The Enthusiasm Gap

Those long lines out in front of polling places? Chances are they aren't McCain voters. Now, I'm not saying don't vote - GO VOTE. Still, it's nice to see the other side all gloom and doom for a change. From AP:

That smiling guy walking down the street? Odds are he's a Barack Obama backer. The grouchy looking one? Don't ask, and don't necessarily count on him to vote on Tuesday, either.

More John McCain supporters feel glum about the presidential campaign while more of Obama's are charged up over it, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll released Saturday.

The survey shows McCain backers have become increasingly upset in recent weeks, a period that has seen Obama take a firm lead in many polls. One expert says the contrasting moods could affect how likely the two candidates' supporters are to vote on Election Day, possibly dampening McCain's turnout while boosting Obama's.

...
All of this is a bad sign for McCain, according to George E. Marcus, a political scientist from Williams College who has studied the role emotion plays in politics. Negative feelings about a campaign can discourage voters by making them less likely to go through what can be a painful process: Voting for someone who will lose.

"If I'm getting my head handed to me by a tennis player, my brain is saying, 'Do I want a second match? No,'" Marcus said. "Why do something that's going to lead to failure?"

Marcus said such emotions can be overcome by outside events, such as a campaign or neighbor urging a person to vote. There's also the danger exuberant Obama backers might decide not to vote because of overconfidence. The Obama and McCain organizations have combined to spend hundreds of millions of dollars for those very reasons.

Don't gloat - vote. But if you need to gloat a little, there is one thing I'm sure that both sides can agree on:

"I'm real interested in having it over," said Michele Roos, 64, a McCain supporter from Newport News, Va.

While we probably all agree on that, I'll bet that Michele Roos won't be as excited as Obama supporters are in ending 8 years of Republican rule next Tuesday night.