We often have this discussion about whether to attend a sports event (like a WS game 7) or sell the ticket - and often times, those of us who really care about that stuff say we'd rather be there in person, witness the history, than get some short term satisfaction out of selling the ticket. The idea is we want to be there, we want to feel the atmosphere, and ultimately - we want to have taken a part in that history.   I want to use this notion and relate it to the election, because I think there is a profoundly more significant historical play here.  There's no doubt that the election is really not in the hands of partisans on either side of the debate - but really in the hands of the center:  the swing voters, the independents, the undecideds and the persuadables.  It's amazing to most that someone could still be undecided, but there are of course many plausible reasons ranging from those related to conflicting convictions, fears or downright apathy.  And campaigns spend a great deal of time trying to craft messages that will appeal and convert those voters.  Yet, they still remain.  I recently saw an interesting post on Ben Smith's Politico Blog that caught my eye as another potential argument to make to this group as part of the effort to convert them.  If the issues, the VP Pick, the Campaign tone, the current state of affairs, or other points won't do it - maybe this will.  Here is the idea - if you're still undecided, then you probably are unlikely to be swayed by some last minute issue. And you probably haven't bought into the ridiculously offensive and false GOP propaganda that sells Obama as an evil socialist pariah who pals around with terrorists.  So you probably will chose someone as "lesser of two evils", or decide to follow your party line, or your friends/parents, or some variation, or choose to sit it out altogether. 

This is the argument to this group (and the argument posited in the e-mail to Ben Smith):As most of the polls show, in all likelihood Obama is going to win this election.  Though you may not agree that he's going to be the great transformational president I do, you've already conceded that he'll in all likelihood be a fine president (or in the most negative light - no worse than McCain; otherwise you'd be decided).  So let's focus on the election itself.   Regardless of anything else, it is indisputable that an Obama presidency would be a watershed historic moment in US election history and a culmination and validation of the civil rights movement.  Obama's election is of huge symbolic importance, for us and for the rest of the world.  Don't take my word for it - every foreign country poll tell us that.  (http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/obamas-promise.html).So if you vote for no other reason, vote to be on the "Right Side of History".  Vote for Obama because you want to prove to the world, yourself and your kids that this is a country that believes in civil rights, a land of equal opportunity that will elect a black man with a funny name president.  Vote for Obama, because 40 years from now, when you're sitting with your grandkids and reflecting back to this historic time, you don't want to tell them that you voted for the other guy (even though you didn't care about the other guy's stance).  Vote for Obama to be a part of, and on the right side of, history.I just had this discussion with some friends, and a dear friend of mine said:

To put an even finer point on it (in particular for voters who are also parents), putting politics and policy and frankly substance aside, I want my children to grow up in the America that was promised and mythologized all our lives, an America that can elect a black man with a middle name of Hussein.  Stipulating for the sake of argument that this election's most important legacy will be largely symbolic, it seems like this is our last best chance to present to the rest of the world and to our progeny an America that is worthy of its ideals.  Obama is going to be a fine president, maybe not a great president, but the fact of his presidency is going to be unequivocally great for this country.  I agree with Farzin - in 40 years we are going to have to answer for the path this country chooses - this can be our generation's contribution to American history. 

The Ben Smith post was here:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1008/The_history_argument.html