'm an American of German descent. Barack Obama is not an African-American. He is an American of African descent. Isn't it about time we get it straight? That's Country First -- American first.

Anyway, Zorn left a cliff hanger when he said that on Thursday he will tell us 08 reasons why Obama will win anyway!

Whew, now I can go do the laundry.