The Best Thing About Christmas

Is it just me, or has the holiday week and the attendant decompressing of the media pressure-cooker had the result in decreasing the level of fevered campaign speculation even as Iowa Draws Near? I'm not sure I fully appreciated exactly how sick I was of the primary season until I had the opportunity to take a brief time out from primary related arguments -- it's like the lifting of an enormous annoying burden. But the reprieve's over, I suppose, as there's now just one week left before the votes are cast and the press chooses an arbitrary post-Iowa narrative on which to seize (my guess is that however many votes/delegates/whatever John McCain gets will be deemed above expectations, thus feeding the looming surge in New Hampshire).

Comments

my guess is that however many votes/delegates/whatever John McCain gets will be deemed above expectations

Why is the "better than expectations" invariably deemed as a sign of success for the candidate rather than an indicator of the general suckiness of the prognosticators?

Imagine if weather forecasters predicted hail, sleet, snow and 10 degree weather, and instead it turned out merely to hail and sleet (no snow) and be 25 degrees. Would we say "hey, what a beautiful day" or "weather forecasters have their heads logged"?

Posted by Gene | December 27, 2007 1:58 PM

Lol -- presumably because the prognosticators are the ones making the storyline. "Hey, we suck" is not going to strike them as an appealing post-Iowa narrative. In fairness to the political journos, you do see kinda the same thing on Wall Street; businesses also care a lot about exceeding expectations.

Posted by Shoshana | December 27, 2007 2:28 PM

All I can say is I'm glad I'm not a Republican. Promoting McCain as a firewall to Huck would be like supporting Liebermann as a way to block a Kucinich surge.

Posted by lampwick | December 27, 2007 2:41 PM

"I'm not sure I fully appreciated exactly how sick I was of the primary season until I had the opportunity to take a brief time out from primary related arguments -- it's like the lifting of an enormous annoying burden."

As always, if you were wholeheartedly behind the lefty candidate in the race, instead of being behind the candidate arguing against universal healthcare, you might find the primary race actually pretty fun, instead of being a burden.

Your lack of joy in this festive season is evidence of your faulty weltanschauung of the primary race.

Posted by Petey | December 27, 2007 5:07 PM