Wednesday, October 31, 2012

THE PRAIRIE EDITOR: Days of Nervous Suspense

With five calendar days to go before election day, but only three effective
days to go, most Americans who care about who the next president
of the United States will be are probably feeling some nervousness.
The political trend has been going to Mitt Romney for almost a month
(since the first TV debate), and most polls indicate momentum to the
Republican nominee, but Barack Obama is the incumbent who won a
decisive victory in 2008 over Republican John McCain, and retains some
personal popularity. No one knows the outcome with certainty.

In politics, of course, that is known when the votes are counted, and
only very rarely (as in 2000) is certainty delayed once the counting takes
place.

Some observers say the election remains close, in fact, too close to call.   
Others see the closeness reported in many polls to be inaccurate and
deceptive. This debate will not last much longer. We will soon enough have
real votes, real results and real winners.

The 2012 cycle of the presidential election has fixated on a small number
of so-called ‘battleground” states where the contest between Mr Romney
and Mr. Obama was judged to be genuinely competitive. This group of
states was numbered varyingly from five to eight states, but now, at the
very end of the campaign, the number is twelve states. All of the additional
states are ones that Mr. Obama won in 2008, so it is fair to say that his
campaign is on the defensive. That does not mean  at all that he can’t or
won’t win, but it cannot be perceived as a “good” sign.

At a certain  point, and we are probably already there, it is probably better
for voters to go to a football game, eat out at a restaurant, see a movie or
watch some DVDs, take some long walks, or best yet, play with their children.
There will almost certainly be a scandal or two alleged over the next three
days, and/or some other sensational story put out to grab headlines and
trying to harm a campaign, but voters would probably be wise to ignore
these phenomena, and go about their electoral business as they intended.
The simple, common sense question is: Why, if a disclosure were important,
was it put forward at the last moment?

Since the announcements of the candidates, the debates, primaries and
caucuses, the endless and often tedious media coverage, it has been a very
long campaign, A great deal has been said, argued and contended. Voters easily
have more than enough information to mark their ballot. Let’s now see what
millions of adult Americans have decided,

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Copyright (c) 2012 by Barry Casselman.  All rights reserved.

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