(Keith Knight via GoComics.com)
__
Jonathan Chait at NYMag points out that, when Romney’s people say he’s winning, “It’s A Bluff“:
In recent days, the vibe emanating from Mitt Romney’s campaign has grown downright giddy. Despite a lack of any evident positive momentum over the last week — indeed, in the face of a slight decline from its post-Denver high — the Romney camp is suddenly bursting with talk that it will not only win but win handily. (“We’re going to win,” said one of the former Massachusetts governor’s closest advisers. “Seriously, 305 electoral votes.”)
This is a bluff. Romney is carefully attempting to project an atmosphere of momentum, in the hopes of winning positive media coverage and, thus, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy…
Karl Rove employed exactly this strategy in 2000. As we now know, the race was excruciatingly close, and Al Gore won the national vote by half a percentage point. But at the time, Bush projected a jaunty air of confidence. Rove publicly predicted Bush would win 320 electoral votes. Bush even spent the final days stumping in California, supposedly because he was so sure of victory he wanted an icing-on-the-cake win in a deep blue state. Campaign reporters generally fell for Bush’s spin, portraying him as riding the winds of momentum and likewise presenting Al Gore as desperate.
The current landscape is slightly different. The race is also very close, but Obama enjoys a clear electoral college lead. He is ahead by at least a couple points in enough states to make him president. Adding to his base of uncontested states, Nevada, Ohio, and Wisconsin would give Obama 271 electoral votes. According to the current polling averages compiled at fivethirtyeight.com, Obama leads Nevada by 3.5 percent, Ohio by 2.9 percent, and Wisconsin by 4 percent. Should any of those fail, Virginia and Colorado are nearly dead even. (Obama leads by 0.7 percent and 1.0 percent, respectively.) If you don’t want to rely on Nate Silver — and you should rely on him! — the polling averages at realclearpolitics, the conservative-leaning site, don’t differ much, either…
Obama’s lead is narrow — narrow enough that the polling might well be wrong and Romney could win. But he is leading, his lead is not declining, and the widespread perception that Romney is pulling ahead is Romney’s campaign suckering the press corps with a confidence game.
Many more details at the link, which you should go read. Chait’s seconded by Ed Kilgore at the Washington Monthly:
… As a deep skeptic about the importance of “momentum” in sports or in politics, I keep looking for evidence that the belief a candidate is ahead will add to his or her vote. Yes, obviously, a small but significant number of voters may need to think their candidate has a realistic chance to win in order to find the motivation to vote. But do any pick a president based on who they perceive as being ahead in a close race? Nobody but Dick Morris has been predicting a Romney landslide. But nonetheless, a remarkable number of conservative gabbers and a growing number of liberals seem to think media horse-race perceptions are the ball game.
Maybe that’s so, but I wouldn’t be so sure about it. You can make the argument that an achingly close race in which Obama desperately needs a fantastic GOTV effort might be a “self-fulfillling prophecy” as well, which adds to the zeal and effectiveness of that effort. Yes, conservative “enthusiasm” has always depended on the perception that Mitt wasn’t a stone loser; one he crossed that threshold (one set by the polls rather than any perceived “moderation” or “Etch-a-Sketch Moment”), there was no doubt the GOP “base” would turn out impressively, given the hate frenzy they’ve been in towards Obama for four years now. Beyond that, though, it’s not clear all the spin matters—no matter how deeply annoying and dishonest it is for the MSM to buy it.
Karl Rove and the rest of the GOP’s unindicted co-conspirators are busy spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt. Don’t let them trick your facebook friends and low-information relatives. Save the scary stories for the Halloween parties, be like Keith Knight, and treat the GOP’s ever-shifting UNLIMITED CORPORATE VICTORY with the contempt it so richly deserves.
A Humble Lurker
I’ve been suspecting this. Of course nobody should let up, but everyone can probably leave their toasters in the kitchen when they go to take their evening baths at least.
Misterpuff
As I am out of the country, I have submitted my absentee trick or treat request. Please send gift cards or paypal donations to this address, so I can gorge on candy, candy, candy.
I have also already submitted my absentee ballot. Go Obama.
