Am I wrong to be worried?

This weekend I met a friend who's working for the Bush re-election campaign and I told him that the faithful are worried. He told me I was wrong to be worried, and that the election is in the bag. I'm still worried though. Am I wrong?

This is the first election since September 11th. This is the equivalent of the 1944 election, when Roosevelt kicked ass. The whole country should be united in the mission to defeat Islamist terrorism, and it's clear that it isn't (exhibit A: Michael Moore). What's going on? Why has this administration been terrible at selling its message? Incidentally, it's not just half of the American people who aren't buying it, but half of the rest of the world as well. Now one can argue that French perfidy and other factors play into the rest of the world not agreeing with America, but that's not a good enough excuse.

The fact is that Americans are the best sellers. Yet somehow we're having an awful time selling America. And the Bush administration is really bad at selling its agenda. Bush may be a conservative President and his core constituency may be the South and Midwest, but he's still the leader of the free world, and he should at least acknowledge this fact. He may not get the vote of the latte-swilling San Franciscan, but Bush is that person's representative to the world, and by not acknowledging that the President is reneging on his responsibility.

Of course, I agree with the man on the main issue of the day, and so will vote for him. But I would like to see a little less arrogance and a little more leadership.