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Obama is doing fabulously well on many levels. But the Democrats still need to be wary, as the desperate McCain campaign seems ready to do "whatever it takes" to try to bring Obama down in the last two weeks before the election.
By virtually every measure, Barack Obama is in a highly favorable position to get elected President on November 4th. Based upon organization, money, endorsements, performance in the debates, advertising dominance, the overwhelming influence of the economic meltdown, and the fact that Obama has run an incredibly effective and mostly errorless campaign, Democrats should be feeling good. But many appear to still have some serious insecurities, and rightly so.
The fact that some polls tightened a bit after the third debate, and because the desperate McCain campaign is throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Obama, some people are on the verge of panicking. Of course, the corporate media has every incentive to make the race seem closer than it is, tempted as they are by the come-from-behind narrative. And the coverage of McCain's sleazy campaign tactics has the effect of repeating their messages over and over again and keeping those ideas in the news and in people's discussions. That is a hard one to overcome, when part of the big news is the extent of the negative campaigning.
Then there are the deeper fears: Josh Marshall writing on TPM says, "McCain's final strategy relies on two pillars. The first is aggressively playing to voters' fears of electing a black president ... banking on the residual racism in a changing America to get them over the finish line. The second is an aggressive use of innuendo to convince casual voters that Obama is in league with Islamic terrorists bent on killing Americans."
Marshall continues: "So far, all this stuff just hasn't worked. But the truth is that the really corrupt and vicious part of McCain's effort only comes now ... it's only in the last couple weeks that you can pull stuff that the press won't get to call you on before election day -- after which it doesn't matter ... So far McCain's gutter campaign has hurt him more than helped. But there's no reason to be sure it will continue that way. And many Obama supporters, sure the election is basically wrapped up, appear ready to slack in the stretch and let McCain smear and cheat his way into office."
So for obvious reasons, including the fact that their candidate is potentially the first African-American to have a shot at becoming President, Democrats are counseling each other to avoid overconfidence and complacency, and get out there, as Reed Hunt writes, to "knock on every door in those key states; (Florida, Ohio, Colorado, and Virginia), respond to every charge, no matter how crazy, in every media forum that can be found; stay on the air; stay on the offense. And remember the essential voters in those key states won't finally decide until the weekend before that Tuesday."
Nevertheless, many are shocked at just how well Obama has done, and continues to do every day. Here is a list of ten Obama positives that should provide a baseline of confidence as millions gear up for the last two weeks of campaigning.
1. Obama shatters all fund-raising records in extraordinary September outpouring of $150 million.
According to the AP:
Barack Obama raised more than $150 million in September, a stunning and unprecedented eruption of political giving that has given him a wide spending advantage ... fueling a vast campaign operation in an expanding field of competitive states and underwriting a wave of both national and targeted video advertising unseen before in a presidential contest ... The campaign had added 632,000 new donors in September, for a total of 3.1 million contributors to the campaign; the average donation was $86.
2. Obama has a massive lead in newspaper endorsements: 94-28 including 18 that endorsed Bush in '04.
According to Dexter Hill and Greg Mitchell at Editor and Publisher, "The Obama-Biden ticket now leads in newspaper endorsements by 94 to 28, a better than 3-1 margin" ... "The readership of the newspapers backing Obama now stands at over 10 million vs. McCain's just under 2.5 million." Many endorsing papers are in key battleground states. "Obama's lopsided margin ... is in stark contrast to John Kerry barely edging George W. Bush in endorsements in 2004 by 213 to 205."
The Denver Post, which had backed George W. Bush in 2004 , endorsed Obama as did the Chicago Sun-Times, Kansas City Star, The NY Daily News and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. At this point 18 papers who endorsed Bush in '04 , now favor Obama including The Salt Lake Tribune, The Houston Chronicle, and Las Cruces (N.M) Sun-News. On Saturday, the Chicago Tribune which has never in 150 years endorsed a Democrat, backed Obama, as did its fellow Tribune paper, the Los Angeles Times -- which had endorsed no one in more than 30 years. It seems like a dam broke yesterday with the unexpectedly early choice of Obama by the Washington Post. New additions for him include the Miami Herald, the Philadelphia Inquirer and The Oregonian of Portland, Cleveland's Plain Dealer, Palm Beach (Fla.)
See more stories tagged with: barack obama, john mccain
Don Hazen is the executive editor of AlterNet.
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