Baud
Exactly this. Thanks, Anne.
Hunter Gathers
The combination of The Donald’s ‘bombshell’ and Romney’s BFF Richard ‘Rape Babies Are God’s Will’ Mourdock should make for a banner day for the Ol’ Mittster.
Janus Daniels
“Karl Rove employed exactly this strategy in 2000” and 2004, and with the same purpose: use the corporate news media to make a Republican win appear more plausible, despite overwhelming evidence of voter suppression, vote fraud, and other crimes.
TheMightyTrowel
Nice to see a bit of well-deserved cynicism seeping into the mainstream (hey! NY mag is mainstream… ish)
Also too. Just leaving work at 9pm again. Stayed late prepping stuff for a work trip to Vietnam in 10 days, so can’t complain too much.
Raven
@TheMightyTrowel: Choi Duk!
Raven
Oh boy Mornin Joe is on this like a duck on a June bug.
tjmn
Got a robocall last night proclaiming a victory rally for Mittens at the end of this month. I live in Tidewater VA and last week he was in Chesapeake at the community college here. Timing is everything for this guy. Midterms had to be postponed. There’s new construction at the college and mud everywhere. The students had to go through the mud around the event to get to classes because the sidewalk was off limits. Only drew about 3,000 people. Prolly less than reported.
Cermet
A few threads back I had to deal with those with the vapors and remind these children that President Obama has the advantage and IS leading in the real swing states; also, tell these dips that neither FL nor NC are, were or have ever been considered swing states. With VA and CO both about 50/50 the chances of winning one of these none critical states is 50% . Then the win is large (well above the majority needed.)
Ohio is mostly safe (please! TURN OUT!) due to the GM bailout! Hell, even NH has decided that they’d rather live free under President Obama than die under mitt money.
Children – if you are wetting yourselves, than GIVE $$$ to the Presidents campaign – money is CRITICAL!! I have given every month for some time now. If you haven’t given or only gave once, consider giving NOW! Now is the REAL need to get out the vote and that takes MONEY! Please, the court is in play big time as is the economy!
Napoleon
For the first time this morning I saw and anti-Obama ad from a 3rd party PAC staring Clint Eastwood. Seriously, someone thought he was the guy to use after the disaster that was his convention appearance?
Napoleon
@Cermet:
What alternative universe do some of you people live in?
arguingwithsignposts
I will be glad when Nov. 7th comes, because I won’t wake up every morning thinking, “O, politics, what crazy shit do you have for me today?” for at least until Congress goes back into session.
Patricia Kayden
@Napoleon: Talking to an empty chair in the ad? That will work.
lou
But the press is buying it hook, line and sinker. The new Gallup Poll came out this a.m. and that’s all my local tv station could talk about. I’m worried it’s going to snowball for Nov. 6.
danielx
Richard Mourdock is going to lose.
Annnnnd….
Oh really? Dick – may I call you Dick? – I don’t know how you missed this along the way, but when you have to ‘clarify’ a statement, it means you’ve stepped in shit up to your hips.
For insulting 51% of my fair state’s population, I can only say…thanks.
Linda
Part of the trouble is that conservatives have been strongly influencing public discourse and working the MSM refs. Media types are so used to Republican victories that they are just waiting for another one. More than spin, MSM people have the narrative running in their own heads already.
jwb
The whole Romney campaign now is like a big rollout of a product and they are buying their attention everywhere in order to generate buzz. Of course, there were the normal ad buys, but there was also a whole mess of polling firms I’d never heard of came on line the day after the first debate; a large swarm of new trolls was sent out to push the Romneybot on every conceivable political site (we’ve been lucky here); there was the tire swinging with the media; yesterday there was a systematic effort to buy the various election betting markets. All of this is being done to generate a sense of momentum. Against this, is the Democratic ground game. So basically the question is whether a modern media marketing campaign can overcome traditional boots on the ground.
kay
It’s hard to believe they’re “getting played” as Josh Marshall put it.
