Some of the posts on this site as well as conversations with my friends concern me. It's all about having a defeatist attitude. And we cannot win with such an attitude.
Let me use a football analogy if I may which I think will be helpful (non-football fans please... I have a point):
I am a huge LSU football fan. LSU went from 1957-1988 and had winning seasons in each year but two. Then bad luck hit and we had losing seasons in 8 of the next 11 years. It was horrible.
We hired Nick Saban away from Michigan State in 2000 (much to their chargrin) and the main thing he found here at LSU was a "defeatist attitude". He said he saw it not only in the fans but the players. When things went bad, people gave up. And that is NOT how to win.
He urged his players NOT to look at the scoreboard. No matter if we were winning or losing, don't look at the scoreboard. Play every play hard without the score in mind. When you lose a fumble, or the other team scores, you forget it and play the next play just as hard.
He said he didn't want the "brook trout look". The big eyes of a brook trout people get when they fear or have anxiety. He wanted the killer instinct. It's all about the process. Doing what you know how to do and not giving in to your fears and anxieties.
Saban brought us to the SEC Championship in his second year. In his fourth year, last year, we won the National Championship.
This year we've slipped up (cocky attitude IMO). But last week, in Florida, on their field, we fell behind early on by two TDs b/c of two stupid interceptions. Rather than have the defeatest attitude and the brook trout look, we battled back. And we made more mistakes but kept battling back. And we scored the winning touchdown with 37 seconds left to beat the Florida Gators on their home field... the only team that beat us last year. Payback.
I apologize to those who don't like football but this is EXACTLY what we face with this campaign. We must not have the defeatest alarmist attitude. We have this b/c we are used to losing elections. Bad news cannot get us down. We cannot look at the scoreboard/polls. We HAVE to fight back and not quit.
We can win this thing. And we can win it with Nick Saban's football philosophy of NOT giving up no matter what the bad news is.
I'm not a Pollyanna. This is not a rah-rah happy face post. It's the truth. It's the way to win. It's a proven way to win. And we must adopt it.
So no more anxiety over the polls! It's all about the process.