That’s a Wrap, Folks. The Nomination Fight is Over
That’s a Wrap, Folks. The Nomination Fight is Over:
In the 1995 movie Apollo 13, we see where America had lost interest in the lunar flights. Where on previous flights, the public hung on every transmission from the spacecraft, the country had pretty much tuned this “routine flight” out. Instead of covering its public transmissions, the networks ran “I Dream of Jeannie” and other such fare. No one was paying much attention until the accident put the mission into mortal peril.
The same sort of thing seems to be happening to the 2012 GOP Presidential Nomination race. Howard Kurtz writes:
However, people are getting bored. Mitt Romney is way out in front. The month of April is coming up with its heavy loaded schedule of pro-Romney contests. His rivals are far back in the pack. April will only make it worse. Meanwhile polls such as yesterday’s Gallup poll showing Romney pushing into the 40′s, and Rasmussen showing Mitt comfortably in the lead in Wisconsin reinforce the meme that Mitt is going to win this thing. It’s just a matter of time. So the public is starting to tune the race out.
This, of course, hurts the also-rans the most. If nobody thinks you can win, your fundraising dries up. Sure you will get the diehards who are hoping for a brokered convention, but any realistic thinking you can win the thing is gone. People do not like to throw good money after bad, especially in a down economy. Your campaign then dies for lack of funds. The idea that the leader is inevitable becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The not-Romney’s tried their hardest to make “Etch-a-sketch” a gamechanger. Well, the polls show the public has by-and-large met it with a big yawn. Mitt scored his highest placement ever in the Gallup polls two days after the gaffe. It is apparent that if you want to derail the Romney express at this point, you are going to need something far more earth-shattering than a campaign aide talking about the common election strategy of shifting your campaign’s focus between the primary and the general election.
Perhaps if Romney were to suggest that you might as well vote for Obama if one of his rivals gets the nomination…
In the 1995 movie Apollo 13, we see where America had lost interest in the lunar flights. Where on previous flights, the public hung on every transmission from the spacecraft, the country had pretty much tuned this “routine flight” out. Instead of covering its public transmissions, the networks ran “I Dream of Jeannie” and other such fare. No one was paying much attention until the accident put the mission into mortal peril.
The same sort of thing seems to be happening to the 2012 GOP Presidential Nomination race. Howard Kurtz writes:
When Mitt Romney was winning the Illinois primary on Tuesday night, Bill O’Reilly moved from a short discussion of the contest to segments on whether Barack Obama is pushing the country toward socialism and whether he’s been tough enough on Iran. Sean Hannity led off his show with another debate on whether Bill Maher is a bad guy.Do I personally think the race is over? No. We still have a long way to go. As the old saying goes, “There be many a slip twixt the cup and lip”. I am a firm believer of, “It ain’t over ’til it’s over”.
It wasn’t just Fox. On MSNBC, Ed Schultz devoted half his program to the killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin.
The next morning, the campaign wasn’t among the top three stories billboarded by the Today show, which included: “What is it about this two-year-old that has more than three million people logging on to YouTube to watch her?”
Nor did the 2012 election make the top three at Good Morning America, which trumpeted this story: “Bikini model busted. The international swimsuit star back behind bars right now.” (CBS This Morning, to its credit, did lead with the primary.)
None of this is coincidental. At the cable news networks, including CNN, the only one to provide continuous primary coverage on Tuesday, the word is out that the presidential campaign is sending the ratings south.
…
However, people are getting bored. Mitt Romney is way out in front. The month of April is coming up with its heavy loaded schedule of pro-Romney contests. His rivals are far back in the pack. April will only make it worse. Meanwhile polls such as yesterday’s Gallup poll showing Romney pushing into the 40′s, and Rasmussen showing Mitt comfortably in the lead in Wisconsin reinforce the meme that Mitt is going to win this thing. It’s just a matter of time. So the public is starting to tune the race out.
This, of course, hurts the also-rans the most. If nobody thinks you can win, your fundraising dries up. Sure you will get the diehards who are hoping for a brokered convention, but any realistic thinking you can win the thing is gone. People do not like to throw good money after bad, especially in a down economy. Your campaign then dies for lack of funds. The idea that the leader is inevitable becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The not-Romney’s tried their hardest to make “Etch-a-sketch” a gamechanger. Well, the polls show the public has by-and-large met it with a big yawn. Mitt scored his highest placement ever in the Gallup polls two days after the gaffe. It is apparent that if you want to derail the Romney express at this point, you are going to need something far more earth-shattering than a campaign aide talking about the common election strategy of shifting your campaign’s focus between the primary and the general election.
Perhaps if Romney were to suggest that you might as well vote for Obama if one of his rivals gets the nomination…
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