No, really. It's OK. I'm here to tell you. It's OK to admit that we are winning this election.
There is a fair amount of handwringing going on these days about whether Sarah Palin will defy expectations and clean Joe Biden's clock on Thursday...and that somehow will give the McCain camp an opening to overturn a tsunami of voters heading towards the Obama camp...and suddenly, the McCain camp will have some sort of October surprise up his sleeve, and then, WHAMO!, PALIN!/McCain shocks the world on Election Day.
Y'know, it IS about time we started to learn something from Republicans, and it's this:
We are going win...so start acting like a winner.
Seriously. Let's get a little swagger in our step.
In the past two weeks, we've witnessed McCain pull a rabbit out of his hat in the form of a campaign "suspension", a gambit that did nothing except lower his poll numbers. He turned in a so-so debate performace, and despite media spin of a "tie", Obama was the clear winner in post-debate polls, and even more importantly, widened his gap in electoral polls. We've got Sarah Palin's favorables tanking big time, primarily of because of horrible interviews she has conducted, including some big time gaffes that resulted in her being the latest smash impersonation hit for Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live. We've got the right questioning McCain's judgment on his VP pick at this point. We've got an all-out civil war going on with Republicans on the hill over the bailout deal, who apparently tanked the economy this week over a speech (or so they say).
And now we're worried about the vice-presidential debate? As if Palin's performance since the convention is an elaborate ruse to show she is really the second coming of Margaret Thatcher? Excuse me?
Look, there is a golden rule in politics, when you get this close to the actual election, and by close I mean around 30 days out. That rule is simple:
People want to vote for the winner.
You can see it throughout the 1980s. The so-called Reagan Democrats, the main reason they overwhelming went for Ronnie, was because the guy was a winner. He made them feel good to be on the winning side.
And in case you hadn't noticed, our guy is winning this time around.
He's got a fairly good size advantage in every major poll, including being outside the MoE on most of them. He is ever so slightly starting to pull away from McCain. And that gives us great leverage with the electorate.
Time to tell people to get on board...get with the winning team.
And that team is Obama/Biden.
Nobody wants to say they cheered for the losing team, unless they are a diehard "fan." So don't worry about the 40% of diehards that are voting for McCain anyway.
Keep pushing the theme...we're going to win...we're going to work to make that win happen...and folks should feel free to jump on board.
Work like hell, because that's what winners do.
Projecting confidence is NOT being complacent.
It means you believe in your ability to win.
And we sorely need a little of that right now.