Well, we have finally arrived at the last installment of Meet The Press (from Rockefeller Plaza in New York) for the election, and there is still some commentary to take care of and some other, be it important, housekeeping. First, Mr. Gregory asked both solo interview guests, David Plouffe and Eric Cantor repsectively what the political effects of Hurricane Sandy has had on the race. Can we just say that two days before the election it was good to hear these two individuals try and deflect the politics from it as much as possible. Mr. Cantor praised both Governor Christie (R-NJ) and Newark Mayor Corey Booker (D-NJ), a round table guest, for their work in the aftermath. There are definite implicit political effects from Sandy that were touched on during the panel - the President looking and acting presidential and for Mr. Romney a late stall in the campaign - both of which benefit Mr. Obama - an October surprise where no one can take credit. But for all intents and purposes and polls, the race is 48% percent for Mr. Obama and 47% for Mr. Romney.
And with that in mind, Chuck Todd outlined that the President will be in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Ohio tomorrow and Mr. Romney will be in Florida, Virginia, and New Hampshire. All of those states will play out thusly: Mr. Obama will win in four of the six, leaving Mr. Romney to win New Hampshire and Florida. Florida should go Democratic strictly on the Medicare issue, but the senior transfers and non-Cuban Hispanics do not measure up to what is otherwise dominated by very conservative white Floridians - think Alabama type of conservative - and Catholic Cuban Americans. In the post-mortem of the election, the Democrats will conclude that their DNC Chair, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) came up short for them. She didn't deliver her home state and the Democrats didn't really pick up any seats in the House. The Democrats would do themselves well to have a dedicated Chair like the Republicans have in Reince Preibus. We're not saying the same calibur as Mr. Preibus, who we find buffoonish and too fixated on lowest common denominator politics, but some one nonetheless who has the sole responsibility of trying to win elections, and not his or her own.
The 'Jeep' issue is quite contentious as mentioned on the panel but the people of Ohio know the score on that, and it is for that reason Mr. Obama will win the state. Wisconsin is conservative, but not when it comes to labor and their view of the federal government when it comes to funding so they're not ready to give the nod to a Republican. And despite what Mr. Cantor said today, Virginia will go for Mr. Kaine for the Senate and vote for Mr. Obama's reelection.
The consensus on the round table with regard to the impact of the first debate and what it may mean for the outcome of the race concerns us greatly because though it is a reality that Mr. Romney has made it a close campaign, in which his performance played no small part, it's sad that our collective short attention span now dictates a snap judgement on the candidates.
One has to look at each candidate through the broader lens and consider in the case of Mr. Romney his statements in the Republican primary campaign and then throughout the general up to and including the debates. For Mr. Obama, you have his record of the last four years to make your judgement.
It is within those respective contexts that we have based our decision on who to endorse and how the election will turn out. Despite our concern for lack of bipartisan consensus building by this administration, we believe that Barack Obama should and will be elected once again to the Oval Office. We hope that given his reelection, the Republicans will conclude that they have to make a compromise with this President, something they have been staunchly opposed to doing to the detriment of the entire country sometimes. More specifically, Mr. Cantor was wrong today when he said that Mr. Romney has a plan to better the economy. That fact is that Mr. Romney has offered no details, only platitudes in this area. Mr. Obama on the other hand does have a second term agenda, but its not as 'grand' it seems. We're fine with that. One thing is for sure in the American electorate, we talk as though we want to take big steps, but don't really want to take them. But you can't turn a cargo ship like a speed boat because if you do you'll tip it over, and the cargo is us. After the election it is clear that both parties' priority will be taxes and spending, which is big enough. We hope that the Republicans will also come around on infrastructure, which sorely needs improving.
We've discussed many times before in this column how the President's first term policies, to affect change, have to be seen through with a second term and we believe Mr. Obama deserves that second term. Despite unprecedented opposition and disparaging (many times racist in nature), Mr. Obama has had a successful first term. A country involved in two wars should not show bluster for more conflict, and the administration's tone has been solid, Libya withstanding. We strongly feel that a return to a neo-con type of foreign policy, which Mr. Romney would bring, is the wrong course international for the United States.
We do not want a pure ideologue as President so columnist David Brooks' endorsement of Mr. Romney because he is a more flexible flip-flopper makes no sense to us. A poor rationale. What we do want is a President that has shown conviction in what he believes and Mr. Obama's message has been far more consistent than Mr. Romney's. With that, it comes down to a matter of trust and who you believe can navigate the ship more effectively through stormy seas. As was illustrated this past week, Barack Obama has a much firmer command of the controls.
Round Table: Mayor Cory Booker(D-Newark); MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough; GOP strategist
Mike Murphy; TODAY co-host Savannah Guthrie; and NBC Special
Correspondent, Tom Brokaw.
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