November 12, 2008

The Missing Obama Landslide

By Ben-Peter Terpstra
The results are in: Obama 52 percent. McCain 46 percent. The "Obama Landslide" is pure fiction. Republicans have no reason to move to Harper's Canada (this year) although Berlusconi's conservative Italy looks simply divine. In 1988, George H.W. Bush won 53.4%, against a feisty Democrat, and a hostile media. Thus, this year's election is more of a symbolic made-for-television election story, than a mammoth landslide movie. Now it is time for reality to kick in.Days, nay weeks before the polls, however, there were many landslide theme stories. "Yes, this could be 1932 again," enthused Andrew Sullivan in "Obama rides landslide machine" (UK Times, Oct. 19). Recall FDR's glorious anti-free speech days. In "How the Coming Obama Landslide Will Trump The Bradley Effect," the Huffington Post's Steve Kettmann pontificated about a massive win for the Democrat (Oct. 10). "If Obama can really pull off a landslide, we the American people will have spoken...(Read Full Article)