Conservative
Type 40
Monday Morning - Peggy Noonan's Blog - WSJ
We begin with the three words everyone writing about the election must say: Nobody knows anything. Everyones guessing. I spent Sunday morning in Washington with journalists and political hands, one of whom said she feels its Obama, the rest of whom said they dont know. I think its Romney. I think hes stealing in like a thief with good tools, in Walker Percys old words. While everyone is looking at the polls and the storm, Romneys slipping into the presidency. Hes quietly rising, and hes been rising for a while.
Romneys crowds are building28,000 in Morrisville, Pa., last night; 30,000 in West Chester, Ohio, Friday It isnt only a triumph of advance planning: People came, they got through security and waited for hours in the cold. His rallies look like rallies now, not enactments. In some new way hes caught his stride. He looks happy and grateful. His closing speech has been positive, future-looking, sweetly patriotic. His closing ads are sharpthe one about whats going on at the rallies is moving.
And there is Obama, out there seeming tired and wan, showing up through sheer self discipline. A few weeks ago I saw the president and the governor at the Al Smith dinner, and both were beautiful specimens in their white ties and tails, and both worked the dais. But sitting there listening to the jokes and speeches, the archbishop of New York sitting between them, Obama looked like a young challengerflinty, not so comfortable. He was distracted, and his smiles seemed forced. He looked like a man whod just seen some bad internal polling. Romney? Expansive, hilarious, self-spoofing, with a few jokes of finely calibrated meanness that were just perfect for the crowd. He looked like a president. He looked like someone whod just seen good internals.
Of all people, Obama would know if he is in trouble. When it comes to national presidential races, he is a finely tuned political instrument: He read the field perfectly in 2008. He would know if hes losing now, and it would explain his joylessness on the stump. He is out there doing what he has to to fight the fight. But hes still trying to fire up the base when he ought to be wooing the center and speaking their calm centrist talk. His crowds havent been big. His people have struggled to fill various venues. This must hurt the president after the trememdous, stupendous crowds of 08. Votings the best revengerevenge against who, and for what? This is not a man who feels himself on the verge of a grand victory. His campaign doesnt seem president-sized. It is small and sad and lost, driven by formidable will and zero joy.
I suspect both Romney and Obama have a sense of whats coming, and its part of why Romney looks so peaceful and Obama so roiled.