As the famous Chinese general Sun Tzu insisted,Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. I have a high respect for the value of numbers. They take emotion out of many important decisions. As a result I try to stay on top of the polls that are coming to us fast and furious as this election season 2012 proceeds. But as the campaign closes on November 6, it's important to recognize that some polls are more relevant to a truthful explanation of the state of the probable voters than others.
The first place I had is over to Real Clear Politics. They provide a list of the overnight polls across the country. And while the polls are informative, they often include lines that are marginally or severely bias. There are also sites which try to interpret the direction of the polls. Some of these are independent and some not so much.
For those with a keen interest in attempting to project polls forward to the electoral results in November, I highly recommend looking at Ron Silver's blog fivethirtyeight. as I broadened my search for more relevant sites, I ran across one called race42012. it's a particularly right wing site. And while I expected more than the usual anti Obama rhetoric I was amazed at the hostility of many in the opposition. In addition to the typical birther and socialist comments, it was amazing to find the degree of hatred that exists in our country. The president was portrayed as an ape in one video which was not disputed by a single contributor.
I was linked to further sites which were even worse. They spoke of death and lynchings. In addition to the usual descriptions of Obama as a Moslem and worse, the new mantra is to characterize him as gay despite his exceptionally happy family life.
If you check the polls you can see that one third of the GOP still firmly believe this Pres. Obama is not an American. Another poll showed that 12% of Republicans feel that interracial dating is evil. The point I'm trying to make is that the opposition has a large minority that are clearly racist and homophobic
Consider this. If Romney is elected, many of these people will clearly have the ear of our President. Can any rational American imagine living in a world severely influenced by people with that mindset. As improbable as it may seem, the replacement of a number of Supreme Court justices could lead to overturning numerous rulings in the future. Abortion, civil rights, voter ID, unemployment laws, privacy laws, and the right to due process.
The next time you feel this election is over, think about the alternative that I mentioned above. You've already seen the impact of a Supreme Court that allowed the Citizen United ruling. Do you really think that's the last arrow in their quiver. It ain't over till it's over.