Pointless Speculation. The news and newstalk shows on TV and radio are filled with pointless chatter today about the Pennsylvania primary tomorrow. At 9pm, MSNBC's Verdict with Dan Abrams began above an announcement that Pennsylvania's polls open in 10 hours. But despite the imminence of the actual vote, Abrams and company had to flap their lips about something that might not happen, the failure of Barack Obama to "close the deal" with voters in big states with lots of electoral votes. Nothing these self-important pundits say today on that topic could not wait until Obama had actually been defeated, whereas if he is NOT defeated, but wins outrite or comes so close that he might just as well have won, all commentary about the implications of Obama's failure would be rendered irrelevant.
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What exactly is the point of speculating about something that hasn't happened, so you have no hard data whatsoever to talk about, when whatever is going to happen will happen tomorrow, such that if you merely wait one day you will have all the data in the world?
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I know that commentators love to prove that they are so smart that they know what will and will not happen. Oooooh, I can see into the FUTURE! Wooooooh, scary! Except that they are all pretty much saying the same thing, that public-opinion polls indicate that Billary will win in Pennsylvania. If some were to put themselves out on a limb and say, "The polls are all wrong. Barack is going to win, and win big", that would be a statement worth fixing your reputation on. But when all that all of these people are saying is that Obama can't seem to win the big states, the analysis as to WHY he can't do so will be stronger AFTER the Pennsylvania primary than before.
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Let's be clear: What might happen is not news, because it might NOT happen. News is what has actually happened.
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You can't wait one day? What is wrong with you people? Shut the f*k up and wait one f*g day! (Oops. That should be "Shut the fasterisk up and wait one fasterisking day!")
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 9:43 PM