Election Day is just a few days off.  I offer four thoughts on Hurricane Sandy, the economy, and the September 11 attack on our embassy inLibya. The first is for Republicans, the last three for voters generally.

(1). The fears of conservatives and Republicans to the contrary aside, the positive coverage that President Obama has received in the wake of Hurricane Sandy is not likely to alter the outcome of the election.  There is more than one reason for this.

First, the two areas hardest hit by the storm—New Jersey and New York—have long been Democratic strongholds.  If anyone is going to be emotionally impacted for the better by Obama’s visit to the Jersey shore, it will be residents from the Jersey shore. 

Yet these are people who were already disposed to vote for him anyhow.

Second, as difficult as it undoubtedly is, those of us from the Northeastern United States (that includes yours truly) need to remember that our little section of the country is not America’s epicenter.  Simply put, the preoccupations of our fellow Americans from across the fruited plain are not those of the residents of Manhattan, Boston, or Philadelphia. 

Recall, just last year a tornado swept through Joplin, Missouri.  By the time that it had ended, it had claimed 158 of our fellow Americans.  Sandy, in spite of having encompassed nearly 1,000 miles, isn’t responsible for nearly as many deaths. 

And yet, most Americans couldn’t find Joplin on a map.  Most Americans probably don’t even remember having heard much about this event at all.  There was very little coverage, and the President, who was off in Ireland at the time, uttered scarcely a word about it.

(2). Obama has managed to convince a whole lot of people that he “inherited” a bad economy.  For his success in pushing this line, he has two groups of people to thank: his allies in the media and Republicans.

It is true that Obama inherited a bad economy. But to know this isn’t to know much, and it certainly doesn’t establish that Obama and his party had nothing to do with the economy that he “inherited.”  The real story isn’t nearly as accommodating of Obama’s agenda.

In reality, there are two crucial facts that no one—neither Republican nor Democrat—ever bothers to mention.

First, while Obama inherited a bad economy, he inherited it from Republicans and Democrats alike. After all, the Democrats had control of both chambers of Congress for the last two years of George W. Bush’s second term.

Second, because the economy that newly elected President Obama inherited was the legacy of both Republicans and Democrats, this means that Senator Obama is among those from whom he inherited it. 

So, even before he became president, Senator Obama could be implicated in the bad economy with which President Obama was faced in 2008. 

(3). The bad economy that President Obama inherited is not the economy over which he has presided for the last four years. The latter is actually worse than the former.

(4). While an ever growing number of people are becoming persuaded that the Obama administration is guilty of a “cover up” vis-à-vis the September 11^th attack on our embassy in Libya, the President and his supporters continue to deny this.  Just a second’s worth of common sense, however, effortlessly establishes that, indeed, Obama lied when four Americans died in Libya. 

Obama insisted for about two weeks that the attack on our consulate in Libya was a “spontaneous” response to an anti-Islamic film.  Not only did he speak with certitude about this, but so did several people within his administration.  But we now know that not only were there never any grounds for this position; all of the evidence from the first moment of the attack militated decisively against it.

The conclusion is obvious: this was pure deception on Obama’s part.

These are just some thoughts that voters should bear in mind as they storm the polls on November 6.