So here we are. It is October 22 of the year of our Lord 2012. Tonight, President Barak Obama and former governor Mitt Romney will square off in the final debate of this campaign. The election is a mere fifteen days away, although early voting is taking place in more than a few states. No one in either camp will sleep for the next two weeks with the possible exception of the candidates themselves and even then the word nap will probably better describe their periods of rest.
The polls are a mish mash of confusing statistics and numbers that are swirling about in crazed and dizzying arcs. Some have Obama in the lead while others directly contradict those results. As with anything it depends on who you ask. If you were to poll this household, the president would be ahead 100% to nil. It is a shocking number that portends a landslide of epic and unseen proportions. Unfortunately my wife and I don't constitute a fair sampling of Oklahomans who will trudge to the polls two weeks from tomorrow so the results are a tad skewed.
Indeed it is the same everywhere. GOP operatives are pointing to their man closing the gap among Hispanic voters in Florida, but according to one report the Hispanics they actually asked were primarily of Cuban descent. The Cuban-American community hasn't voted for a democrat since the doomed Bay of Pigs invasion. A more realistic picture was painted by a NBC/WSJ/Telemundo poll that shows the president still holding a 45 point lead over Mr. Romney among that demographic.
Elsewhere things are down to the wire. CNN did a poll of polls, of all things, in Ohio which shows Obama ahead by 3%. Things aren't quite as tight for the president in Pennsylvania. The problem there is that you don't know who is actually going to show up to vote considering the relentless campaign of intimidation and mis-information waged by the local republican establishment.
Tonight's debate is supposed to center on foreign policy which, in theory, should favor the president. However, there is no telling what absolute bullshit Romney is willing to spew. There will be no Candy Crowley there to remind him of what actually has transpired the last four years. Before it is over Mitt could well be claiming Bin Laden is really alive, lounging on a beach in Fiji and the members of Seal Team Six were in truth stunt men from the set of "The A Team." I mean lets face it, the republicans have proven themselves time and again to be perfectly capable of creating an alternative universe that dovetails quite nicely into their campaign strategy and narrative while avoiding reality altogether. If Barak Obama were to stand in the bright sunshine and say it is noon, they would screech about left wing media shills and claim it is midnight. George Orwell coined the words newspeak and doublethink to describe such nonsense. It has taken the GOP nearly three decades beyond 1984 to begin to practice both on a day to day basis. Not even video evidence to the contrary budges them from their hallucinations. If something doesn't fit their agenda it is an outright lie and the product of a vast liberal conspiracy.
One major problem both candidates will face tonight is voter overload. For a lot of Americans, especially those who have all ready made up their minds, or those who simply loathe politics in general, this cascade of rhetoric and bomb bast is simply becoming too much. Look for huge numbers of TVs to be turned not to the debate, but either the Bears-Lions NFL game, or the St. Louis-San Francisco playoff contest.
Yes, lets get down to the important issues here. Will the Cardinals blow a three game to one advantage and will the Bears cover the six point spread? After all, bookies need our love and support too. And besides those two assholes are wearing us all out.
One thing is certain. If do you choose not to watch, you'll be able to tell if Obama cleans brother Romney's clock tomorrow by how loudly people like Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh, and the rest of the conservative radio hosts screech that the fix was in. That everyone from the moderator to the camera operators were flaming communists. The yahoos at FOX will simply employ the previously mentioned newspeak/doublespeak process. No matter what is said they'll claim Romney not only won, but was utterly correct when he named the Shah of Iran as America's number one enemy. You see, even dead guys pose a threat to our way of life.
The older I get the less tolerant I am of these right wing assholes. Maybe it is the arthritis, or the fact I've seen them morph into something so ritualistically evil that the word coven seems passive and quaint.
Whatever the case I suppose I'm stuck with the bastards. You can say many things about them, but you certainly can't get rid of them. In the end they'll probably outlast the cockroaches.
It is down to a fortnight. The end, as they say, is near. Watch out for flying chairs.
10-22-12
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