Is It Over?

Did the campaign end tonight?

John McCain did better in this last debate -- at least at the beginning of it -- than he's done in either of the other debates.

It wasn't enough.

I recently heard from a person who told me that they thought that Obama had a good chance of winning their home state -- of Texas.

Conservatives like Christopher Buckley (son of the founder of National Review) are endorsing Obama. People are starting to talk about a landslilde that will transform Washington.

And here I am trying to figure out how Obama and the Democrats are going to blow it.

I can't help it. I'm old enough to remember the Humphrey administration. Not to mention the McGovern, Mondale, Dukakis, Gore and Kerry administrations. I've seen the Democrats yank defeat from out of the jaws of victory time after time.

I don't want to get my hopes up. I watch the talking heads on Charlie Rose (while noting that Doris Kearns Goodwin made a mistake in calling FDR "The Happy Warrior" -- that was Al Smith) and I don't want to believe them. I want to think that it's going to be close, and that it can still get away from us.

I'll watch the next 20 days very carefully. Because I get the feeling that November 4 is going to change the country. And I want to hope -- in spite of history.