There's no shortage of their kind in the politically bluest parts of California. Liberals so freaked out about the prospect of President Obama losing his re-election bid that they can't sleep at night. Can't talk about anything else. Can't stop parsing the latest polls. David Plouffe, one of President Obama's top campaign strategists, has a word for supporters he feels are needlessly fretful: bed wetters.* "Oh, I think I'm worse than that," Kay Edelman said. For the past several weeks, the 60-year-old San Francisco resident has frequently bolted awake in the middle of the night, in "a panic attack," she said. She darts for her computer and checks the latest polls. Some days she's so distraught that she can't exercise. Every morning, she gets e-mails from friends who've been just as sleepless. Most are so tense, they can croak out only a few words. "Very anxious." "Worried." "Nothing more needs to be said," said Edelman, a retired educational administrator. Emotional role reversal In this most unpredictable of campaigns, an emotional role reversal is happening in California. Republicans, who hold no statewide offices and are only 30 percent of registered voters, are more upbeat and enthusiastic. Liberals, on the other hand, keep checking the polls. It's unlikely that even Republican Mitt Romney's immediate family members think he'll win California. But a Public Policy Institute of California survey released last week shows that while Obama holds a 12-point lead among likely California voters, 70 percent of Republican voters in the state were more enthusiastic than usual about voting - a greater proportion than the 61 percent of Democrats who were more enthused. For liberals, part of the problem is that neither of the presidential campaigns is active in California, conceding the state to Obama. That means liberals have little to do other than reinforce each other's fears about the voting predilections of a voting species seldom seen in the Bay Area - non-Democrats. "We're seeing these polls and reading about all these ads, and hearing about all of these undecided voters that are in other states, but we feel that we can't do anything about it," said Pat Reilly, a longtime press spokeswoman for national and California organizations and politicians who lives in Berkeley. "You feel like you're part of a fight, but you can't see your opponent." Like many liberals, Edelman pins the increase in her angst to the first presidential debate, in Denver. That was the performance where Obama joked later that he "felt really well rested after the nice, long nap I had in the first debate." Uncomfortable 1st debate Edelman hosted a bunch of friends to watch the debate over dinner. But after the first five minutes unfolded, nobody ate. Few spoke. "And right after it ended, everybody just got up and left," she said. Berkeley resident Jim Blume yelled at the television while he watched the debate with family and friends. "C'mon! Say something! That's wrong what he (Romney) is saying," Blume recalls telling the leader of the free world. Alas, Obama didn't respond to Blume's pleas. And for the next two nights, Blume didn't sleep. A man who has voted for only one Republican in his life - when the Beatles were touring - found himself questioning Obama and the state of the campaign. "What was happening? Who was this guy?" Blume asked. Zuzana Ikels knows the pain. Since the first debate, the Albany resident has done a lot of poll checks at 3 a.m. And rechecks. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/politics/joeg...pbeat-as-vote-nears-3989238.php#ixzz2AnnzGU00
Maybe, but in this case, it is the Obama people doing the labeling about their own base. How can one not feel the love?
No, not really. Most of us expected to lose from the start. Now there's a little hope that we can actually pull this off. It's excitement, not anxiety. But you go on and keep telling yourself that. If you say something often enough, you can get yourself to believe it. Isn't that the Keynesian motto?