Yes Jim, "we know". However, I'm not sold on the 93% of us "know". Not just yet. "We know" because "we" are politically active & "we" make serious use of the internet to stay on top of what is really going on. Most Americans do not. Many of them may have a clue but they are still at the mercy of the media arm of the DNC (the MSM) for most of their "newz".
Diminishing returns when it comes to media hype?
TKS
Jim Geraghty Reporting
10/23
So, after traveling and going from not-really-red Northern Virginia to really-red southern South Carolina, I took a glance at the latest cover of Newsweek and see Harold Ford Jr., looking cool and casual - the kind of trust-me pose the media usually reserves for Barack Obama. The headline: "Not Your Daddy's Democrats." I think they're attempting at irony, because if Harold Ford Jr.'s name were John Doe, he would probably be a paralegal somewhere.
It's also ironic that he scores the cover of Newsweek days after the crashing-Corker's-event gaffe on Friday. Honestly, I think Ford might end up being one of the Democrats who underperforms this Election Day.
Conservatives used to grumble about puff pieces like the one in Newsweek, the magazine covers that show a Democratic in heroic light, while the Republicans are frowning, folding their arms, and generally repulsive and hostile. But I wonder if the power of Newsweek or any other newsweekly to influence an election is waning.
I'm coming around to the Rove theory that the electorate is about 93 percent decided one way or the other; in any given year, only about seven percent are true swing voters. Thus, a liberal reads a glowing profile of Harold Ford Jr. and loves him; a conservative reads it and rolls his eyes; and I'm not sure how many in that seven percent in the middle read profiles of political candidates in Newsweek.
I'm sure there are conservatives who read Newsweek, and probably even some who enjoy it, but I wonder how many actually look to it as an impartial source of news. The flag in the trash can after the 2004 elections in the international edition, the glowing cover profile of Barack Obama in the year-end 2004 issue, the flushed Koran story... We know where they're coming from. We know how they are always looking for the next Democratic Golden Boy.
So despite Newsweek's effort to make Harold Ford Jr. look like the star of this election season, I think glowing profiles - and on the other side, hit pieces - have lost their ability to sway voters. Maybe they influence local coverage, but I doubt it. Reporters on the local beat most likely have a much closer relationship, and thus a much more well-grounded impression of the candidates than a Washington-based one who parachutes in. (I know, I know, this comment comes from the master of parachuting-in-for-a-few-days-to-cover-a-story.)
By the way, late last week I was hearing from folks in casual, not-really-on-the-record environments that Barack Obama was seriously thinking about running for president. I didn't want to post it, don't like quoting folks who are just chatting and hanging out, but now I see Obama pretty much confirmed it on Meet the Press.
Some very smart folks think he's got no shot; I myself would be worried about him if I were A) Hillary Clinton or B) a Republican nominee for President.
tks.nationalreview.com
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