Gloomy Gusses

by digby

I’m sympathetic to the complaints referenced in tristero’s post below, but I think they are misplaced. This isn’t a blog about heroic first person stories of GOTV. It’s about macro observations about the political culture. It always has been. To that end, all of us have written a lot about the Obama field operation, the new technology and the unprecedented efforts to GOTV in this election.

If you are a Camp Obama canvasser I salute you. Nothing will be more important to Democrats this time than getting out the vote. But it isn’t magic. The essential job of any campaign is to persuade a majority of voters that they want to vote for their candidate. That’s what the polls measure and it’s what we’re talking about here. I hope that Obama’s GOTV is awesomely awesome and people get visited by their friends and neighbors who tell them all the good reasons why they should vote for Obama. But if people aren’t buying his overall message, then it won’t be enough. This morning, it appears that it’s 50/50.

I believe the tide is probably turning. This economic crisis is getting people’s attention and it’s very hard to see how Republicans can possibly benefit from that. So, while I can’t speak for tristero and dday on this, I’m not actually all that gloomy at the moment. It’s not good news for the economy, of course, but better to have this out in the open before the election so the failure of Republican rule can be right out on the table for the voters to see.

I’m sorry the polls are tied. I’m sorry the Republicans are assholes who like to steal close elections. I’m sorry the media are a bunch of dupes for the GOP. But I’m not going to blow smoke so that everyone can feel good. I still fully expect the Democrats to win this election but it’s clear that it isn’t going to be the cakewalk many of us thought it would be, myself included. That’s unpleasant. But “faith” has no place in politics — at least the kind which says you have to put your head down and “believe” in some plan or some party or some politician. This isn’t religion or love. Democracy demands that you use your own eyes and ears and mind to evaluate what’s going on around you.

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