Instability and Insecurity

Although Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com, has Obama with a 93.4% chance of winning the election, no one is feeling secure.

No one is feeling secure about anything.

With the stock market wildly gyrating over the course of a day, we have now grown accustomed to witnessing radical responses to small bits of information, often insignificant, often hyped. A little gaffe here or there shouldn't move an election, but we are all feeling so insecure, that nothing surprises me about the American electorate anymore.

There is something deceiving about the constant thermometer of public opinion. First, it becomes news, so people respond to how other people are feeling. Second, I listened to an interview on "All Things Considered" last evening where a pollster admitted that sometimes, because it is so much more difficult to get people to participate in a poll, the self selection process distorts the outcome. And now 15% of prospective voters only have cell phones.

Making sure that Obama wins the election isn't just about the election. It's about forging a new American ethic that is indeed a melting pot, a real melting pot, where we learn to work with and trust each other. Whenever I begin to feel pessimistic, I go to barackobama.com, not to listen to more speeches, but to see the crowds at Obama rallies. Those crowds, reflecting the great diversity of this country, this amazing experiment with democracy, keep me optimistic. For a while.