Reply #9: That's been the thundering "conventional wisdom" around here for months

[PurityOfEssence]

Thread upon thread with post upon post trumpet inevitability. Every version of mindbending justification to nominate Obama despite possible drawbacks and every conceivable debunking of anything that could be a problem flows unendingly. Not a day goes by without some flaw, mistake or setback being touted as not only "not a problem" but actually a triumphal blessing of the first order. No abandonment of any populist position is too outrageous, and no statement that panders to the right is to be taken seriously. People snicker and relish the fact that he's only lying to "them", knowing in their leaping hearts that he'd never do that to "us", regardless of his voting record.

Perhaps it's your low post count, but this place has been up until the last week or so unremittingly, RESOUNDINGLY and domineeringly CERTAIN of the inevitability.

Articles elsewhere ring with the scary repetition of famous people and others citing the same spiritual moment of "knowing that this man would be the President of the United States". This is from people who knew him in early adulthood, people who met him outside of politics; it's incredible. Everyone nods along and chants the same shared "feeling", yet few see the similarity between this and the brainwashing of the right and of religion.

The voluble aggressiveness one is met with when one even suggests that there might be a bit of a misstep is deafening.

It's like living in an alternate universe where nobody knows any history and doesn't even remember '03, when Dean was already elected, just awaiting the keys to the White House.

Only recently have the voices of caution been suffered to meekly suggest otherwise, and still the silliness persists. Daily assumptions of the HUGE sweep of the electoral college are taken as gospel.

One can't even adequately describe the dynamics of the movement without using words with religious overtones, and that's because so very much of this, the man's character, his actual plans and his actual beliefs are airy nothing and subject to being imprinted with any personal assumption and conjecture in the vacuum that is sweet, sweet bliss.

It's a faith-based campaign, and that needs to come crashing down to hard, cold reality but quick or we're going to be left standing with our crepe-paper streamers in our confused hands as the bully-boys take a third in a row.

At least people are starting to see the peril, but they're missing the salient point: those who are ga-ga over his star quality are already in line, and there aren't enough of them to swing the vote. To WIN, a different approach must be used, one that relies on policies and specifics.