That’s a really generous interpretation of what’s going on here. I guess it’s better for them if I assume they’re stupid rather than malicious, but I’m not sure I’m willing to give them that. Nothing says they have to buy this Romney campaign theme and repeat it. Seems to me that’s a decision they’re making.
jwb
@arguingwithsignposts: That’s what I thought in 2008, but after only minimal respite, but it just got crazier. It seriously feels like a decade has passed since 2008. And I think things are going to be far worse this time around.
jwb
@kay: Someone is making that decision—that’s almost certain. But I rather suspect this decision is being made at the highest levels of the various media corporations and the individual reporters are just doing what they are told.
Linda Featheringill
@Napoleon: #12
Ohio is mostly safe. “What alternative universe do some of you people live in?”
NE Ohio here. First, I’ll admit that you should never bet the rent money on how folks in Ohio are going to vote. Not a safe bet. But other than that, with a good GOTV effort, we are in pretty good shape.
Hispanic voters make up a sizable minority in Ohio. Because of historic low turnout numbers, most of them wouldn’t be included in likely voter polls. If the estimates of turnout offered by Latino activists prove to be true, we’re in even better shape.
But still, GOTV.
Linda Featheringill
@jwb: #18
This.
And I think that democracy itself is in the balance. But then I’m an excitable girl.
Randy P
I have a different theory. I think working the refs succeeded and the polling organizations all changed their R/D mix around the time of the first debate. If you look at stuff like Nate Silver’s trendlines, the “reset” in Romney’s favor over the course of a week is really bizarre. More like resetting the zero on a scale than like an actual trend.
Napoleon
@Patricia Kayden:
At least they were smart enough to not do that.
jwb
@Randy P: The polls didn’t change their R/D mix, but they did change from RV to LV, and some, like Gallup, have had very bizarre demographics since that shift. The Gallup tracker may well be accurate, for instance, if you buy what they say is the likely demographic mix of the election. But that would mean an electorate that has a similar demographic profile to the election of 2000 rather than 2008 or even 2004. Does anyone really think that is the case? Enthusiasm might get you a couple of points, but it is not going to get you almost 10%.
ETA: When I said that polls didn’t change their R/D mix, I mean that the change in the R/D mix was a result of the LV screen not because they weighted the poll for a different R/D mix.
amk
Latest Swing State Polls
Ohio: Obama 47%, Romney 44% (SurveyUSA)
Virginia: Obama 50%, Romney 43% (Old Dominion University)
Lancelot Link
The thing that worries me about Ohio is this. Obama’s win has to be too big to steal.
Comrade Scrutinizer
Randy P: I agree. The storm from the RWNJ machine over “skewed polls” and “likely voter” models was fierce, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some organizations were intimidated. Obama under-performed in the first debate for sure, but recalling the sampling of CNN’s snap poll-all white Southern males, mostly-makes me wonder whether the bounce Rmoney got wasn’t partially manufactured. I will be interested to see after the election how the vote compares with the polls going in.
Raven
I’m so worried, I’m so scared. What if we lose? What if we win and the big bad wolf comes? What if it’s a tie? OOOOOOO, what will we do????:?
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Raven: “Where shall we go, Max?”
“Argentina?”
jwb
@amk: That VA poll is an odd duck. It took place over the past month, 2/3 of the polling taking place before the first debate. It’s really not clear what, if anything, it measures at this point.
Raven
@Comrade Scrutinizer:
Sonny: Is there any special country you wanna go to?
Sal: Wyoming.
1badbaba3
@Raven: You haven’t switched to Petunia and Pals yet? The very put-upon Mika (Mistress of the Universe) thanks you for your brand loyalty.
We will have another “sweet Jesus” moment coming soon.
Irving
@Napoleon: Ohio. Romney is pouring money into ads here like crazy, but he’s never led once in any poll.
Actually, it’s not even him. It’s third party guys. There are expensive electronic billboards up in Cleveland, but their layout is oddly amateurish. And spending money in Cuyahoga County on lavish advertising is poor tactics. I don’t think things are well coordinated here. We can beat back the Zerg rush.
Linda Featheringill
@Lancelot Link:
Voting machines/Romney link:
I read somewhere that these particular machines are installed in only two counties in Ohio. Dunno which ones.
