So far beating Mitt Romney is all we are poised to do. If the polls stay locked in their current state, as they have for several months now, if the race doesn't become lopsided between now and Election Day we will beat Mitt Romney.
But it's not enough. It's nowhere near enough.
We cannot simply beat this man. We have to destroy him. Otherwise we will wake up that first Wednesday in November with a President that still has to contend with the likes of Michelle Bauchman and a GOP that is getting crazier and crazier. It is not enough to skimp by on a single state victory, or a handful of electoral college votes. If we do, Romney will take the blame for his loss, declared a Liberal retroactively and the GOP will move even further to the right in response.
More after the curly..
The polls have been pretty consistent showing a close race with little wiggle room for improvement by either side. This stagnation of the polls over the last few months tells me that anyone who is paying attention has already made up their mind about how they're going to vote.
But I see two scenarios with the potential for significant gains.
First would be a typical plot twist. Some scandal or emergency that totally upends the race. Similar to the way the 2008 Market Crash reset the entire 2008 Campaign. Something so big and game changing that whatever independents or undecideds Romney had managed to sway so far, would bail on him or stay home.
The second is the Party Conventions. When Mitt Romney's guy came out and said the Party Conventions were like an Etch-A-Sketch, he was right. It was a sleazy thing to say, but it was accurate. There is a large percentage of the population that does not follow politics religiously... until after the Conventions. The virtually back to back Week-Long coverage of the conventions puts the race on their radar.
As a result we often see those undecided numbers suddenly jump. The once thought to be settled race is suddenly up the in the air. Candidate X who had been leading all summer is suddenly tied or trailing his opponent. The Conventions shake things loose, and the debates sort everybody back into whatever camp they belong. It's during this shuffle of the undecideds that Obama has to make his move.
Note: It is now 2:46am. I have set this diary to publish in the morning. I will attempt to check in from work, I look forward to reading any comments.
It has been brilliant for Obama to define Romney now, before he has the chance to define himself. But Obama will have to do it all again after the Conventions simply because new people will suddenly be paying attention, and they will need to be brought up to speed. This is a bit of a balancing act. Just as we don't want Obama to peak too soon, we don't want Romney to crater too soon. He needs to be destroyed after the Conventions.
And I do mean destroy him.
If Barack Obama squeaks by in November we'll have 4 years of crazy nut jobs getting crazier. If we lose even more control over Congress in the making, we will have a lame duck President. Either way in 2016 we will have Joe Biden heading up our ticket. Do not get me wrong, I like Joe. I really do. But he's not a winning Presidential Candidate in this political environment. Even if Barack Obama's second term turns out to be as successful as Clinton's, the best we can hope for is Biden being as successful as Al Gore.
And that means a Tea Party President.
That is not acceptable. We cannot let that come to pass. It is not enough to simply delay the inevitable theocracy by beating them a little here and a little there. Running out the clock and hoping the next generation of Americans will be more Liberal and less susceptible to the likes of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin is not a good strategy.
We have to stop them. This is our responsibility, and this is our opportunity. We have to put an end to it now. We have to make it clear that their little field trip to the furthest reaches of authoritarian conservatism is unacceptable, and a losing strategy.
That means not just beating them, but destroying them.
The only way to right the ship that is America's political future is to obliterate Mitt Romney in November. To hand him a Walter Mondale sized loss. If we do that the GOP will be in shambles. They will officially be out of the mainstream and at risk of being replaced by a small third party. After years of Tea Party Politics, and Ronald Regan Retcon they will have no choice but to moderate, at least a little bit. They will have to come back toward the center, at least a tad. And when that move back toward the center yields results for them, maybe they will move a little further that direction. And then maybe, just maybe someday we can have two sane Political Parties for the first time in 30 F*cking Years!
If we don't win big we'll go another lap through the cycle of stupidity. The threats of violence against the President will become more and more real. The fearless assault on our liberties will be exhilarated, their corporate coffers will become more desperate having come so close to buying the election, only to just barely fall short. Next time they'll spend more convinced it almost worked last time.
I can't do it. I cannot sit and wait for these people to die of natural causes, I cannot wait for the next generation to come along and hope they save the day. I don't know if we as a country will make it that long with these people at the helm. Even if we could, I am not sure I would want to be around to experience it.
Showing these rich assholes that money spent on elections is money wasted is the only way to dissuade them from spending more between now and 2016. Defining Mitt Romney as the ultimate Conservative, and then blowing him out of the water is the only cure to the Tea Bagger Virus that plagues this nation.
Even a landslide might not work, but it's our only shot.