Remember back in 2000 when the media brought up over and over again that Gore was likely to lose Tennessee?
How humiliating!
"Those were the voters who knew Gore best!"
On the eve of election 2012, please take a (brief) walk with me down memory lane, back to election 2000, below.
(Full disclosure: I have an agenda here.)
An excerpt from one of the articles I happened to see back in the day that stuck with me:
Hardly A Favorite Son, Gore Trailing In Tennessee
October 09, 2000|By DAVID LIGHTMAN; Washington Bureau Chief
PALL MALL, Tenn. — In a political year when little has been predictable, what's going on in the gentle hills of Tennessee may be the most baffling development of all.
Vice President Al Gore might lose his home state, something no major presidential candidate has done since Richard Nixon crushed George McGovern in South Dakota 28 years ago. Gore could be the next McGovern...
Whoa! What a loser, huh?
Recall how this "embarrassment" was described on election night on CNN?
Romney is going to lose all four of his home states.
California: O 53, R 40
Michigan: O 49, R 45
New Hampshire: O 49, R 47
Massachusetts: O 63, R 31
Gore lost Tennessee by 4 points.
Romney is likely to lose his homiest home state - where he was governor, where he lived and worked most of his adult life, where the people know him best - by more than 30 points.
Now that's embarrassing.
You would think some enterprising media hack tired of recycling the same stories over and over again might pick up on this...
But wait, you may say, Romney is only down by 2 points in New Hampshire! He might pull that one out! Let me come back to that in a minute...
...Because I have another point I would like to emphasize first.
While the lack of commentary about Romney losing his home states is interesting - kind of a testament to right-wing media bias - there is something pretty horrific about the clip above.
You may not have watched it. If not, let me urge you to do so. We'll wait.
Witness the glib airheads on CNN discussing Gore's "embarrassment" and then discussing Bush's victory in Ohio, and how it served as his "keep hope alive" state.
Now imagine yourself on election night watching a similar travesty of electoral theft and national self-sabotage, scratching your head as close states slip into Romney's camp - a little successful voter intimidation here, a bit of successful ballot challenging there, a bit of voter disenfranchising over the river, a cluster of apathy in the suburb over yonder.
If you're on the fence about whether to make the extra effort to do a little door knocking or phone banking or GOTV, take a watch of that video again.
Then go to OFA and volunteer.
We know we're winning in the polls. Its clear, though, that if electoral preference were all that mattered, we would never have been subjected to W and the mess he created. We need to help people express their preference at the ballot box.
I know that Obama will win New Hampshire because I will be one of thousands of people knocking on doors this weekend and participating in GOTV on election day. I share the determination of legions to ensure that New Hampshire will not be Romney's "keep hope alive" state (as it would be under his "Wisconsin" scenario).
It very well might make a difference down-ballot, too, toward restoring a Democratic majority in the House.
Many (most?) people reading a site like this are probably already volunteering. But if you're not already, now is a great time to jump in and help us drive home a victory.