I'm willing to admit that there are media narratives that get accepted and become their own truth, especially during U.S. presidential campaigns. Matt Taibbi has written about this extensively.
If there is a "Mitt is a loser" narrative in the media lately, then it must be a reaction to the unfulfilled promise of the "Obama is dead meat after the GOP primaries" narrative. The media have reminded us for months that no President has ever been re-elected with unemployment above 7 percent, blah, blah, blah. The media have predicted that no matter how smooth Obama was, he couldn't overcome this bad economy; anybody with a smile and a pulse would cream him.
But when the polls -- cast in stark relief by the aftermath of the GOP's flat convention, and Romney's flip-flops and occasional odd comments -- didn't fulfill the media's prediction, the media turned on Romney (instead of turning on its own narrative). If the former narrative was still true, then the only explanation for Obama's high poll numbers could be be that Romney was an exceptionally pathetic loser. Only this inept fool Romney could miss a one-inch putt to the Presidency, goes the revised media narrative.
I admit that's not exactly true, and unfair. I've been a guilty of repeating this narrative myself. Perhaps the truth is more optimistic: voters are smarter than the media think. Maybe the previous media narrative was all wrong. Perhaps Obama was always the favorite. Maybe voters already realized that Obama inherited a shit sandwich the size of Salt Lake City from Dubya, and had to deal with problems that no other President faced -- such as $15.5 trillion in lost U.S. wealth, 8.8 million lost jobs (more than the previous four recessions combined) and a quarter of all homes underwater on their mortgages, not to mention two expensive wars to clean up. Maybe they realized, correctly, that no POTUS could fix all that in three years. If I realized all that a long time ago, then maybe millions of my fellow Americans did, too? Indeed, a recent poll shows that Americans have about equal confidence in Obama and Romney to handle the economy. So the election won't be referendum on the economy. Romney can't be as good as Obama; he must be much better.
“No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public," goes the infamous cynical quip. Well, I truly doubt Mitt Romney will ever go broke, but it sure looks like he's going to lose this race. And it's not because he's such a pathetic loser. He's not. It's because the American public is that discerning. The Romney campaign has condescended and underestimated them.
By John Cook
October 1, 2012 | Gawker
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