Raven
@1badbaba3: I know, it’s a habit.
Kay
@Irving:
I saw my first Romney ad. It was a series of lies about healthcare. Romney-Ryan are now the healthcare candidates.
In any event, it was odd to hear his voice at the end. I realized I hadn’t seen a single (official) Romney campaign ad until this week. They were ALL outside groups.
Napoleon
@jwb:
It measures nothing which is why Nate Silver excluded using it in his calculations.
Quincy
@kay: Some are Republican shills, but don’t underestimate stupid and lazy. The Politico piece quoted a Romney advisor saying they’d get 305 EVs. I’m pretty sure that no combination of swing states will give Romney that number. Even if you tossed in PA, he might go over. But 305 isn’t possible. But why would the reporter spend 5 minutes on 270towin to check that? I’m sure the thought never even crossed his mind. That’s not his job. Romney camp gave him a quote, he types it, puts words around it and he’s done.
cintibud
@Irving: I see a billboard on my way to work near downtown Cincinnati “Obama: ‘Coal is my worst nightmare!”. I see stuff like that in WV, KY and rural SE OH, but really – how many people near downtown Cincy care about that? That billboard isn’t going to change one vote or even motivate someone to get to the polls. Also, to agree, oddly amateurish.
Napoleon
@Linda Featheringill:
I live in NE Ohio as well. The polls have been pretty close and Ohio has been a demographic outlier for Obama. If he performs here like he is polling everywhere else he looses the state by 2-4 points and the election. I don’t know how anyone cannot be seriously worried about Mitt picking up the state.
Kay
@Quincy:
Using a number makes it sound more certain. “305” “297” :)
I could stand these narratives if every once in a while the narrative went our way. A friend here said to me yesterday “isn’t it weird how the election stopped being about the economy the minute the jobs numbers got better? Unemployment fell below 8% and that’s better for the incumbent, so no more economy talk.”
That is weird, quite frankly.
Hal
Facebook is always fascinating to read when it comes to these elections. The Mitt Romney supporters are quieter, with the occasional burst of activity, such as post debate when all of a sudden people were giddy at Romney’s performance. Once friend even noted MSNBC was ripping Obama (which she erroneously said “never happens” ha!)
Obama supporters are much more supportive and excited. They actually like their candidate. What’s hilarious to me is how the Romney supporters are either silent, or talk about how both candidates suck, oh well! I guess I should vote for Romney. It’s such an idiotic position to take, and at the end of the day, I find it very hard to believe there will be enough meh, Romney people voting for him to win.
Kirbster
I don’t pretend to know how the minds of so-called undecided voters work, because I made up my mind long ago. Do they find the constant barrage of polls, political ads, robocalls, and bloviating pundits persuasive or just irritating? The closer we get to the election, the more overwhelming the crap becomes. It has to be a turn-off for any normal person. Like millions of others, I’ve got caller ID, on-demand cable, Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, and a recycle bin for junk mail. I’ll be glad to chat with GOTV types in the neighborhood, but I won’t let traditional media waste my time anymore.
jibeaux
I dunno, to the extent campaign spin matters these days (easier for people to check what the polls say in 2012 than it was in 2000, should they choose to do so), it’s not necessarily bad for Democrats. I mean, you can see the psychology either way, right, you can say “people want to back a winning horse”(bluffing is good) or “people are more motivated if they feel the other side is winning” (bluffing is bad, reverse bluffing is good) and those two ideas are contradictory, so which one has more truth I don’t know.
I promise I haven’t been drinking yet, I’m just especially incoherent today apparently.
Randy P
@Quincy: By an odd coincidence, our own little baby troll was just throwing around that 305 number. Arrived at by independent calculation no doubt.
Enhanced Voting techniques
@Quincy: Almost sounds like they are taking what Nat Silverman and company are saying about Obama and changing the name to Romney. Pretty typical for Republicans.
As far that Virgina poll goes, sounds plausible. If there is any state in the nation that would hang on to foreign policy debate, it is Virgina.
jibeaux
305 sounds like exactly the number you would arrive at if you wanted to project an air of confidence in the election, but not an absurd overconfidence. A comfortable margin, but not a landslide. Somewhere nicely in between what’s required to win and what Obama took in ’08.
