Complacency

The Obama campaign apparently is worrying privately that we supporters of Barack Obama, sitting on top of an enduring lead, will grow complacent and assume we're just going to win this thing and forget to work, forget to give money, and forget to vote. A source observed about professionals in the campaign:

They're increasingly concerned about their supporters taking this victory for granted, particularly among people who are going through this for the first time.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Barack Obama is concerned about this phenomenon:

Don't underestimate the capacity of Democrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Don't underestimate our ability to screw it up.

Well, let me assure you that we do not have this in the bag. Are we positioned to win? Yes, but getting across the finish line means moving across the finish line. We haven't done that, and to do that, we need to put one foot in front of the other until we have finished the whole project when the last voter votes on November 4.

I was born in November 1958. I have been told I sat in front of the television in diapers during Kennedy-Nixon debates, but of course, I have no recollection of this. I do remember in 1964 watching television and asking my mother which one was the president. In 1968, the campaign between Humphrey and Nixon riveted me, and I have been a junkie ever since. In the 10 elections that I understood, the Republicans have won seven, and the Democrats have won three. By this analysis, the weight of modern American history would suggest the chances of losing in the last few weeks is not outside the realm of probability. Whatever advantages we bring to this moment, failure to volunteer, DONATE, and vote can ruin this thing.

This has been a long and hard campaign. We were bitterly divided during the primaries, but we now have unified around the vision of a sober, calm, and thoughtful president who will work to address our great national crises and make the presidency of the United States a thing of respect again in the eyes of the world. Keeping the erratic hothead out of the White House should fill us with dread caution about the work that remains.

So volunteer, DONATE, and vote.