I'm not sure why this is, but it seems that some of us are just now starting to panic over the fact that Mark Taylor may not actually be the next governor of Georgia at all. A woman (Vicky, I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to meet you, so I don't know your last name), came to the YD Atlanta meeting this Wednesday who was beside herself with the apparently new-found knowledge that by every available metric Mark's campaign is unlikely to prevail at this point. I'm not sure why Vicky chose Wednesday to panic, and beg us Young Democrats to jump into the gubernatorial campaign, or why a lot of you Jon Q. Democrat folks out there are still thinking that if Mark Foley can win us the House, he can beat Sonny for us, but folks, a double digit deficit in October is a big neon sign saying “DANGER WILL ROBINSON” if I ever saw one.

Setting aside (for now) exactly why we're at this unhappy juncture, staring bleakly at four more years of Sonny just like we got four years of the Shrubmeister, we need to be brutally honest with ourselves about what is realistically at stake on November 7. Folks, the fact that Mark is basically not going to win means work harder, because every single percentage point is going to affect our fundraising for the next four years, if not the next four decades. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES can we lose this election by the double digits by which Mark is trailing now, unless of course we want to follow Greg Hecht into exile on Pluto. Our best case scenario is Jim Martin beating Casey Cagle like his long-lost red-headed stepchild from Dalton, because make no mistake: We beat back the vanguard of the Christian Taliban when Ralph Reed lost, but Casey Cagle has worse politics and better personal ethics, and he will be the next governor of Georgia if he and Sonny win. If Casey wins and rides Sonny's coattails to a big win in 2010, we will all pay, and pay, and pay, and pay, for decades to come, if not centuries. The only consolation is that in the long run we're all dead, and thank God that includes Casey Cagle. WE NEED EVERY SINGLE VOTE.

What this is now, then, is a game of inches. We're UGA playing UF with Steve Spurrier doing everything he can to run up the score on us. Do you understand me when I say that we CANNOT let Sonny and his Repuglican yes-men do that to us? We'll have four years to bitch about Sonny Perdue, Raph Reed, Casey Cagle, Cynthia McKinney, and Cathy Cox, and whoever else we're going to blame for losing this election; let's concentrate on beating these Repuglican assclowns for now until the fight is over.