Paranoia - I'm not alone!

By Ron Beasley

As I said yesterday, in spite of all the evidence of a big Obama win I'm still very nervous and why wouldn't I be after stolen elections the last two times out.  Yes it really looks like Obama can't lose - Nate Silver has McCain's possibility of winning down to 2.8 percent, a new low.  But yes, I remain nervous but I'm not alone.  My old friend Bill in DC sent me this from the NYT:

Liberals Worry as Election Approaches

Jon Downs, 53, works the electoral vote maps on Yahoo like a spiritualist shaking his Ouija board. He calibrates and recalibrates: Give Senator John McCain Ohio, Missouri, even Florida. But Virginia and Pennsylvania, those go to Senator Barack Obama. And Vermont, Democrats can count on Vermont, right?

Right.

Almost always, Mr. Downs ends with Mr. Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, ahead, which should please this confirmed liberal and profound Obama fan. But just as often he feels worried.

“Look, I have this sense of impending doom; we’ve had a couple of elections stolen already,” Mr. Downs said. “The only thing worse than losing is to think that you’re going to win and then lose.”

He considers that prospect and mutters, almost involuntarily, “Oh, God.”

To talk with left-leaning Democrats in New Hope, San Francisco or Miami Beach, to drill deep into their id, is to stand at the intersection of Liberal and High Anxiety.

Right now, more than a few are having a these-polls-are-too-good-to-be-true, we-still-could-lose-this-election moment. Their consuming and possibly over-caffeinated worry is that their prayers and nightly phone calls to undecided voters in Toledo, Ohio, notwithstanding, Mr. Obama might fall short on Election Day.

Comments

[Cheryl Rofer]

538.com also has Obama's chances of a landslide (375+ electoral votes) decreasing. That worries me.

[Steve Hynd]

It's bad luck to be superstitious, Ron. :-)

Regards, C

[Earl]

I'm trying to just take a deep breath and relax, if only because the corruption would have to be too widespread at this point.

[Ron's friend Bill]

538 has been therapeutic for us paranoids, but the key posting--the aggregation of the key poling numbers with statistical commentary--doesn't appear until late in the evening, making it very difficult to get through the day. Why can't they update on an hourly basis?

[Earl]

Oh - and I've recently added the party designation of the Secretaries of State to my own excel worksheet.

They actually line up somewhat consistently with my picks.