The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Alas, Tomorrow Is Not Election Day

Posted on | August 29, 2011 | 6 Comments

Hot Air Headlines citing an article in The Hill about Obama’s prospects: “If the election were next Tuesday he’d lose. That’s how bad it is.”

No doubt that is true — anyone can look at the polls pitting Obama against a “Generic Republican” and conclude the same — but the hypothetical “if” posits two scenarios that don’t match the facts:

  1. Obama’s opponent won’t be a generic Republican; and
  2. The election isn’t next Tuesday.

Earlier today I had a phone conversation with Ladd Ehlinger in which we both lamented some of the internecine unpleasantness regarding the Republican primary candidates. When Ladd made reference to the fact of Rick Perry’s current front-runner status, I pointed out that Perry hasn’t even been in a debate yet. There will be three GOP debates in September (Sept. 7 at the Reagan Library, Sept. 12 in Tampa and Sept. 22 in Orlando) followed by a Sept. 24 Florida straw poll.

Perry may still be the front-runner when September is said and done, but there’s no need to race ahead — borrowing tomorrow’s trouble as it were — and fret about the “what-if” scenarios as if we could predict the future.

So all the ugly infighting, predicated on the notion that our August arguments will determine the future viability of Perry’s candidacy, is as much a waste of breath as talking economics with Democrats.

Category: Barack Obama, Election 2012, Polls

Comments

6 Responses to “Alas, Tomorrow Is Not Election Day”

  1. steveegg
    August 29th, 2011 @ 9:53 pm

    If my coblogger Shoebox hadn’t already taken VodkaPundit as a running mate, I’d propose an all-coblogger ticket of Shoebox and Smitty.

    Seriously, we in Wisconsin are thankful tomorrow isn’t yet another election day; we’ve already had 6 of those this year.

  2. Steve in TN
    August 29th, 2011 @ 10:12 pm

    Perry leads all significant demographics.  Debates or no, that is astounding.

  3. Shawn Gillogly
    August 29th, 2011 @ 10:47 pm

    I think the good thing about the Perry candidacy is two-fold.

    1) We got that silliness of “Romney is front-runner, and all he has to do is show up,” put to bed. The Primary season is going to matter, no matter how much he wanted it not to.

    2) In Perry there’s a candidate who can focus fire on Obama, and refuses to engage in the tit-for-tat nonsense of Axelrod’s shenanigans. When they tried the Allinsky slam game about him being “Too brash.” He came back and said, “How’s that 9% unemployment and debt treating you?”

    Like Perry or hate him, that’s the response we need from a candidate. Stay on message, and hang Obama’s record around his neck every single day from now until the Election, and do so loudly and vigorously.

  4. Anonymous
    August 29th, 2011 @ 11:41 pm

    What’s Perry’s past debate performance head to head against Republican opponents?

  5. Anonymous
    August 30th, 2011 @ 3:47 am

    Present.

    Well, he wanted to be…

  6. Adjoran
    August 30th, 2011 @ 5:16 am

    Early polls are worthless even in an election year; we’re nearly six months out from polls which might mean something about Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.  Old media cannot resist the lure of the horse race, though.  They know how to report on a horse race . . . who’s in the lead, who’s coming up strong, who’s fading early, who has a late kick . . . but they have no idea how to report on a contest of ideas or direction for the country.

    I doubt Romney and Perry will tear each other to shreds, at any point, though.  Neither will want to be known as the one who weakened our nominee so Obama could win a second term, and both are young enough to try again in four or eight years.