Creating a Monster

It was 1975.  Large production Hollywood movies were just becoming highly anticipated events.  The movie Jaws was one of the first.  It played exclusively at the downtown Midland theater in Kansas City for nearly a year.  There wasn't a cable TV movie channel.  There wasn't pay-per-view or a local Blockbuster.  It was a difficult time filled with such hardships.   Big movies played at the same theater until people stopped coming.  The Midland is where I first saw Jaws. 

The villain was a shark.  The movie was half over before you ever saw the shark.  That is how the director built suspense, fear and dread.  Early scenes would show a swimmer splashing about from the surface and from the shark's perspective.  Then the swimmer would react surprised as the unseen monster bit their leg.  They would be pulled underwater briefly, only to reappear with a look of sheer terror.  Then they would go under for good.  It was masterful.  That movie scared me as much as any movie ever had, or has since. 

It is exactly what the democrats tried to do to Mitt Romney.  Even before the republican convention was over, the attacks began.  Romney is a rich dude who doesn't pay taxes.  Romney is a rich dude who doesn't care about the middle class.  Romney may be a felon.  Romney killed a guy's wife.  Romney moves jobs overseas.  Romney is at war against women.  And on and on.

The democrats should have learned from the movie Jaws.  You can build fear and terror, as they did by telling such lies repeated by a willing press.  What they didn't see coming were the debates.  At the first debate, Romney looked competent.  Romney looked caring.  Romney looked intelligent.  Romney did not look like a monster.  Obama looked bad.  Obama looked disinterested and clueless.  Obama looked more like the villain for many people. 

The undecided decided.  They were looking for an alternative to Obama and they found it.  Romney didn't appear to be a bad guy.  After all, he has a wife and 5 sons.  They all seem pretty normal.  That fact alone left many wondering why the democrats would attempt to destroy him.  Maybe the uniter was really a divider?  It all began to unravel for the democrats .  Undecided voters quickly moved to Romney and the polls (still skewed to high democrat sampling) suddenly reversed.  Romney moved to the front.  Romney's lesser performance in the second debate only continued the movement. 

Now there seems to be two possibilities.  A dirty trick or a global event could reverse the current trend and help Obama win - but here, Obama isn't in control.  Or Romney could win in a landslide.  I'm betting on the latter.