The muddy fields of Artois

597 years ago today saw an epic conflict come to a head.  The English yeoman army of Henry V had been marching for weeks through the muddy fields and country lanes of France, wending their slow way towards the safety of Calais.  The campaigning season was late, and their assaults of the fortified Norman towns had slowed their progress.  Dysentery had slowed it further.  It had not started that way.

The French and English had been spoiling for a fight, caught as they were in the 100 Years' War.  Henry was new to the throne, and itching to prove his mettle.  No less than the Bard of Avon tells us that the French Dauphin - Crown Prince - felt no less.



As a famous American ex-President might have said, the Dauphin may have mis-underestimated the new English King.  And Shakespeare gave us one of the great scenes of a play filled with great scenes.



The battle was joined, on that muddy field of Agincourt.

The French were contemptuous of the English, outnumbering them five to one.  And fresh, not exhausted and sick.  And the flower of French Chivalry mounted in their splendid armor.  The English overthrow looked assured, recounted in the greatest scene ever written in the English language.



The English slaughtered the over-confident, contemptuous French.  for 112 English dead, the French lost 10,000 of their finest knights.  Henry became heir to the French throne, the Dauphin sent off to play tennis or something, far from any levers of power.

Our Crispin's Day speech was told quite some time ago, maybe as far back as the election of 2010.  The battle has been joined for a while, likely since the beginning of this month at the least.  The over-confident and contemptuous Obama campaign believed that their summer advertising blitz and their mass of mounted knights media boosters would sweep the rabble from the field. Instead, the first debate sounded the charge and the twang of yew bows launching their clothyard shafts filled the air.

The slaughter has been around us ever since. Romney chose his battlefield well, where the massed opponent would crowd upon each other and immobilize the entire force. He showed a candid world that he was not a monster, that he didn't kill sumd00d's wife, that he had a plan - any plan, it doesn't really matter.
You see, the Royal re-election campaign has no plan other than to send the third line charging through the muddy soup that swallowed up the first two lines. The voters have looked at this, and are breaking en masse against the Democrats.

It's hard to see that the turnout this year won't set records, and that this is very, very bad news for Obama and the down-ballot Democrats. The air is darkened with a myriad of arrowsballots, and many of their noble company will not survive the day.
Over confidence led to this disaster, over confidence born of a media bubble that ignored facts on the ground. A million distractions were mustered to the Royal Host, arrayed against a few simple arguments:

What's the plan for the next four years?

Never mind how we got here, what do we do now?

Romney sounds like he knows what he wants to do that will help.

It's a slaughter. Look around you, and you see the Royal host sinking into the mud. Their message changes daily, tracking polls and twitter trending memes. The Intelligence Community, not enjoying the view of the underside of the bus, is leaking Benghazi stories furiously. Fingers are pointing.

And Romney's campaign just keeps to plan, and the arrows fly.

There's a reason that the polls keep breaking more and more to Romney. A bunch of our fellow countrymen simply don't pay much attention to politics (I can't really blame them, actually). They tune in during the last few weeks, taking a quick look around to see what things look like. There's a pent-up unhappiness with the economy that they bring with them, but Obama would have had a chance to present his plan to them and win their votes.

He didn't have one. He still doesn't, despite a 20 page glossy brochure. These newly aware voters look around at a battlefield in shambles. Obama looks everything but a winner. He looks confused, disorganized, demoralized, small, mean, and petty. And his media army is packed together, unable to charge across the muddy fields. Indeed, some are breaking into rout.

If there were evidence against this, we'd see it in plenty. We don't. Instead we see examples like "Obama wins the final debate" and Romney goes from a single digit lead with independents to 17 points up.

Obama will continue to decline in the polls as the populace detects an increasing stench of death. The undecided will side with the guy who looks like a winner. That's not His Majesty. It's over, and it will be a historical defeat for the Democrats. There's no way they will keep control of the Senate, with record turnout and a large majority of independents showing up to vote for the guy with the (R) after his name.

Whether this will be good or bad is yet to be known. Henry swept all before him, achieving his life's ambition, and then exited the stage soon after, struck down by the dysentery that so hurt his army. England was in turmoil for decades, suffering through the War of the Roses until the Tudors restored order and brought in William Shakespeare, Esq. to write the history of their line.

Whether Romney will fare this, or better, or worse is a mystery. Yet the battle is actually ending around us. The moving finger, having writ Obama's history, moves on.

Sure, sure, get out and vote. But those of you who despise this Administration should savor its final death throes. Enjoy the next week and a half. Nock another arrow and sing for the glory of the slaughter.

This day is call’d the feast of Crispian. He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d, And rouse him at the name of Crispian. He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, And say “To-morrow is Saint Crispian.” Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, And say “These wounds I had on Crispian’s day.”

- Shakespeare, Henry V