Two weeks to go. Nervous?
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
30 Comments
Yes.
I filled out my ballot last night and am mailing it at lunch. My nerves are frayed, hopefully that will help abit.
Hi Manny. I have started feeling like Obama may just win after all but I suspect like many of us here we aren’t going to breath a real sigh of relief until say Nov. 5th. I’m going to predict that voting day is going to turn into a real mess with lines/bad machines/voters purged from rolls and all kinds of crazy problems courtesy of the gop. And I’m hoping there won’t be any pockets of minor violence or harrasement of voters by any crazy rethuglicans.
I’m trying to think of a good drinking game to play on election night(not that any excuse is needed of course).
hey ink, good to ‘see’ you. there’s already harassment going on, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets worse as the 4th approaches. Better bust out with the hard liquor on election night, I think we’re going to need it.
Damn, was it really four years ago that I laid awake all night on the couch, not a light on in the house, listening to updates on the radio of the various states reporting their results, knowing that I would be going to work shortly with little to no sleep; but expecting to be able to ride a glorious wave of euphoria through the day that the long nightmare of George W. Bush would finally be coming to an end???
Yes, it seems like forty years ago. Not four.
Hell yes I’m nervous. Much more optimistic than four years ago. But also much more nervous. Thinking back to four years ago; as bad as we might have expected that things could become during a second Bush term, who in their right mind could have anticipated we would have fallen so far in such a short time? Maybe the most destructive four year span for this country since the Great Depression, possibly since the Civil War.
Not nervous, but cautiously hopeful. I don’t think we can take anything for granted between now and Nov. 4th, and I’m relieved to see that the Obama campaign doesn’t appear to be taking anything for granted either.
Any other candidate — well, any other white candidate — would be in a very good position right now, but this is a first and there are a lot of unknowns. So, I think people who want to see Obama elected have to turn off the television, stop watching the polls, and get out and knock on doors, make phone calls, write checks, etc., If they don’t already know how important this election is, talk to neighbors and friends and family, and tell them what’s ridign on this election.
Volunteer to be a poll watcher. Help register people to vote. Help drive people to the polls if you can. If someone doesn’t know their polling place, help them find out NOW. If they’re not registered to vote, get them to register NOW. Even if you have to sit with them until they fill out the registration form and hand it in or mail it in. Educate as many people as you can about their right to vote, and how not to be intimidated by attempts to keep them from voting, but to defend their right to vote. If you’re area is solidly Democratic, find out if you can help with canvasing or phonebanking or lit. drops in areas that need shoring up.
It’s either going to be Obama or McCain, at this point. If you’re reading this, you already know what the stakes are. Me, I look at my two boys — 10 months old and five years old, respectively — and I know what’s riding on this election.
After 2000 and 2004, I’m honestly afraid to hope too much right now. But I, for the sake of my sons, I have to. The only antidote I know, then, is action.
Yes. I voted early on Monday, but I think that’s just going to make the next few weeks even more nerve wracking.
Yes, I am sick-to-my-stomach nervous, bordering on really scared. I don’t think I can bear it if McCain somehow slimes his way into office. I would feel that all hope for our country would then be lost. And we’d still have to deal with all the hatred he’s brought into the open. Life would be very much more dangerous for people of color and liberals and progressives. At least, I’d feel it was.
Know Hope. BushCheneyRove have destroyed the brand.
We may be surprised at the outcome.
Not just Independents, but Republicans.
Think Reagan Democrats. Think Obama Republicans
Among the Who’s Who – shows you just how far McCain has fallen
Eisenhower
Chafee
Leach
Gilchrist
Hagel
Lugar
Buckley
Powell
Kmeic
Adelman – yeah uber-hawk, we’ll accept his vote
and from my little straw poll in solid Republican counties a whole bunch of ordinary folks in my neck of the woods (rural and 99.9% white)voting Republican for governor and Obama for president. The ONLY sign up for a Democrat is Obama! More up since the Powell endorsement. Lots of seats up for re-election.
Absolutely! Every day I check fivethirtyeight.com and see McCain’s chances of winning going up. They were 20 to 1 and are now 13 to 1. Over the next two weeks, I think they will be even or McCain ahead. The MSM is rocking hard for McCain, repeating all his lies and the robocalls just bring into the open what is now whispered furtively.
Know Hope. You can believe.
