The Great Quadrennial II

The first get-out-the-vote call came just before 8:00 o’clock Saturday morning. My wife grimaced. I took a quick sip of coffee and drove off to the phone bank at which I had volunteered to help. That final shot, plus the last debate between the incumbent U.S. Senator and her challenger Sunday night wrapped up my participation in the Great Quadrennial of 2012. This year’s campaign has been a lot like Truman v Dewey in 1948.

NPR reported today, Monday, that the presidential race is dead even, impossible to call. My own feeling is that President Obama will be re-elected to a second term, an outcome that is to be devoutly wished.

The race shouldn’t be this close. Mitt Romney is a arrogant person of privilege who has failed to indicate any understanding of the issues at stake. He is a chameleon candidate, who shamelessly changes stance to curry favor. FEMA is the example de jour. Romney, to coin a phrase, was against FEMA before he was for it. And so on, endlessly.

In January, 2009, Senate Minority Leader McConnell announced the Republican strategy for Obama’s first term was to defeat him for a second term. Fair enough. So the GOP failed to even discuss domestic issues. But the military-industrial complex kept covering Big Oil, the war in Afghanistan, the war on drugs, the CIA, and other bottomless financial pits. Spending, just like we had it to spend.

The voice of the GOP, Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News, and right-wing Christian radio evangelists have been key contributors to the McConnell strategy. Roger Ailes, president of Fox News, was one of the Nixon dirty tricks brigade. He has moved on from burglary to hate speech, race hatred, and homophobia. Spreading invective and division has worked.

The President waited to go public, waited to use the bully pulpit. The race is closer than it need have been. This country canot stand a return to Bush, Norquist, Rove, and a bought and paid for Congress. Truman scored a bullseye by clobbering the Republican do-nothing congress in 1948. Albeit late, I think Obama has done the same this year and that he will similarly score.