Some Good Advice

Not just for Obama but for all of us who are pulling our hair out.

From Andrew Sullivan...

Just a word about the usual excrescence from Karl Rove this morning. Obama knows this lipstick thing is a cynical, knowingly dishonest attempt to push the news cycle one more day into triviality before Palin has to actually face real scrutiny, and we have our first chance to see whether she is who she says she is. It's a desperate tactic to run out the clock or to find a way to navigate the now-tsunami of evidence that Sarah Palin is unfit for the vice-presidency on account of her total lack of knowledge or expertise in foreign affairs, the thinnness and extremism and recklessness of her public record as mayor and governor, and the obvious and most important fact that she clearly cannot be trusted to tell the truth.
Obama mustn't let these schoolyard tactics unbalance him. He hasn't in the slightest, so far, mind you, a feat of astonishing mental and psychological calm. My advice for what it's worth: Hang in. The facts are on your side and the issues are overwhelmingly in your favor. They're trying to force you to blink. Don't. Hysteria will end at some point.

Patience and steel.

Patience and steel

If you had told me two months ago that this would be the state of the race at this point I would have told you you were crazy. I have gone through a wide range of emotions over the last week and a half since Palin was tapped as McCain's runningmate - first shock, then cautious optimism, then tepid concern, now depression. I think the recent polls say a lot about the degree of maturity with which the electorate is approaching this election. If this election had ANYTHING to do with the issues that affect American's Obama would be blowing McCain out of the water. Unfortunately the arguments for Palin (not McCain mind you) are that she is tough, she knows what I am going through, and I can relate to her. These are admirable qualities. I have learned a concept while preparing for the LSAT that seems to me very appropriately applied here - the average voter is apparently mistaking a necessary condition for a sufficient condition. That is, while it may be necessary for our leaders to be tough and able to relate to what we are going through it is not sufficient. It does not qualify you for the position. I still have yet to hear from anyone who is not a surrogate one policy area that they agree with her on. I don't blame them - she doesn't spend much time talking about policy so how could they know. But a candidate's stance on the issues goes a long way in bridging the gap between necessary and sufficient conditions. Perhaps not the entire gap but they too are indispensable, they too are necessary. Yet they are being almost entirely ignored.

While I don't lend too much credence to polls normally, they can be indicators of broad general trends. So while a poll showing Obama up by 2 or 3 nationally doesnt really tell you whether or not he is up it does tell you that the race is relatively close. So as Obama has gone from an average of 6 or 8 point lead to being down by about 2 or 3 points it has become obvious that the trend is not in his favor regardless of his actual position. This together with what I said above is the primary source of my current depression. It is not that Obama is not doing well, its why he is not doing well and what that says about the current intellectual maturity of the electorate and the lack of seriousness with which they are approaching this election.