A few weeks ago, I predicted an Obama defeat by a wide margin. Many of you responded with typical scorn and rage. Not all of you. Some of you reacted with pity – and one or two of you, devoid of political passion, even offered to give me the medication such a dire condition obviously required.
Now that my out-on-a-limb lunge looks a little less loony, some of that scorn is turning into fear. Could Romney really beat Obama? The anti-Obama forces are gaining hope. The other side is gaining fear. Let’s take a look beyond the polls.
People with big names and small minds still claim there’s no bias in the media. (Stephanopoulos!) I think most of them are sincere. Sincerity is no excuse for stupidity, but I believe that’s an important myth for the left to nurture. Sharks don’t think they’re worth making movies about; they’re just having lunch.
We who are not prisoners of that myth nurture other notions. We realize, for example, that our conservative side will have to score a knockout in every round to break even. We realize that our margin of victory must be big enough to overwhelm voter fraud. We fully understand that media bias against us is real and huge, and when you add deeply-and-dearly-held ideology suddenly and unexpectedly threatened by previously presumed non-threatening Republicans, you have a witch’s brew of contaminants. We know that whatever helps our side that the major media can conceal, they will conceal. And, conversely, whatever lies that can be told to hurt our cause will be told – not only shamelessly, but with the pride of a valiant soldier deceiving a wicked enemy.
Polls are like perfume; they’re to be inhaled, not swallowed. What else can give us tomorrow’s news today? Well, for one thing, crowds! Yogi Berra teaches us that, if people don’t want to turn out, nothing’s going to stop them. Remember the “whatever the media can conceal …” from a few lines ago? Were you aware of the staggeringly large crowds who flocked to High Point, N.C., on Sunday, Aug. 12, to witness the rollout of Paul Ryan as Romney’s running mate? If no, it’s not your fault! We saw a full house, but we weren’t told of the other three full houses plus the thousands of Tarheels standing outside to listen over loudspeakers. Around that same time, sitting Vice President Joe Biden was talking to a “crowd” of – have you taken your humiliation pills? – 600!
As these words are being written, the Democrats in Charlotte are reportedly planning to move Obama’s Thursday night speech from an outdoors arena (capacity 74,000) to an indoor arena (capacity 20,000) while praying nature gets angry enough to blame it on the weather. Apparently the “barroom ticket giveaways” to beef up the crowd didn’t work, even though they favored the obese.
Movies are another “poll substitute.” There are anti-Obama movies, and the problem is they’re pretty hard to get into. The most important is Dinesh D’Souza’s “2016: Obama’s America.” Here are moviegoers paying to see a movie that is well-heralded as an anti-Obama film. In Nazi Germany, Communist Russia or mullah-run Iran, you wouldn’t have the freedom to see such a movie. We haven’t lost most of our basic freedoms yet. You can go see “2016: Obama’s America.” You may, however, have a hard time getting in. No Obama-goons stopping you. Just too many other Americans who’ve heard all about it and want to see the film, too.
Don’t forget books. There are currently three anti-Obama books among the New York Times top 10 best-sellers. The one pro-Obama book is No. 15.
Another indication is the reaction of an un-intimidated audience. When Stalin addressed the Supreme Soviet, even though the audience was 100 percent Communist dignitaries, they were nonetheless an “intimidated” audience. Nobody dared be the first to quit applauding. With endless applause after the most insignificant Stalin speech, nobody wanted to be accused of stopping clapping early. They finally yielded to common sense and allowed a bureaucrat to ring a gong when the applause for Stalin seemed ample.
You can recruit a soldier and send him/her into harm’s way, but there’s no way you can force him/her to applaud. Obama had the toughest time getting applause out of a military audience recently because they simply wouldn’t give him the reaction his “applause lines” obviously called for.
Nothing provable here. Nothing that would stand up in court. But everything true and deeply heartening to those of us who would like to see non-violent “regime change” next Jan. 20.
And there’s a lot more revolving around the jokes, the crowds, the books, the overflowing movies, the non-laughing audiences. And how utterly delightful that must be for those the crowds disfavor!
Polls tell much. But polls don’t tell all. It’s joyous when the morning after election tells you the side you favored prevailed. How great!
As we write, Romney and Ryan are creeping up inexorably in the polls.
And, as Cousin Guerney says, “We’ve got to keep on having elections to tell us if the polls were right!”
