Panic Rising

I don't claim that there's any exterior cause for this, but I'm starting to get worried about the election. It's a familiar feeling: about once a week for the first five months of the year I got it as Barack and Hillary battled their way through the primaries. Even when Obama was on his 21-state winning streak, I would still enter election day panicked. So I suppose it's just reflexive.

On the other hand, let me take you back to February 1. It was the Friday beore the 18-0 Patriots, purported at the time to be the finest team ever fielded, matched up against the 13-6 Giants in the Super Bowl. My co-worker, a Bostonian and the biggest Patriots fan in the country, was in the kind of mood you get after you go 19-0. I suggested to her that she might leave open the possibility of a Pats loss, just so she wouldn't go insane if they did lose. "Impossible," she said.

So now we're five days from the election, and I'm hearing a lot of big talk. On about day 8, I was making a lot of big talk. But somehow, the confidence is gone, and I'm feeling morose and depressed. Things are going just a little too well. Obama's routing McCain in the polls (though they're tightening a little--doom!), he's relaxed and happy, and McCain is dirtier and more furious than ever. Every day some major conservative comes over to Obama's side, and every newspaper from the Idaho Statesman to the Chicago Tribune have endorsed Obama. You see signs like this. Early returns suggest a huge Obama turnout (except in Oregon, where they're lagging--doom!). The news for McCain just gets worse and worse.

And still I have a sinking feeling that things are not all well. Please let my spidey senses be off on this one...