Final Pre-Election Thoughts

I've got an early morning meeting tomorrow, so I'll be standing outside my polling place when it opens at 6:30AM in order to be sure of getting my vote in before heading off to work. The way things have fallen out, it's rather gratifying to be an Ohio voter this year.

All indications suggest this will be one of the closer elections of recent history, though such indications can, of course, be wrong. In 2000 the election proved to be far closer than it was expected to be. This year it could be less close than expected. My bet, however, is that it will be close. I would be surprised if either candidate broke 300 electoral votes or 51% of the popular vote. Obama has a lousy economy and has run a relentlessly negative campaign with little forward looking vision. Romney has had a good closing month, but before that he ran an utterly hapless campaign throughout the summer and thus found himself having to dig out of a significant hole when he finally managed to introduce himself to the electorate at the debates.

Although the polling does not look as good for Romney as it did a week ago, I'll go out on a limb and make a prediction that he will squeak out the narrowest of wins. That may be wishful thinking on my part, but with a number of national polls still showing a toss up but higher enthusiasm in the GOP, and with early voting tallies suggesting that the Democrats may not have racked up enough pre-election day votes to beat the invariably higher Republican election day turnout in key battleground states, I think it remains possible.

I'm sure that a President Romney will frequently disappoint or upset me, but it seems quite clear to me that he would be a better choice than Obama on a host of issues. I hope he prevails.