I'd worry about other stuff.

The Ohio poll is the scary one, but I expect that to correct over the next days.

But if they roll over and get spanked in the next two debates, we're dead. But I don't think that's going to happen.

NONSENSE.

I loved your rant -- I think you spoke for a lot of people. But we can't undo what has occurred and must keep up the good fight.

I heartily recommend this post!

the ground game is manifestly strong. The OFA offices have been grinding it out all over the key states for months now.

We have way more boots on the ground than they do.

We've been winning the voter suppression fights in the courts.

And, just like last time, there have been huge voter registration numbers, which create great underlying strength.

The victory is right there for the taking.

But our leaders better step up.

If they do, this can resume being a rout.

I hate that this makes it a contest, but like you said, that's not something we can undo.

Your prior post was probably one of the most lucid "rants" I have ever read. And believe me, I read and savored every word. I don't doubt that you spoke for many, including me. Yeah, I wanted to believe in multi-dimensional chess, head-fakery, redistributing resources from local races to the big one, etc, etc. Or at least that there was some element of planning and cognitive skills involved, however misguided.

But I have had to settle generally for last Wednesday having been a record-breakingly Bad Night.

I have been buffering that with the belief that recovery and ultimately a mandate-bearing victory is possible, if no longer as close to certain as it should have been.

But thanks so much for getting all that rage out there on the table for us. And for you. And for bouncing back so beautifully and with such grace.

I too was horrified by that solicitation from MY senator! Yikes! Time to trade in those tennies for some steel-toed workboots.

I often get clearer and clearer the angrier I get.

To borrow from the show Chuck, my calm center is a roiling pit of fiery anger!

The new unemployment numbers will have sunk their way into the polls by then and some people will start to remember why they didn't like Romney by then. There are more debates to come and Obama misjudged how to handle Romney during their first debate. He won't make that mistake again.

tenacity and wisdom.

GIVE and GET OUT THE VOTE!

and the reality is that we must win this election and as many of the downticket elections as we can.

And that will take WORK.

Sadly, we dems aren't happy unless we're miserable.

people DO gauge the temperature here and elsewhere.

If nothing else, scream into a pillow then come "here" and fake it until things improve. And THEY WILL improve. These people coming here posting "ITS OVER ITS OVER!" and "BAD NEWS AND MORE BAD NEWS", are just simply ridiculous.

Obama eff'd up big time, IMHO, and blew a solid lead. We know better now how to come at the lies and HE knows what we expect of him.

It'll be OK. Thanks for the post.

You know, the part where everyone points out that everything out of Romney's mouth was a LIE. As well as the whole Big Bird fiasco. Willard is back on loser track ever since last wednesday so people need to take their heads the fuck out of the oven and look FORWARD. Polls snap ahead as well as back and it will be fine. I have no doubt Biden will spank Eddie Munster good and proper. It was a good wake up call, too many thought this was in the bag, now lets get back to work!

that part of what may be subliminally offensive about the <D> solicitation tactics is that they have somewhat the same feel and effect as the whole <R> reverse-Robin Hood thing. Invoke huge donations by the wealthy, individuals and corporations who either won't miss it or can write it off (hell, theirs are barely tracked from what I can tell) in order to extort even more from the middle class - or, really, from all who want their experiment in democracy preserved. Stir and repeat.

in fact, if there was any lunatic conspiracist within me as I tried to process how Barack could have fizzled like warm ginger ale during that debate, it was this thought that the whole game was about paying off the political consultants and vendors and milking all of us individual donors like dairy factory cows.

That was one of the things that had me most frustrated.

Also, you're very kind. Thanks for appreciating the rant.