Today, I’m going to read the front page of The National Review. I try to do this fairly regularly because A) it’s nice to see what the other side thinks, just as an occasional reality check, and B) it’s nice to see what the other side thinks is the Most Important Thing in the World, which you have totally failed to notice because you don’t live in crazytown.
Category A helps to remind me that I live in an information bubble, and I’m just as subject to motivated reasoning as anyone else. While I obviously don’t agree with much they have to say there, I find the National Review to represent genuine conservative/Republican talking points without making my blood boil too much.
That said, there’s enough there to fill up category B. That’s the one that helps to remind me why I’m on the team I’m on.
And, I have to admit, today there is a third motivating factor: C) as the election gets closer and all the numbers seem to point to a solid but small Obama lead, I grow nervouser and nervouser. So I wanted to check in to see how the other side is taking the news that they are trailing – mostly to confirm for myself that as nervous as I feel, at least my guy is ahead. It’s not quite schadenfreude, but it’s not not that, either.
So let’s see what we have (with my quick categorization of the story):
1) A post making fun of Oliver Stone’s comment about the hurricane (C)
2) An apology for Christie appearing with (and lauding) the president (C, because of the tone, which communicates that it was perfectly reasonable for Christine to make this decision. But also A because it’s a pretty reasonable argument)
3) A Fox News report about Benghazi (B)
4) Romney super PAC is running some ads in states he’s definitely going to lose (C)
5) Report about the OH Senate race, with some serious motivated reasoning about how Brown is going to lose (C)
6) Same as #5. This one references Mandel’s ‘momentum’ – and links to the RCP polling average which puts Brown up by 5.5%. So, yeah, not close. (C)
7) More on Benghazi (B)
8) Something about a weirdo who is running for Michigan’s 11th District (A, I guess)
9) Something making fun of Planned Parenthood for releasing a music video (B, because the implication is basically: lolz, birth control)
10) Poll in Ohio says Obama is ahead (not news)
11) Post explaining that, unlike a bunch of other ridiculous firestorms cultivated by the conservative media, this Benghazi thing REALLY IS A BIG DEAL. (B and C)
12) Missouri Senate race tightens. See #5-6 above. This piece cites the poll which is most favorable to Akin, implies that this indicates movement, etc. McCaskill is up by 5%. (C)
13) Neutral article about Christie (A)
14) reference to a Gallup poll which suggests that Romney is ahead in early voting. This is actually interesting. I was assuming that Obama was ahead there, but this shows it’s probably closer to a draw. It comes with the normal caveat that Gallup’s numbers are pretty divergent from everyone else. And it also appears from looking at the numbers that the sample tilts pretty heavily Republican. But I’m not great at reading polls, so I might be missing something. Regardless, interesting. (Good example of A, since I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere in my normal circle)
15) Obama and Romney are tied – link to poll which says they’re tied (meh)
16) Dig at Biden for a totally milquetoast comment (B, I guess, but also meh)
17) Wildly misleading statement about a Virginia House race, that relies on people not actually watching the video (B)
So what is the result of my little unscientific bit of media analysis:
Things don’t look good from their perspective, I can tell you that. Most of the things I categorized as C look like desperate attempts to put Humpty-Dumpty back together. When the best you can do to persuade people that you’re in good shape is to reference Senate campaigns where you trail by 5 points with 5 days to go…
Things I expected to see, but did not: defenses of Romney’s ads about the auto companies and China, reference to any poll that shows Romney leading anything, someone really angry at the idea that we shouldn’t be allowed to ‘politicize’ Sandy (which I would actually agree with BTW – it’s a political matter). Which is to say: it’s pretty low-key over there right now.
They’re still beating that Benghazi drum, though. So that’s something.