How We Fight

Josh Marshall says it well:

...let's be frank. [McCain] might win it. This is clearly a testing time for Obama supporters. But I want to return to a point I made a few years ago during the Social Security battle with President Bush. Winning and losing is never fully in one's control -- not in politics or in life. What is always within our control is how we fight and bear up under pressure. It's easy to get twisted up in your head about strategy and message and optics. But what is already apparent is that John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest and race-baiting campaign of our lifetimes.

Just stay calm and keep your focus on reality. In the end, reality will win. We just don't know what it is yet, with a candidate the nation has only really known for two weeks - and then without the central, critical presence of an actual press allowed to ask questions.

I'm not stupid enough to predict anything.

And we should stop thinking about the horse race. We need to think about: Who best can win the war on terror? Who best can extricate us from Iraq? Who best can handle Pakistan? Who best can manage the financial meltdown? Who best will rid us of addiction to foreign oil? Who best can unite the country? Who best can tackle the enormous debt the Bush-Cheney years have landed us with? Who best can restore America's core abhorrence of torture?

I don't think the answer to that question at this point is even slightly difficult. I was expecting some agony this fall in sticking with Obama. I don't agree with all his policies. But after the last month, this isn't hard. Obama must be elected. And we must do everything we can to ensure he is - for America and the world.