2008 Election

Stop Panicking, People

I’ve received several phone calls from friends who are distraught that the Democrats are going to implode and lose the election again. This is a reasonable fear, given the party’s track record. However, my experience as an Obama supporter for the last two years has taught me that you can’t get caught up in the highs and lows of the news cycle and the false sense of momentum it creates. 

There’s a grassroots effort across the country happening right now to elect Barack Obama, and we just raised $8 million as a result of the Republican Convention to aid us in that effort. Polling data is precarious, so focus on all those donors and volunteers working in their own communities.

And here’s a great oped to forward by David Broder from the Washington Post:

What we know is that the American people take the choice of a new president very seriously — especially when their nation is at war and the economy is behaving in a way that causes real concern.

Relatively few Americans have ever cast a ballot for either McCain or Obama. McCain, after two presidential campaigns and a long career in Congress, is comparatively familiar. But Obama came onto the public’s radar screen only this year, and Biden and Palin are still strangers to most of their fellow citizens.

The curiosity about all four is intense, which means that the learning process may go relatively quickly. But because voters know that they have until Nov. 4 to figure out their choice, those who are less partisan and more independent will take their time.

They will search carefully for clues that can give them confidence that they are making the right choice. Those clues may come in displays of character, in policy promises or in endorsements by trusted sources. Informal conversations among friends and family will be as important as TV ads or the candidates’ speeches.

Multiply these factors by the political geography of this 51-part election, with nearly a dozen plausible tossup states, and the uncertainty of the outcome is overwhelming. We may go well into October and not know who will be succeeding George W. Bush.

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