ABSTRACT
I can swim against the stream and have done so repeatedly, but I can’t swim against a tidal wave.
The term “The Perfect Storm” is typically used to describe a devastating 1991 storm that produced 30-foot waves and winds up to 80 knots in the northern Atlantic, and was popularized in a book and motion picture of the same name. As a meteorological event, “[i]t was an unprecedented set of circumstances”2 that combined atmospheric changes with the residual effects of a hurricane and “that struck with a fi erceness that took residents [of New England] by total surprise.”3 In many ways, Democrat Chet Edwards faced a “Perfect Storm” of his own in his reelection campaign in the 2010 congressional election.
