Introduction:
With the near double digit lead in the polls, small leads in some of the traditionally red states, are the Obama voters getting a little comfortable? If that is the case, we are in trouble. The most important days of the election are ahead of us.
I was watching the Arizona Cardinals game against the Dallas Cowboys last weekend. As a devout Cowboys fan (please be kind to me- LOL), I was screaming at my team for being so careless on special teams. The Cardinals who are habitual losers, were playing their hearts out, despite some careless moments. The Cowboys seemed complacent, thinking they would somehow win in the end. They lost in the overtime, after miraculously tying the game in the last minute. They won the toss in the OT, but lost the game on a play that one takes for granted- a punt. It was blocked and the ball ended up in the end zone to give the Cardinals the victory.
Why am I telling this story in the midst of the most important election of my life? This is not the first time we have seen a heavily favored team – sports or otherwise- not take their opponent too seriously, sit on a lead, and lose in the end. I am afraid I am seeing the symptoms of this disease. Nobody has openly said it, but I get a sense that we are getting too comfortable with the lead in the polls, the red states leaning our way, or becoming toss up states. Polls don’t win elections. Voters do.
This is exactly what the Obama campaign seems to be worried about. Obama keeps telling people at the rallies- don’t be complacent. We need a big voter turnout. We need to make sure we are voting early. Despite the warnings I have an uncomfortable feeling that a lot of people may wait till November 4th, or not make it to the polls at all. Couple that with the republicans’ efforts to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of low income voters- usually democrats-, the smear ads, the robo calls, the flyers accusing Obama of associating with terrorists. Every vote lost has the potential to cost us the election. We cannot control the republicans behavior, but we can control ours. We must persuade people to cast their votes. We must talk to the undecided voters and tell them why Obama is better for them. We must talk to the ignorant people and tell them the truth about Obama. We must fight the smear ads. We must not give ourselves an opportunity to regret on November 5th. We must give ourselves every opportunity to celebrate an Obama-Biden win.
The republicans are talking about a ‘narrow’ victory. We know all too well what that means. After 2000 and 2004 we don’t need to be reminded that winning debates and a big lead in the polls in October means nothing, if you don’t win on election day.
We have a fight on our hands. McCain will try to be a good boy rest of the way, while his party and his VP candidate throw mud on Obama and create doubts about him in the minds of people in the battleground states. McCain is most dangerous when he has his back against the wall. We cannot take anything for granted.
That is why last week I finally started making phone calls to voters in my home state (Arizona), to urge them to send their ballots in, to not wait till election day. I have always been shy about making phone calls to strangers, so I was doing other things to help the campaign. However, at this point phone calls are the most effective way to get the results we want. So I have left aside my shyness, and I have been stopping at the Obama headquarters on my way back home after work, to make phone calls. When I get one voter to agree to send the ballot in, it’s one more vote for Barack. The elation I feel when I hear someone say- "I already sent in my ballot" is my reward. Yes, we will win this election, one vote at a time, but we must work tirelessly rest of the way, because too much is at stake.
We cannot afford to be complacent, not in the slightest. We must not let our eyes off the ball, or we could end up like the highly favored Dallas Cowboys who lost to the Arizona Cardinals last weekend. They did not have a lot at stake; we do.