Bill Whittle: Steady Now, Let’s Burn a Timeout to Get Focused on How We’re Gonna Win This Game
“Guys, we’re still a long way from the Doug Flutie, Mother of All Hail Marys time. We need to score, get an onside kick, a turnover, or at least hold ‘em to three-and-out, and score again. If Obama scores again, it’s over.
“But I have seen momentum switch, and so have you; it’s like the teams traded jerseys at halftime in the locker room. And when a team that expects to Coast to Glory finds itself up three touchdowns, then two, then one — the wheels can come off. They start to panic. They get uptight, they play too conservatively, and their rhythm evaporates. That gives the underdogs even more confidence. It doesn’t happen often, but I’ve been on both sides of it and when it does occur it is one of the most horrible/wonderful things I’ve seen with my own eyes.
“Joe the Plumber sacked Obama. ‘You should have run against President Bush’ was a play that we should have been running from the first whistle, because it shut down that entire up-the-middle attack that had gotten them a lot of yardage.
“Look, the other side wants you to believe it’s over. They want to take the crowd out of the game, and leave you filing out to your cars. That’s smart stragegery, and I don’t blame them. And the press wants you to believe the same thing… but that is disgraceful, a dereliction of a sacred duty that they will pay for downstream.
“So here’s that non-trivial point I promised you: Whether the polls show us up by forty or down by forty, the fact remains that none of that is within your control. Yes, I’m talking directly to you. The only thing that you directly control in this election is your ability to go to a booth and pull the lever.”