"They. Did. A. Lousy. Job."
A slew of Democrats abandoned President Carter in 1980 because of incompetent leadership. The economy was in the shitter, our foreign policy was a joke, and our global reputation was in tatters. Americans who had voted Democratic for 50 years punished their party for such failed statesmanship by voting Republican in large enough numbers to hand Ronald Reagan an Electoral College landslide, and with him a GOP-led Senate.
We find ourselves in the same situation in 2008, only with the party labels reversed. I have posted several instances of prominent Republicans publicly endorsing the Democratic ticket this year. But the big question is this: Will enough disenchanted Republicans have the cajones, as Democrats did in 1980, to punish their party for a job so thoroughly screwed up that they'll be able to mark their ballots for a black Democrat?
Based on the rather large number of public, high-profile Republican endorsements, I think Obama will be surprised at the level of support he gets from the opposition in eight days.
