HE DID IT


PRESIDENT BARACK H. OBAMA
44th President of the United States of America

Day of Reckoning 2: Why John McCain Will (Probably) Lose (Tonight)

Two nights ago, I had addressed the potential for Barack Obama to lose this presidential contest. I had argued that, while the polls and all political indicators, so far, have been pointing to an Obama victory, the number of uncertainties that are part and parcel of this election cycle should not be entirely overlooked. Among the uncertainties that could lead to a surprise McCain victory (racism and mistrust of white Americans towards Obama, Bradley effect, voter complacency and overconfidence, effect of John McCain’s negative attacks, last-minute surge towards John McCain by the undecided, erroneous poll predictions, acts of God, etc.), I zoomed at, perhaps, the only single weakness that one could attribute to the Obma campaign: naïveté, and perhaps, an implicit dose of complacency, especially as they relate to the Obama belief that being positive all the way was going to win this election for him. Read more

Day of Reckoning 1: Why Obama Could Still Lose

Obama could still lose this election, and if he does, it will be because of one single fact: naïveté. It seems that, contrary to what many have said this time around, Obama fell prey to the same type of complacency that has compromised Democratic candidates in the past two presidential elections. Both Gore, in 2000, and Kerry, in 2004, lost because of an incredible naïveté that assumed that the American electorate was fundamentally intelligent, and that it could sort out, for itself, the lies from the facts, and therefore carry the Democrats to victory without them needing to go negative and push harder in order to try and ensure victory beyond all doubt. In both cases, they were DEAD WRONG, and THEY LOST. Read more