Posted by
Bullpen on Monday, February 04, 2008 5:29:20 PM
17-14. The 14 point underdog, the New York Giants, defeated history's team, the New England Patriots. Even as a Chargers fan who finds it inexplicable that Kevin Gilbride and Eli Manning now have a title and Junior Seau doesn't, I have to hand it to the Giants. The Patriots were inevitable. But the game is not won in the press. The battle is fought in the trenches.
That's why I have such a problem with "electability". It presumes to know what "swing" voters want in a candidate. Swing voters have no idea what they want. That's why they are swing voters. The candidate that best conveys their message to the voters is the most electable. The candidate that wins is the most electable, but it is not something that can be determined beforehand.
Michael Dukakis had a 20 point lead in the polls at one point. Dole was beating Clinton in a hypothetical matchup. Bush was way ahead of Clinton. Dubya was way ahead of John Kerry before he won by a mere 3 percentage points. And yet, we all still feel the need to anoint people as the President before November.
We play all 60 minutes. We wait until every second has ticked off the clock. We should hold our breath and our predictions until every vote is counted.