Perfect Storm: Perfect Campaign Story

By Margaret Curtis, PhD

Political rhetoric whipping around the US creates currents for collision of massive forces. First, the media keeps harping that the race is “tight.” Each time this report goes forth, streams of fury drive the candidates into the “swing states,” where they sling charges like cyclones at each other.

Meanwhile, the nation readies for Halloween, praying that the Perfect Storm of 1991 does not return to savage the Mid-Atlantic region.  Computer models disagree about Hurricane Sandy’s landfall, intensifying anxiety from the Carolinas to Maine. Should we batten the hatches until November 6?

If this scenario were the perfect movie, we might be more confident we would survive its whiplash. But, like the oracles of ancient Rome, the media enjoy their emotion-fueled power. Voters demand the future: Who will win, WHO? Storytellers know when it’s time to pull the covers over our heads.

For an overview of weather predictions, see Steve Lyttle’s report for the Charlotte Observer at http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/10/25/172581/huge-perfect-storm-sandy-could-html

For CNN’s augury of numbers, see http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/25/politics/obama-40-percent/index.html?hpt=hp_c1