Oct 23 2008
Election Day, a dozen to go
Just a little under two weeks to go, and everybody will be glad when it’s over, or at least one of the candidates will. Right now, it looks like Obama has the edge, but you never know. There are a number of things that could happen that might be a game-changer.
I’ve seen three possibilites mentioned by various political columnists. One-a sudden unexpected outside event, most likely some type of domestic or foreign terrorist attack. This would probably help McCain, given his national security credentials. But Obama is now getting better marks on this, so it might not be the big changer it would have been a few months ago. Two-a huge political gaffe by Obama. Possible, but unlikely. Obama’s had a few of these already: the videos of Jeremiah Wright, and the comment about people clinging to their guns and religion. These hurt Obama temporarily, but have not dealt a serious blow to his campaign. It could happen again, but doesn’t seem very probable.
This brings up the third possibility. Folks haven’t been telling the truth about their support for Obama in polls, and come Nov. 4 racists will turn out in greater numbers than expected and vote against Obama because he is African-American. This is the most reliable possibility. No one really knows how many racists will turn out to vote against Obama. It probably won’t be enough to change the election outcome, but if any of the three possibilities does happen, this is the one most likely to occur. Well, in a dozen days, we’ll know for sure.
