Jumping the gun?

With only a week to go until Election Day, it seems -- knock on wood -- that the majority of Americans know the way it's going to swing. I have staunch Republican friends who are already speaking about next week like it's the morning after the Superbowl -- and they're the Patriots in 2008.

I too find myself feeling awfully calm in these last few weeks. As a Democrat, it's hard to not watch the recent polls -- and the recent gaffes -- and feel like the nail is in the coffin. But what if? In Friday night's Rachel Maddow Show she pulled up a recent video montage of McCain seeming entirely too calm whilst the election world falls apart around him. Then she cut to video of George W. Bush on Election Night 2004, when, by all accounts, Florida had already been called against him. He sat calmly with Laura in plain view of cameras, looking unfettered and at ease considering that, by all accounts, the Democratic party was about to take the White House. And we all know what happened next.



As Maddow outlines above, if McCain takes states that typically go Republican like Indiana, Virginia, North Carolina, Nevada, and Florida -- not an entirely outlandish possibility -- we could be looking at a McCain presidency. It is hard to tell if this is one of those pre-Halloween Osama bin Laden video kind of weeks, sitting ducks waiting for an ambush. The scary thing is, all we can do now is wait.