The Quasi-Incumbent

John Fund just introduced a new concept into American politics, "quasi-incumbency." John is a columnist for the Wall Street Journal but his greatest achievement is having ghostwritten Rush Limbaugh's The Way Things Ought To Be. I know you'll all want to take a moment, bow your heads, and give silent thanks for that. He was on Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer answering the question of the hour. Does John McCain have a chance to win, will the election be close, or will Obama win in a landslide? John Fund's response was inspired.

I don't have the transcripts, but I remember the answer well enough to accurately sum it up, if that's possible at all. It goes like this. Obama has been the front runner so long, people have basically resigned themselves to the fact that he's going to win. So, in a sense, Obama has been the incumbent, the quasi-incumbent. But people want change, and since Obama has been the quasi-incumbent for so long, it still could be a close election. In other words, people might change their minds after so many months of living under Obama's quasi-incumbency and decide to vote for a different kind of change, in this case, John McCain.

The mind reels. If only the conservatives displayed this much ingenuity and imagination in their policies, they might not be losing right now.