2016 Postmortem
Showing Original Post only (View all)Why are Republicans projecting confidence and Democrats worry? [View all]
One thing that strikes me is that almost all electoral counts favor Obama, many national polls favor Obama, and the anecdotal evidence of enthusiasm favors Obama (such as huge turnout in NC and huge crowds at his rallies). Yet, for some reason, a lot of us are especially worried. I am one of them. Yet without a doubt I'd rather have Obama's polling numbers than Rmoney's.
So, I wonder, is there a different psychological makeup between Republicans and Democrats? Are we more superstitious? Are we more neurotic? Or are we simply cynics and pessimists? I remember in 2008, even though all the evidence pointed to an Obama victory, most of us were thrilled beyond belief that he won. I was among those who felt fairly sure that a large part of the population was lying to pollsters and would actually vote for the white guy in 2008. Boy was I wrong!
I feel the same sort of worry now. I worry about polling machines being manipulated, about our voters not turning out in the same proportion as Republicans on election day, about last minute manipulation tricking Democrats to miss election day or denying them the right to vote by slowing down the process on election day.
I wish I shared the confidence in an Obama victory that Rmoney supporters seem to project about their guy. Why are we more worried than them? Should we be?