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Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Ready, Steady, Go

I'm far less stunned by the fact that a respectable outlier poll has Romney dramatically ahead in the race -- these things happen all the time -- than I am stunned by the fact that Obama supporters like Chris Matthews and Andrew Sullivan who are supposed to be professionals freaked out after the debate so immoderately -- although given the wall to wall coverage they attracted by freaking out I guess this is isn't really unexpected either. None of the fundamentals of the election have changed, in the battleground states Obama's leads have narrowed (again, expected, again, this has happened before, this should happen again) but remain and projected electoral vote counts still favor the President, while Obama's favorability continues to rise, economic indicators continue to rise, Romney's likeability remains in the basement, Republican ID remains in the basement, blame for the recession is still firmly fixed on Bush as it should be, the GOP's alienation of women, African-Americans, latinos, lgbts, young people, public sector workers are all dauntingly high, Democratic support among traditionally GOP-leading constituencies like the military and retired voters are at record highs due to fears of GOP saber rattling in a population tired of war and fears of social security privatization and medicare voucherization. Get out the vote is important, as it always, GOP voter suppression remains a worry despite a spate of favorable late court rulings, complacency is never warranted, but there is nothing in reality to justify the freakout among Democrats and across the media. It reminds of nothing so much as last week's right-wing paranoid conspiracy about skewed polls and cooked BLS statistics. The punditocracy and those who look to them for their bearings seem extremely susceptible to unmooring from political reality. It's rather uncanny. We're less than a month out. Vote, make sure your friends and family know the differences that make a difference between the candidates (a Romney presidency probably means dismantlement of the Affordable Care Act and millions upon millions becoming catastrophically uninsured, tax cuts for the rich paid for by dismantlement of social programs for the vulnerable, a Supreme Court that will overturn Roe v Wade, further deregulation of the financial sector, and war with Iran) and vote, too. Ready, steady, go.

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