Obama has been mopping the floor with McCain for two weeks straight. McCain has completely fumbled his campaign. But now conservatives who have given up on McCain are closing ranks and taking control of the message themselves. If McCain can't lead, they will. And the message they are framing for voters is that a Democratic president and a powerful Democratic congress is something to be feared: unrestrained power in the hands of a black man, a shrill woman, and a scary liberal.
I started hearing this frame from a conservative friend in Ohio, and I've seen it talked about here and there on Kos, Politico, et. al. But now conservatives are really starting to beat this drum. Pat Buchanan, who some were giddy over when he praised Obama's convention speech, has come out with a screed ladeling on the fear for a "liberal backlash".
This center-right country is about to vastly strengthen a liberal Congress whose approval rating is 10 percent and implant in Washington a regime further to the left than any in U.S. history.
Where it may have seemed over the past couple of weeks that McCain's abject failure as a candidate might cause a lot of dispirited Republicans to sit this one out, Republican pundits are stoking a more "reasonable" fear than racism or terrorist sympathizing to ensure conservative voters go to the polls in force--and even to lure some independents back from the edge.
As of today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco Democrat, anticipates gains of 15-30 seats. Sen. Harry Reid, whose partisanship grates even on many in his own party, may see his caucus expand to a filibuster-proof majority where he can ignore Republican dissent.
Headed for the White House is the most left-wing member of the Senate, according to the National Journal. To the vice president's mansion is headed Joe Biden, third most liberal as ranked by the National Journal, ahead of No. 4, Vermont Socialist Bernie Sanders.
What will this mean to America? An administration that is either at war with its base or at war with the nation.
This election is not in the bag people. The media will pick up on this meme and stoke it themselves to drive the kind of horse race that makes everyone stare slack-jawed and white knuckled at the media screen. This isn't over by a long shot.