ELECTORAL POLITICS AND GUESSING THE FINAL STRAW

Looking back, I don’t remember which one or two issues locked me in for Barack Obama over Hilary Clinton in 2008 and by the time the general rolled around, little remained of the former John McCain to make a case against the Democrats. The monstrous, ashamed thing that wore his face stood strained on the stage of his concession speech beside its grinning schizophrenic running mate while 53 percent of Americans gasped in the horror of what might have been.

That’s the percentage of the popular vote Obama claimed: 53%, and it looked like a landslide.

As many intelligent and civically-aware individuals manage to forget, elections are not determined by who gets the most votes, but by who wins the Electoral College game—directing a campaign’s message and money for the handful of states that matter and just might go your way .Obama conquered most of the “battleground” states in 2008, and even grabbed a few that are traditionally Republican, in a decisive 375-173 shellacking—a 202 point lead all on the strength of 53%.

Going by the numbers, this presidential race has never been as close as it looked, with Obama consistently ahead by the only count that matters.  You can forgive the commentoriate* for taking every opportunity they can to pronounce the Romney campaign dead.

There have been many. Like a tweeting teenager, the Romney campaign is preternaturally trouble-prone.

Every week we get a new headline like these. I fear is that no one will remember them all.