Not the Behavior of a Winning Campaign

Posted by Erick Erickson (Diary)
Friday, August 24th at 4:46AM EDT

(Red State) - The media keeps showing its rear end. Let me just make that clear. If you are a competent reporter, I’m not sure how you cannot be embarrassed by the majority of those in your profession right now covering politics.

From Mark Halperin, to Jake Tapper, to Chuck Todd, more journalists are actually now admitting just how pliable the media is when it comes to Barack Obama’s spin. All week long, as the economy deteriorates, most every anchor at most every news outlet, most every editorialist in most every paper, and most every “centrist” and liberal pundit has been pointing out the GOP’s extremist abortion position.

Few, if any, have pointed out that Barack Obama’s abortion on demand position is extreme. Few, if any, have pointed out how most Americans favor restrictions on abortion. Few, if any, have pointed out that Mitt Romney’s position is actually more mainstream than Barack Obama’s. Few, if any, have wanted to go beyond Politifact’s ham-handed cover for Obama on infanticide and get into what Barack Obama actually said in 2002. Hear him come out for infanticide yourself right here. Remember, the media is hiding behind the left-leaning Politifact (and yes, it does lean left) to avoid having to deal with this.

They cannot help themselves. But why are they doing it?

They are doing it for the exact same reason Joe Biden is claiming the GOP will put black people back in chains and why Barack Obama would rather talk about uteri than jobs — they all know Barack Obama is losing this thing.

Hysteria creeps into campaigns when the campaigns know they are losing. When George H. W. Bush saw the election slipping away in 1992, he took to referring to Bill Clinton and Al Gore as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. The invective went up as his poll numbers went down.

Barack Obama and the Democrats are going to throw in the towel on the tradition of sitting on the sidelines during their opponent’s political convention. In the past, the parties did this with each other. Not now. The Obama campaign cannot afford to. It is too close and polling is about to shift from registered voters to likely voters, which will generate negative numbers for him. He must surrender another tradition to engage in more hyper partisan mudslinging because he is losing.

More and more polls are showing Mitt Romney trending upwards in swing states. More and more polls are showing Americans growing more pessimistic about the economy. More and more economists are starting to worry about the economy. Gas prices and milk prices are going up while take home pay is going down.

The hysterics we are seeing from the Democrats come as reality hits everyone. Even I have been convinced that Romney was going to blow this thing. The stupid statement about the Soptics not having the fate they had if they were in Massachusetts could have been game over.

But then Paul Ryan became the veep pick. He has now given Romney purpose. He has defined the campaign. He has put Barack Obama on defense. Consider this — the sage voices of the GOP were convinced the GOP could not win the fight on budgetary and entitlement reform. They were convinced Paul Ryan would sink the ticket.

Then the Democrats tried to define Paul Ryan and failed. They have been failing ever since. Their attempts to define Mitt Romney didn’t do enough and they have yet to settle on a narrative to define Paul Ryan. They are grasping at straws. Now they’d even fight the Associated Press style book to try to go after Paul Ryan.

And that gets us back to the media. At what point will they finally start asking if Barack Obama needs a campaign shake up? Because if it was Mitt Romney in the same boat, they sure as hell would. In fact, there have already been two different media cycles about Romney needing a campaign shake up and not one about Barack Obama.

Why? The simple truth remains the vast majority of the media is more sympathetic to and friendly with Team Obama and would hate to ruffle the feathers of friends. It’s one of the greatest thing Mitt Romney has going for him right now.