There can be little doubt that the nation's financial meltdown - a direct result of failed Republican policies - shut the door on the wildly erratic McCain-Palin ticket, and locked in Barack Obama's final month-long surge to what appears to be shaping up as a solid Democratic victory on Tuesday. But according that near-certain victory (and I'm happy tempting fate) merely to the news under values the very quality of the Illinois Senator's campaign - now in its final hours.
The financial meltdown certainly favored Obama. Even still, if you take a look at his campaign, it has been brilliant. My first presidential vote went for Dukakis and going back that far the GOP has always been successful at smearing the Democratic candidate. And the lone Dem who managed to win probably caught the worst of it. That Clinton was able to win speaks for his political acumen. But even he didn't have coat tails and lost the Congress to Newt & Co.
Obama on the other hand has been able to put out every fire and has had an almost scandal free campaign. This is not due to a lack of opportunities by the GOP. Perhaps the worst scandal was Rev. Wright and that is barely a blip on most voter's radars. Obama handled it as well as any politician could have. He stepped up to the plate and owned it. Effectively killing any major scandal. And at the same time, Obama has run a clean campaign which I think has helped pick up independents. I for one wanted him to come out slinging mud as I thought that was what was required to win against the GOP smear machine but I was wrong. Obama's masterpiece allowed him to stay relatively clean and still win.
And to top it all off, Obama has coat tails too. Picking up congressional seats and winning the white house. Easily the best run campaign of my lifetime. Not a single major gaffe or scandal. Not to mention that this is a minority kicking the ass of a rich white male war hero at a time of war in a country still full of prejudice.
Certainly the situation Obama stepped into favored his party, but a lesser politician could have easily blown it. The fact that Obama is ahead by only 7 points shows that even running against a third term of Bush and a ridiculously run GOP campaign, a single major scandal could have tanked anyone's campaign.
Starting Wednesday morning, that brilliant campaign no longer counts for much beyond the history books, and the clocks return to zero on Obama's reach and reputation as (tempting fate yet again) President-elect. But Slappy's quite right: the campaign was as close to perfect as I've witnessed and we should recognize that before moving on to the inevitable infighting and back-bench sniping that will almost certainly infect the nearly-united Democratic ranks by Valentine's Day.
But since we have a few hours left of placid campaign mojo left to us, how about some predictions? Here's mine: Obama-Biden scores a big win with 52.5% of the vote and 345 electoral votes - slightly sub-landslide, but a major victory that carries Democratic majorities to greater margins in Congress.
So what're your predictions?