In other words, not the number you would arrive at by making a list of states that you think you can win and adding up their electoral votes.
Quincy
@Kay: Benghazi’s no longer an issue either now that Mitt doesn’t want to talk about it. And of course flip-flopping is no longer a character flaw. My take is similar to Drum’s hack gap thesis, but it’s not the hacks so much as the concerted propaganda. Fox and talk radio get big ratings and other media outlets feel pressure to at least acknowledge whatever Fox is talking about. It must be what audiences want to hear after all. The left doesn’t have any equivalent ratings monster to drive the narrative the rest of the media will respond to. I think we have made some progress working the refs from the left. Chait’s post will circulate among the gang of 500 and probably have an impact because it hits them where it hurts – their sense of savvy. But it’s small consolation.
Mark B.
I suspect Romney’s electoral math is about as good as his command of basic geography.
Princess
Oh, so does Karl Rove have The Math again? That’s cute. I think he needs a new schtick.
Cermet
@Napoleon: Earth – what one do you live in? Ohio by 538 is going to President Obama – you have a better source, alien?
Baud
Why can’t Romney close the deal in the swing states?
Oops. Sorry. Wrong narrative. Never mind.
Mark B.
@Cermet: Ohio is comfortably in the Obama camp, barring shenanigans by the people counting the votes and/or preventing people from voting.
jwb
@Quincy: Actually Fox News does not get huge ratings by any measure except perhaps other news shows. But the actual audience is extremely small. The size of the audience is one reason the claim that all these networks are chasing ratings is so absurd. They are in fact chasing money. What’s not clear to me is how that money actually flows, that is, how it is really being used to incentivize the media as a whole to assume GOP talking points.
Kay
@Baud:
I say that here! People laugh every time. Everyone remembers that.
kd bart
Tweets from PPP state that their 3 day national tracker is back to a tie at 48 and that Tuesday night polling was a tie.
Cermet
@Mark B.: I understand that a lot can happen but 538 has Obama winning Ohio at 70% – ‘them’ is damn goood odds; add the odds for the other swing states and things are looking rather nice. I do, agree, that anything can happen – hence, give money and the odds of the bad things occuring are reduced. Still, I’d rather have the President’s odds than mitt money odds any day.
Napoleon
@Cermet:
Obama has yet to break 50% in Ohio and where is is at is in total defiance of demographic trends:
http://www.tnr.com/blog/electionate/109058/battleground-states-follow-their-demographics-except-ohio
Oh, and Silver does not put states in one column or anouther, he currently he ranks Ohio 70% for Obama. What that means is that when he runs his simulations every night Romney is winning more then 1 in 4 of them, and that is without Obama falling to earth with Ohio reverting to what could be considered its demographic norm.
Todd
Y’know, it occurs to me that Trump may be trying the biggest asshole move of all – the Obama family is liberal, and outwardly mutually supportive and intact.
This has been one of his greatest strengths, both career-wise and with middle tier voters, and his intact family shames serial polygamists like Trump and Limbaugh and Gingrich and a whole host of other lard assed white conservatives who talk about family values while banging everything in a skirt.
They’re trying to take that image away, and bring him to their level so they can continue their hypocritical filth.
Kay
@Quincy:
We had an election observer come talk to us in Ohio. He was a law student in 2000. He’s a lawyer now. He was in Florida for the Bush debacle. He says the Bush team worked the refs astonishingly well, and Gore’s people were unable to turn the narrative back to, um FLORIDA LAW once it took off. He describes “looking up” from what was legal work and just being amazed and absolutely horrified that Al Gore had turned into the candidate who was suppressing the military vote. Complete and utter bullshit. No connection to state law or reality. But they did it. He says it affected everything that came after.
magurakurin
@jibeaux:
Exactly. And what makes it so sad and pathetic is they could have gone to 270towin.com, played around with the map and come up with a number, say 301, which portrays the same “feeling,” but at least is in the realm of possible outcomes. It really wouldn’t have been that hard. But they didn’t. Because they don’t really give a shit. And if they do manage to win, they will run the government in the same shitty, slipshod, bullshit manner. And all the rubes who voted for Rmoney will get royally fucked. It’s a sad state of affairs, Tommy, and all the fresh air in the world won’t make a bit of difference.
