Focus, people, focus
by Tom Sullivan
Election Day precinct packages arrayed for deployment in North Carolina.
At a Fayetteville, NC campaign rally with President Obama yesterday, the crowd booed when a Donald Trump supporter stood up. Obama called them down for losing focus. Once they quieted, Obama said:
“If we lose focus, we’re gonna have Donald,” he said.
Amber Coleman, a Raleigh resident and junior at Fayetteville State, said she appreciated Obama’s efforts to stay positive.
“I was one of the ones encouraging everybody to boo, and then I listened to what he said,” Coleman said. “We do lose focus sometimes and focus on the negatives instead of the positives … We need to pay more attention to what we’re saying about Hillary than the negatives about Trump.”
“Don’t boo. VOTE!” has been a staple of Obama’s campaign appearances. Early voting ends at 1 p.m. today in North Carolina.
An experienced campaign manager posted to Facebook last night an admonishment to skittish Democrats:
“Everyone with the debbie-downer and sky is falling stuff: Stuff it. Science says you get more voters to cast their ballots when they perceive your side to be winning. They want to be a part of the winning team, not be begged to use their vote to stave off disaster.”
David Atkins counters the downers with reasons for optimism:
First, Democrats and liberal constituencies are trouncing Republicans in the early vote. Latino turnout in Georgia, North Carolina and Florida is well beyond 2012 and 2008 benchmarks. In Nevada Democrats lead the statewide early vote by over 45,000, with a whopping 72,000 vote lead in Clark County. Over 30 million Americans have already voted early–and in most of the states (Ohio excepted) the numbers seem to favor Democrats.
Besides, he writes, it is not just “missing” white voters showing up at the polls, but nonwhite ones as well.
On the ground in North Carolina, Democrats are outvoting Republicans by over a quarter of a million votes. But Republicans here tend to bat last. Keep Calm and Carry Someone to the Polls.