In the 1930s, the American people didn\u2019t fall \u201d\u201d unlike so many of their supposed intellectual betters \u201d\u201d for either fascism or Communism. Since World War II, the American people have resisted the temptations of isolationism and protectionism, and have turned their backs on a history of bigotry.<\/p>\n
Now, the Pew poll I cited earlier also showed Barack Obama holding a 50 percent to 40 percent lead over John McCain in the race for the White House. You might think this data point poses a challenge to my encomium to the good sense of the American people.<\/p>\n
It does. But it\u2019s hard to blame the public for preferring Obama at this stage \u201d\u201d given the understandable desire to kick the Republicans out of the White House, and given the failure of the McCain campaign to make its case effectively. And some number of the public may change their minds in the final two weeks of the campaign, and may decide McCain-Palin offers a better kind of change \u201d\u201d perhaps enough to give McCain-Palin a victory.<\/p>\n
The media elites really hate that idea. Not just because so many of them prefer Obama. But because they like telling us what\u2019s going to happen. They\u2019re always annoyed when the people cross them up. Pundits spent all spring telling Hillary Clinton to give up in her contest against Obama \u201d\u201d and the public kept on ignoring them and keeping her hopes alive.<\/p>\n