This has been an unusually turbulent midterm election, with candidates and causes buffeted around in rapid succession.

For reasons best known to themselves, most political pundits wrote a 2014 election script long ago, titling it “Republicans take U.S. Senate,” and have repeated it ever since.

Why is should be so important to political observers to predict, months in advance, the result of an inherently unpredictable event is for themselves to answer — but it’s closely related to their lack of curiosity about what might actually be going on.

Before telling us what’s going to happen, you’d think they’d ask more than a few political science professors and a handful of voters. We used to call this “fill in the blank” journalism and it’s no more interesting in the digital age than when print and broadcast ruled.

So, anyone being honest will offer election observations, not predictions, and one clear factor is that no single issue is driving the national debate — why the fluctuations will continue right up to Nov. 4.

In Maine, a governor’s race that seemed frozen in time has finally, in the last week, shown signs of movement.

Independent Eliot Cutler, who might hold the balance between his two opponents, finally owned up to the reality that he cannot win, however grudgingly and unwillingly he yielded the point. By telling his supporters it’s OK to switch, he offered a boost to Democrat Mike Michaud — who agrees with Cutler on the major issues, and is equally dedicated to defeating Republican incumbent Paul LePage.

Later that day, Cutler’s leading supporter, Sen. Angus King, said he was switching his vote to Michaud. Recognizing that second place preferences can’t be recognized in Maine elections, King said it makes sense to vote for a candidate who can win, and who will change the tone and substance of state government.

As a fellow independent — by far the most successful in Maine history — King brings a unique credibility. While his views and Cutler’s do align, he said, there are times when voters need to consider the outcome, not just their own preferences.

There will be no shortage of election eve advice as Mainers prepare to vote. Some of the best was given long ago by Sen. Ed Muskie, among the most capable and dedicated public servants Maine has ever had.

On election eve 1970, Muskie delivered a 15-minute political message on the three major television networks. It was an answer to Richard Nixon who, two years earlier, narrowly won the presidency in a country bitterly divided over the Vietnam War.

Nixon was seeking a more sympathetic Congress, and, with Vice President Spiro Agnew leading the charge, didn’t hesitate to accuse Democrats of outright disloyalty. As history records, Nixon and Agnew were the only holders of their offices forced to resign because of crimes they committed, but at the time Muskie spoke, that was well into the future.

From a supporter’s home in Cape Elizabeth, Muskie looked the cameras square in the eye and called Nixon’s bluff. He began quietly, observing that “In the heat of our campaigns, we have all become accustomed to a little anger and exaggeration.” He asserted faith in the democratic process: “It has worked for almost 200 years, longer than any other political system in the world. And it still works.”

Muskie took on Nixon’s charge that, amid the riots tearing apart dozens of cities, Democrats “favor violence and champion the wrongdoer.” He said, “That is a lie. And the American people know it is a lie.”

In his conclusion, Muskie said there’s always been a tension between “the politics of fear and the politics of trust,” and added, “Ordinarily, that division is not between parties, but between men and ideas. But this year the leaders of the Republican Party have intentionally made that line a party line. They have confronted you with exactly that choice.”

Muskie’s appeal worked. The pundits of the day gave Nixon a good shot at both houses of Congress, but though Republicans gained three Senate seats, they lost 12 in the House, leaving Democrats in charge.

One can hear an echo of Muskie’s words in Angus King’s brief statement endorsing Mike Michaud.

King said, “I believe that what drives us to the polls should be hope — not fear; what calls us to participate in the political dialogue should be optimism — not cynicism; and what informs our decision to vote for the governor of Maine should be the belief in a system of government where every vote counts.”

With that approach, this election might accomplish something important.

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Douglas Rooks is a former daily and weekly newspaper editor who has covered the State House for 29 years. He can be reached at [email protected].