'The most important election since 1860'

Thus David Mamet, the acclaimed playwright, who delivered the Manhattan Institute’s annual Wriston lecture last night in New York. The room was packed, and the atmosphere was tense.  There were a few people who agreed with me that Romney is likely to win handily, but many people were worried.  The polls, they pointed out, were not as encouraging as one would like.  Hurricane Sandy had pushed the scandal of Benghazi off the radar screen. The Democrats would stop at nothing to reelect their meal ticket.

All true, but I continue to believe that the country is in for an extraordinary display of political maturity. We’re just about to vote.  I hope you will, too. The man who introduced David Mamet said that this election was the most important since 1980, when the feckless, economic illiterate Jimmy Carter was ignominiously tossed out and Reagan brought us morning in America.  Something similar, I think, will happen today, and the stakes are even higher.  It’s not 1980, but 1860: the country is at a crossroads.  One way points to economic ruin and increasing bureaucratic intrusiveness. The other way points to economic growth and a return to sanity.  Vote for Romney-Ryan.  It’s a vote for a prosperous future.