But when you play around with 270towin.com you realize how hard it is going to be for Rmoney to pull this out(and how impossible it is to get 305). There really are only nine state that can be considered up for grabs. Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, New Hampshire, Colorado, Nevada, and Wisconsin. The last one really isn’t up for grabs, because if you look at the polling Rmoney has polled ahead there only three times, once in June and twice in August. But lets be gracious and say he has a chance now because of Ryan. If he takes them all he gets 301 and the win. How does he get 305. Only Hawaii, Maine, and Rhode Island have 4 EV’s. Which one does his staff think he will win?
It is certainly possible for Rmoney to win this, but he isn’t leading in all these states right now. He still has a long way to go and the tide does appear to be turning against him in spite of the CW that he is gaining.
I just wish it was over. I’ve already voted, given what money I could, so there isn’t much left to do but wait for me. I am confident Obama will prevail, but it’s still shitty to wait, and wait, and wait…
Mark B.
@Cermet: I like 70%, but I’d be way more comfortable with a bigger number. I just don’t like a one in three chance of a someone so completely devoid of principles like Romney being elected president. What the hell is wrong with this country?
Chyron HR
@Napoleon:
Truly, this modern-day Icarus is flying too close to the Sun on his wings of, um, demographic-trend-defiance, and he must inevitably fall to Earth because that’s what Icaruses do.
gene108
Do we really need to shoot things that mind their own business?
I just don’t get it.
Prosecution really is the only way to force these “law abiding” citizens to think twice, but I doubt it will happen.
Quincy
@jwb: Fair enough. I should be careful not to oversimplify or suggest the explanation is monocausal. But the employees at other news orgs are going to be evaluated to some degree on ratings as compared to their peers. And I think it’s clear that Fox/talk radio does have a significant influence on political discourse.
Linnaeus
@Mark B.:
How much time have you got?
owlbear1
Happy “United Nations” Day
Carnacki
@A Humble Lurker: But what if you like toasted scones and a nice cup of tea while you take a soak in a bath? How do you get warm toast if you don’t set your toaster and teapot next to you on the edge of the tub?
magurakurin
@Napoleon:
except when he did
ppp 10/13 51-46
nbc marist 10/11 51-45
cnn 10/8 51-47
nbc 10/1 51-43
Alex S.
@Kay:
Things are obviously going in the right direction. Just like Bill Clinton said, ‘You’re going to feel it’. If America decided to switch governments in this situation it would be sad, just sad.
Scott
It’s all just a game to these people. The outcome of the election will have no impact on their comfortable lives.
I suspect some of them even wish for a Romney win just to have something new to write/talk about. They’ve been covering Obama for four years now and are bored. No Drama Obama.
As Mr.Pierce says, This is your Republic folks. Cherish it!
Narcissus
@Scott:
This is the worst part. The so-called gang of 500 view politics, the governing of our nation, as a sort of professional wrestling of which they consider themselves not journalists but junior players. It is absolutely disgusting. I don’t have any idea what to do about it, but whatever we’re doing right now isn’t working. I actually view this as one of the most potent threats to our democracy.
Kay
@Alex S.:
I don’t know about the rest of Ohio, but it’s been quite dramatic here, over time. We had 16% unemployment. People were on edge, really scared. I remember tearing up when the children’s librarian called me and told me she was going to start serving food in the library that one bad summer. She’s an absolutely wonderful person, and she was worried they weren’t getting enough to eat with school out, and no free lunch. First they laid off the new or less skilled workers here, and then we started to see 50 year olds with 30 years getting laid off, people who had ALWAYS worked. It was the worst I’ve ever seen.
GregB
Kassim Reed is schooling Luke the Younger that using national poll trends is foolish when there is an electoral college, so the individual state trends are what matter.
These media shitheels have their marching orders to push a close race.
