“Both sides are nervous, but Republicans are MORE nervous. They don’t find it particularly encouraging that Mitt Romney was in Florida yesterday and will be in Virginia today – two states the campaign would love to have put away by now. Is Romney’s ‘expand-the-map’ drive… a sign of confidence, or a Hail Mary frenzy because of trepidation about Ohio? The correct answer: It’s mainly an effort to project confidence at a time when Republicans fear a slow-motion reversal of fortune.”
“Top Republicans are already hinting that if Romney loses, his people will blame the storm for stalling his momentum. But D.C. GOPers acknowledge that having some of the nation’s top auto executives call you out, when you’re the business guy born in Michigan, ain’t helpful.”
I am no longer nervous. Why? 7 polls released in Ohio in past 48 hours: Obama +2, Obama +3, Obama +3, Obama +3, Obama +5, Obama +5, Obama +5.
I learned a powerful lesson eight years ago: polling averages work. The averages have correctly predicted all state presidential contests except for five since 2000. They have accurately projected every Senate winner, save a few, over the last few years. The state polling averages say Obama is going to win. There is a crowd, however, that believes the polls have too many Democrats. They look at the polling data and see the same, or even higher, percentage of poll respondents in states like Ohio self-identifying as Democrats than the polls had in 2008 – a year of record high enthusiasm for Democrats. My personal opinion is that the polling averages are likely correct. I witnessed Democrats making the “skewed” argument in 2004 when polls showed “too many Republicans”. The averages won, and George W Bush served another term. We’ll see, though, if I’ll be eating my words.
Meanwhile, here is something I did not know, from Mark Hertsgard at The Nation:
Sandy is short for Cassandra, the Greek mythological figure who epitomizes tragedy. The gods gave Cassandra the gift of prophecy; depending on which version of the story one prefers, she could either see or smell the future. But with this gift also came a curse: Cassandra’s warnings about future disasters were fated to be ignored. That is the essence of this tragedy: to know that a given course of action will lead to disaster but to pursue it nevertheless.
And so it has been with America’s response to climate change. For more than twenty years, scientists and others have been warning that global warming, if left unaddressed, would bring a catastrophic increase in extreme weather—summers like that of 2012, when the United States endured the hottest July on record and the worst drought in fifty years, mega-storms like the one now punishing the East Coast.
Ignore the stuff about climate change, because, why start paying attention to it now. For now on, we shall refer to our own Cassandra, our wonderful Delaware Liberal contributor, as Sandy.
Now, I expect this to be my last Open Thread, for Sandy is likely to kill me shortly.