Sandusky, Ohio 2007: The arbiter of the 2004 election has stepped center stage for the 2012 showdown. Ohio, with its sizable electoral payload, has become the undecided prize sought by both Presidential campaigns. Essentially, the campaigns will crest the iron hill here, and then anything can happen!

From Trent Ling:

Of the twelve Presidential elections in my lifetime, I recall ten of them to varying degrees, having no recollection only of Richard Nixon’s 1968 and 1972 triumphs.

In 1976, at age 11, I was fascinated and hooked by the reading of the numbers.  State-by-State, delegates were pledged either to President Gerald Ford or to Governor Ronald Reagan at the GOP nominating convention.  It was a wild occasion.  Reagan came up short, the hall regretted it almost immediately, and Ford fell to Governor Jimmy Carter in the general election.

In 1980, President Carter had amassed an American tragedy about as bad as the one well underway today.  Hostages in Iran, 13% inflation, 22% interest rates, and a pernicious malaise that confounded Carter.  Once Reagan got the chance to convince the nation that he was not going to push “The Button” on day one, he swept to a 44-State landslide victory.

In 1984, as a President Reagan zealot in my sophomore year of college, I hosted a large and raucous re-election party at the Tacoma Dome Hotel in downtown Tacoma, Washington.  Reagan won 49 States and made his re-election look even easier than his sweeping election at the expense this time of Carter’s former VP Walter Mondale.  The world would never be the same after that night.  The next day, an op-ed cartoon memorialized the historic triumph by portraying an electoral map of America covered with the form-fitting face of Reagan.

In 1988, as a first-year law student and a continuing Reagan backer, I hosted a lower key, but exuberant victory party for Reagan’s VP George H.W. Bush (Bush I).  We could tell that Michael Dukakis backers had thrown in the towel when water balloons hit our party.  Bush I romped to a 40-State victory over the relevantly diminutive Massachusetts Governor.

In 1992, the Reagan rules subsided after a stellar 16-year run because the country had changed and a leadership vacuum had developed.  I had become a disciple of Jesus, just gotten married, and had recently moved to the land of Disney World in Orlando, Florida.  My first election as a mere observer had me not believing my eyes.  A draft-dodger defeated a war hero for the Presidency.  Governor Bill Clinton won less than 50% of the vote, but easily bested President Bush I and third-party candidate Ross Perot.

In 1996, the tech boom and the Internet revolution had revved up such a strong economy that President Clinton (still with less than 50% of the vote) easily defeated GOP Senator Bob Dole and the third-party reboot of Perot.  This was the least suspenseful and least impactful election of my lifetime.

In 2000, nobody went to bed on election night, and the world has yet to recover from the Bush-Gore Hangover.  Governor George W. Bush (Bush II) and Vice-President Al Gore pushed the election to its Constitutional limits.  Ultimately, 35 days after the election, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Bush II’s favor in Florida, giving him the Presidency by a five electoral vote margin 271-266 (despite Gore narrowly winning the popular vote).

In 2004, the President Bush II and Senator John Kerry battle came down to the State of Ohio and its 20 electoral votes at the time.  Avoiding the chaos of 2004, Bush II took Ohio by about 120,000 votes to settle the Presidency on election night.  The country was set to continue upon its politically deadlocked course for another four years.

In 2008, Senator Barack Obama made history in his 7-point victory over Senator John McCain.  Though many doubted Obama’s ability and sincerity to lead the country, America pleasantly surprised itself in electing a Black President.  Inspiring were Obama’s campaign speeches.  Stupefying was McCain’s lackluster campaign featuring very little fight from a war hero and longtime POW.

In 2012, President Obama and Governor Romney now seek the hot seat in the White House for the next four years.  America and the world stand atop a precipice of collapse, disaster, and ruin.  In any electoral case, upheaval, redirection, and a long, hard road of grueling and thoughtful work awaits.  As the revolutionaries in Les Miserables appropriately confessed: “We’ll discover what our God in Heaven has in store.”

For those scoring at home, feel free to use the “Election 2012 Cheat Sheet.”

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