1badbaba3
@Raven: Google told me nada. Please to translate, kind Sir?
Kay
@Alex S.:
You know what still amazes me? The “confidence fairy” idea. Media sold the idea that “markets needed confidence” (whatever the fuck that means) but the message to ordinary people was the opposite. It was “you are doomed“. I don’t know why ordinary people don’t need “confidence” but markets do. If you buy the one, don’t you have to buy the other? What ARE “markets”, anyway? How are they distinct from “people”?
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ)
Boy NPR has bought the bluff hook, line and sinker based on the coverage they gave to it on Morning Edition this morning. When it comes to stenography, NPR is pretty good. They do it, but when they do it seems smarter.
Cacti
@Kay:
The egos of the Galtian MOTU are fragile things that must be nurtured constantly with praise, tax cuts, and a lack of regulation.
More likely, it’s because most of the “free press” has their paycheck signed by a large, multi-national corporation.
FlipYrWhig
@Kay: “Markets,” of course, means “rich people, corporations, and investment bankers.” But when you call them “The Markets” it creates an interesting effect: the same people begin to sound like capricious gods who need to be propitiated. Which ain’t that far from the truth, in its way.
Kay
@Cacti:
Did you hear ONE WORD about “confidence” when the lunatic CEO’s decided to discredit the BLS for political gain? I heard ONE person say it, and it was Biden’s former advisor. He said “those numbers move markets. That’s very irresponsible”. Jesus. FInally.
Alex S.
@Kay:
Good point. Those horror stories are just meant to pressure people into sacrificing a little more.
1badbaba3
In a couple of weeks they’re going to look like Geraldo after opening the vault. And he’ll be there also too, on Pox Snooze to recreate that look, doin’ it LIVE with Billy O’Really and Hammerhead Hannity.
I’ve said it before: I’m like Flounder before the Parade, and oh boy, it’s gonna be great!
Democrat Partisan Asshole
@Todd: The brutal reality is this: every time Combover Hitler has opened his filthy slophole this election, Obama’s numbers have never done anything but go up.
The closet conservative who’s the main morning news anchor here in LA was sounding rather anxious about Trump’s announcement this morning. He knows every time the guy gets involved, the rapidly vanishing chances of Romney winning die just a little bit more.
Enhanced Voting techniques
I’ve got to say it’s hilarious how that 47%, gloating over dead Americans, talking to empty chairs, shameless lying, the war on women, tax evasion and so forth all just don’t matter any more. It’s sort of like the press has decided, sure Mitt is the worst of Nixon and GW Bush rolled into one, but we want him anyway.
Todd
@gene108:
White rednecks only make “tragic mistakes” with firearms, they never commit crimes by being so reckless.
Mnemosyne
@Napoleon:
You do realize that you completely misread that article and the “demographic trend” that Ohio is defying is that white voters are staying with Obama, right?
Emphasis mine. The “wave” Cohn refers to is white voters turning to Romney, which he says they are not doing in Ohio.
McJulie
Paranoid theory: when the economy showed signs of improving, the secret masters of everything decided that they wanted their guy to take the presidency after all, and sent out the appropriate memos.
This shift in narrative was covered by a reasonable debate performance by Romney and a lackluster performance by Obama, giving it some credibility at first. But without said memos, Romney’s gaffes and absurdities in the second and third debates would be getting more play.
Mnemosyne
@gene108:
How in the hell do you mistake a 9-year-old human for a skunk? Do they have four-foot-tall skunks in Pennsylvania?
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Enhanced Voting techniques:
The overwhelming majority of our national press corps would have been quite happy working in the Soviet Union’s state-run media. They are high-functioning authoritarian followers and they imprinted on the GOP as The Authority early in their careers. The only solution to this is a combination of Democratic control of the government for an extended period of time and generational turnover in the newsrooms. This is why it is so damaging to Democrats when we lose midterm elections like in 2010, because it keeps the myth of Republican dominance alive. Our media people will continue to regard every victory by Democrats as either a freak event or as illegitimate and somehow stolen, until we win enough elections in a row to bury them.
