Race for the White House -10/4/08

31 Days Until Election Day

I have really come to hate writing on this blog. I know that very few people ever read it, and frankly, I prefer it that way. So, in a sense, it feels pointless, and at times this week, I have contemplated just forgetting all about this little "project." I primarily do this though so that I can have the opportunity, should I choose to do so, either a year from now, or five years, or ten years plus from now, to look back on these entries and be reminded of the events in the news and my feelings about them.

One day, I will read this post again and remember what a tough week it was for me. Life is filled with ups and downs and when you are a die-hard fan of a sports team or a rabidly partisan political junkie, it is quite easy to feel both aspects of the rollar coaster. While neither is official, as of this moment, the past few days have seen what was supposed to be a magical season for a particular team of which I have been a fan of my whole life slip away, and that has been very tough to deal with. It's been this way before for me and them, and I am certainly not alone in that, but I wonder if it is just even worth the pain? It just seems like it will never work out. Why not just give up? It's tempting, but I am going to stick it out and have decided to give it 40 more years. If the Chicago Cubs do not win the World Series by the time I am 70, I will be done with them forever.

Back to politics, the difficulty of this week has been mirrored by the fact that as someone who wants to see a Republican become the next President and Republicans elected to many other offices around the nation as well, it is getting close to the wire, and things may not be looking so great. I have been accused by Democrats in the past of being overly optimistic. Maybe that has been the case and maybe it has not, but the Cubs fan in me, is feeling nothing but fatalistic now that anything I really want to see happen will not come to be. But of course, I may be overreacting.

With a month to go, Barack Obama is ahead of John McCain in the race for President and the task for the GOP may be a tough one. But it is certainly not over, and all is certainly not lost. Sarah Palin performed quite well in this week's Vice Presidential debate against Joe Biden, and while it may not do too much in the short term to help with poll numbers, she answered many of her critics who have claimed she is way out of her league in this race. Tuesday night will see the next Presidential debate and most expect that McCain will become far more aggressive against Obama in the home stretch in an effort to raise doubts about him amid an environment and media storyline that has once again all but placed him in the Oval Office before the Election is held. An economic rescue bill has now been passed and signed into law. The economic situation of this country sucks of course, and Republicans, unfairly in my view, are having blamed placed on them for that, but now that the deal has passed, maybe we can get onto a new phase of this campaign, which will be better for McCain.

John McCain has pulled out of the battleground state of Michigan, in what can probably rightly be seen as a sign of weakness, and that is usually bad news for a campaign, but it does not have me too upset. As I said last week, this is about winning an election, and it is not about style points. States that the GOP does not need to get to 270 Electoral Votes probably need to be put aside, as well as the national popular vote. Let Obama have that too, and after the election, let his supporters complain for four years about how unfair the United States Constitution is. In my view, this is all about eight must win states- Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia. All are very close right now and all are winnable for the GOP ticket. Instead of approaching various websites with dread every day as I look for poll results in the national horserace or in the states, I am going to try to make a serious effort to only care about polls in the eight states I mentioned.

So, in conclusion, I hope to one day look back on this post and realize that things looked sort of bad in my two main hobbies on this first week of October 2008, but that whatever ultimately happens in the month ahead, I will have found a way to come to terms with it and face the future with optimism. For whomever is President, and whichever party holds sway over our government, as the title of a memoir of the candidate I will vote for in this election says, America is and always will be Worth the Fighting For.

http://www.johnmccain.com/