A Sense of Deja Vu

After the malignant lies from Harry Reid about Romney not paying any taxes, the accusation that Romney is responsible for a woman's death from cancer, the President of the United States claiming that Republican's want "dirty air and water" I finally reached the tipping point when the Vice President of the United States charged that Republicans want to put black people in slavery. This has become the most despicable and desperate campaign for the Presidency since 1980.
In 1980, I was a young lieutenant in the Army and just becoming aware of the disaster that had been the Carter Presidency. Desert 1, the Iranian hostage situation, the "malaise" speech (in which he never said the word) all were the nadir of my experience of being American up to that time. Before that, I had cheered while watching the Watergate hearings, and will never forget the exact moment that I was told Nixon resigned and how happy it made me. But after four years of Carter, I knew that I could never vote for him again. The man was a buffoon. A well meaning one, but a buffoon nonetheless.
But in 1980, the Republican candidate was that crazy lunatic Ronald Reagan. His hyper patriotism turned me off based on my experiences from the previous four years. On top of that, the Democrats did an excellent job of convincing me that if Reagan was elected, we would be at war in a very short time. What to do? Stay with the status quo or go with the wild eyed lunatic Reagan? Luckily at the time, there was an Independent candidate John Anderson.
While Anderson only took 6% of the national vote, he did something with an even more lasting impact. He changed me and a lot of others into Republicans. He did it by exposing the false narrative that had been pedaled by the Democrats when under Reagan, the country did begin to turn around at least in attitude and later in economic power. Oh, and we didn't have a war with the Soviets either.
There is no viable third party candidate this year like Anderson, so the attacks on Romney and Ryan will not drive the 6% of potential voters away from Obama, but that same six percent may not vote at all.
And if Romney and Ryan are successful at reinvigorating the economy and doing something about the fiscal peril that we are facing, Barak Obama and "Chains" Biden may have just put the final nail in the coffin of the Left of center Democrats. Leaving the only viable candidate from the Democrat party being another Bill Clinton, the only successful Democrat in more than fifty years.
And they may just make a few more Republicans.