Enhanced Mooching Techniques
@Narcissus:
This isn’t just politics the press does this. Just about every topic one can mention the press has its’ group of “cool kids”. It’s how the press is training in this country that they trying to write narrative history in real time and not being a witness to the events of the day.
gene108
@Mnemosyne:
This case boggles my mind.
When you are at a party, with other people around, why do you feel the need to break off, get your gun and shoot shadowy things lurking in the backyard?
Democrat Partisan Asshole
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: We owned the presidency from 1933 until 1953.
During that time America won WWII, ended the worst economic crash the world had ever seen, and turned America from a parochial backwater into a world superpower.
Twenty years and unprecedented success wasn’t enough. The media went all in for Eisenhower, curbstomping a great man (Stevenson) whose chief fault was being smarter and better spoken than they, rather than continue the long national nightmare of peace and prosperity.
Of course, all is relative. I’d kill to have a president as liberal as Ike these days.
Just how long are we going to have to win everything before the media stops fitting rocket boosters to Republican politicians?
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Democrat Partisan Asshole:
You do now. Ideologically speaking Obama is about as close to Ike reincarnated as we’re ever going to get.
Ruckus
Conservatives have to lie, steal, cheat and obfuscate their way to Victory because if anyone knew the results of their actual policies would be they wouldn’t get enough votes to be elected dog catcher in east bumfuck. It has been ever thus and is why they have been doing just that for the last few decades. Less education, less safety net(which is needed more due to), crappy economic policies, more war(which really is their economic policy), no taxes for the wealthy, no clean air or water, unsafe cars-consumer goods, no people of color that aren’t servants, women who beg to be abused, and the biggest – either no congress or at least one in the back pockets of the rich so that all of the above can be purchased for less. Or nothing.
SatanicPanic
@Mnemosyne: Couldn’t that have something to do with the auto industry there?
gene108
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Simpler would be for the rest of the MSM to realize Fox News isn’t a legitimate news organization and when Fox News, Joe Scarborough, Rush Limbaugh, et. al. keep harping on the same talking point, it isn’t news.
It’s a PR attempt by Republicans/right-wingers in the media to control the narrative.
Treating these right-wingers as news worthy is what led us to making “Travelgate”, “$200-Hair-Cut-on-AirFroceOne-Gate”, and other early Clinton miscues into national news stories, along with the relentless pursuit of Whitewater, which had nothing to do with anything President Clinton did in office.
The MSM didn’t seem to realize, President Clinton was the Right’s worst nightmare. A charismatic Southern good old boy, who could wipe out whatever gains they made under Reagan with blue collar workers in the Midwest and evangelicals in the South, which is why the Right worked so damn hard to undermine his credibility, especially with those groups of people.
From those early days, the MSM stenography of right-wing talking points led us into Iraq, a housing boom and bust and the mess we are in.
Someone should fire the next MSNBC or CNN “news” anchor, who parrots or even mentions a right-wing talking point on the air as a “some people say [blank] about Obama” and the rest of the tools will fall in line.
I’m not holding my breath waiting for it to happen.
danimal
@Democrat Partisan Asshole: Yep. Anytime Trump shows up, lavish press attention is paid to…Trump. With Romney behind in the real polls, he needs to take advantage of every news cycle. A day or two dissecting Trump’s big message is, at best, a lost opportunity for Romney.
And if Trump’s big twitter-twat turns out to be (as floated last night) that Obama had marital problems in the past, then I say “bring it on.” What a perfect person to launch that attack. Perhaps he can get Limbaugh and Gingrich to stand behind him during the inevitable press conference. That would be really effective!
Ruckus
@jwb:
If the decision is only being made at the highest levels of the media, is it not possible that somewhere a few reporters are fed up with the bullshit? Maybe not a significant amount might speak up, but none? (I may have missed anyone speaking up but we all didn’t, anyone? Buelller?).
IOW are they all so afraid of losing a job that they have all thrown away every single scruple they might have had?
schrodinger's cat
@gene108: I think Upton Sinclair said it the best.
Ruckus
@schrodinger’s cat:
You and Upton made my point in a much shorter fashion.
Thanks.