The elections are upon us and every pundit is worried because there is no general issue that reveals itself. (Will the elections be decided on a penny issue like the cost of prescription drugs, or a nickel issue like social security, etc.) Yet, it is now starting to be admitted that 1) Demos will not take back the House, and 2) they will be pretty lucky if they keep the Senate. In short, conventional wisdom is about to fall. So where do you look to figure it all out? Study polling data until the last minute? Push some more paper around pretending that you are a general while not wearing any boots? No, look to those whose minds are focused and who have some responsibility to look after the whole field of battle. Look to those who wear boots and who don’t ride horses only for pleasure. Find the great captain and you will find that he is not calculating from bits and pieces of unconnected information. Find him in the heat of battle surveying all before him. Look to his insights and his daemon and don’t ask him to explain the penny and nickel questions. He will have a plan and that plan has evolved from his eye and brain and soul and it will encompass the whole theatre of operations and it will be accurate. And that plan will reveal itself as an insight; not perfectly clear to anyone but himself. Look to Karl Rove. He may be such a captain.