Today’s – October 21, 2008
Pew: Obama’s Lead Widens: 52%-38%
WSJ/NBC: Obama Takes 10-Point Lead in Latest Poll 52%-42%
Today, October 22. McCains’s chances of winning at fivethirtyeight.com – 6.6%
Back up to 15:1. Maybe it’s Palin’s wardrobe. Here’s to her having a shopping spree.
Nervous? Come on.
Obama has the bestest GOTV operation mankind has ever seen. People will vote their pocketbooks, and not their fears. So called “battleground” states are locks, like Florida and Ohio. Obama will also pick up both Dakotas, Montana, Georgia, Arkansas and Texas, leaving McCain with Alabama, Mississippi, Alaska, Oklahoma, and Idaho.
On top of that, voting machines will switch McCain votes to Obama, adding to the rout.
Obama will win 70-30.
How can I be nervous knowing all of this?
Nervous? With NC being a swing state this year? Nah…
Went to see native son James Taylor this afternoon in downtown Raleigh. He’s giving a series of concerts throughout the state for Obama. Perfect day and we couldn’t have been closer.
that’s a great way to spend your day.
Totally. For all the reasons Terrance listed. The closer the day comes, the more knots I find in my stomach and yet I wish this could be over tomorrow. I keep waiting for October surprises, bin Laden tapes, Wright–whatever more BS they will spew.
Yeah…I’m kind of a highly functioning nervous wreck right now.
right now, I feel like the election is coming a little too soon for full congressional advantage. We are gaining in House and Senate races everywhere.
I am completely sanguine about the House and Senate. I probably shouldn’t be, but I am.
I like what I’m reading about Obama but I will be nervous as hell until he is declared the winner.
Nervous, yes!
I greatly fear being a wee bit too successful.
If we Democrats win a few more Senate seats, say get up to 55 or 56, we have a comfortable margin for negotiation… and Lieberman can get his diseased ass handed to him in a napkin. No more chairmanships, no more spying on meetings, no more enabling of the greedy contractors. Out!!!
OTOH, If we get 58 seats with Frank and Lieberman caucusing for the filibusterproof total, Reid will feel compelled to bribe and flatter Lieberman into nominal alignment.
Those committees are too important to leave in Lieberman’s hands. The agencies must be scoured. Oversight and regulation must be imposed. Corruption and waste must be dealt with.
Turncoat Joe has got to go, or nothing will happen in the Senate.
Nervous? No.
Annoyed? Yes.
I’m not sleeping, I’m not really eating well, I’m spending much more time on my computer than I should, checking the polls and the blogs until I’m cross-eyed.
But, I’m also working hard on the campaign at my local Obama campaign office – doing data entry, making up canvassing packets, delivering signs, cooking food for canvassers, helping out in whatever way I can, and I’ll be poll-watching on the 4th.
So, yes, I’m nervous, anxious, concerned about the violence and the division, angry with the McCain/Palin operation, angry with the Bachmann/Hayes mantra, worried about how this is affecting the Obama children, worried about Obama’s grandmother, . . . .
Oddly enough, I’m also optimistic because I have seen firsthand the amazing enthusiasm and dedication of the Obama campaign workers. I live in northwest Indiana, and while Indiana is definitely a red state, this far northwest corner is one of the “bluest” parts, largely because of our proximity to progressive Illinois and Chicago. But it still surprises me when I tally canvass data and find that there are Republicans supporting Obama, and driving around the various towns (suburbs of Chicago actually) one notices there are more Obama/Biden signs being displayed than McCain/Palin signs. So I guess that the next 14 days will be, for me, an odd mixture of exhilaration and angst.
with turnout like this:
grassroots support like this from a bunch of blues fans at an all volunteer event:
l’m still apprehensive and l’m starting to lighten up a bit. l know he can win, but…
we shall soon see.
I think Larry Johnson needs a binkie.
Can’t believe I actually followed the link to the gutter. It got even uglier than last I visited (maybe 3-4 months ago).
Given the latest poll numbers, and the Powell endorsement, the urge for a schadenfreude sundae was enough to get me to go visit. 😉
colonic therapy with his own bile might be more apropos than a binkie, eh.
of course, he’d have to pull his head out first.
I’m not clicking that link!
Sites sell ads based upon traffic. I won’t let my eyeballs be so abused, not even out of curiosity. The totalitarian shill can starve. Alone. And unloved.
RE The bear cub incident
The f**ker who did this should be tied naked to a tree with honey on his you no what in the wild where these bears roam.
Extremely.
And not only about the presidential issue. California Proposition 8, which looked guaranteed to be defeated, now looks like it might succeed, thanks to a ton of money put into out and out lies by the Mormon church.