Thursday, October 26, 2006

Voters vs. Polls

Published on Hotsoup.com.

Are political representatives elected or anointed? Since this is America, the answer’s easy: politicians are elected.

Yet in listening to Democrats campaigning or in reading the New York Times, you’d think that elections are decided not by voters but by polls and pundits. Prognostications have replaced ballots. Rhetoric has replaced reality.

The echo chamber works like this: Shouting from the housetops, liberals begin calling the ranking members on congressional committees “chairmen” (as in Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers or Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman). In turn, the media giddily report on the Democrats’ elaborate plans to rollback (e.g., the war on terror) whatever they can’t kill (e.g., tax relief). Words like “investigation” and “subpoena” and “impeachment” issue forth from the left’s collective lips. It’s rumored that Nancy Pelosi is picking out drapes for the speaker’s office.

But, again, we live in America, and as that renowned American Yogi Berra liked to quip, It ain’t over ‘til it’s over. Sure, today’s headlines appear disheartening, but think back to 2000, when the Eastern establishment was trumpeting a little-known governor from Vermont as the Dems’ presidential frontrunner. Then a funny thing happened: screaming Howard Dean imploded—even before the Iowa caucuses—and George W. Bush won the presidency.

They say history repeats itself. And, in politics, there’s nothing sweeter than a come-from-behind victory. So on Election Day, let’s make sure Howard Dean, who is now the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, re-learns his lessons: half of success is simply showing up, and when conservatives show up, we—not the media—determine elections.

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