Back Like a Heart Attack
Hillary Rodham Clinton is back.
Back? Was she ever gone? Yes, she took a hit in Iowa, and the internal numbers from both her campaign and Obama’s showed her down by double digits. But a single early state loss and a few days of rough headlines and poll numbers don’t mean that a candidate as established and well-supported as Clinton is down and out. I understand that it’s tempting to over-interpret the signs. But, despite the way it sometimes seems, RCP averages and Drudge sirens are not reality.
The problem is that, as William Goldman said of Hollywood, nobody knows anything. Yet reporters and commentators and spinners have to pretend they do. So they latch onto a narrative of some sort, real or not. And thus: “Hillary is out! Hillary is back!” etc. etc.
And, of course, the media is doing what it does and refusing to learn its lesson. The message from Iowa and New Hampshire is, don’t overestimate the meaning of a single state primary! So what is the media doing? Talking about this “critical blow” to Barack Obama and, wait for it, overestimating the meaning of a single state primary.
Ugh.
— Freddie · Jan 9, 05:17 PM · #