New Hampshire 2008: Coverage write-ups…
The Politico’s Michael Calderone writes about some of last night’s coverage…
Either way you sliced it, the media said, this was not Bill Clinton in 1992: Hillary was no comeback kid.
However, the word “comeback” seemed to be on everyone’s lips Tuesday night, perhaps used more times than candidates uttered “change” in last weekend’s debates.
The word was first bestowed upon McCain, and a few hours later, to Clinton.
Brit Hume said New Hampshire made McCain the “comeback kid tonight for sure” when Fox News first called the election for him, at 8:10 pm.
But one of the oddest moments of the night came during a panel on MSNBC, after McCain’s victory speech, in which the Arizona senator rambled on a bit, looking down at the podium as he read.
First MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough mocked McCain, followed by the rest of his panel.
As does The Boston Globe’s Joanna Weiss…
When the early returns came in, and Clinton was up by a few percentage points, the networks and cable news anchors said it was too early to even suggest she might win. Then, as she sustained her lead, there were acknowledgments of confusion: “The statistical models are not yielding a clear winner,” muttered Michael Barone of Fox News.
Soon, though, as Clinton’s victory became clear, the anchors and political analysts scrambled for explanations.
Barone said Clinton surpassed expectations in “downscale areas,” while CNN political reporter Gloria Borger noted that results still weren’t in from college towns, strongholds for Obama. And finally, experts projected defeat for Obama - and defeat for expert predictions.
Update: The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz…
And then, at 10:31, MSNBC projected Hillary as the winner. CNN and Fox followed suit 15 minutes later, and the scrambling began. Spin was modified, explanations revised.
“One of the greatest political upsets in American political history,” Russert said.
“Bill Clinton helped her in the end,” Fox’s Bill Kristol said.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper questioned whether people lied to pollsters about supporting an African American candidate. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough raised the same issue. Washington Post columnist Gene Robinson said he didn’t think it was a major factor.
But a lot of people made up their minds in the last 24 hours–too late to be caught by the almighty polls.
Now to the coverage.
Tim Russert saying that Clinton’s win was “One of the greatest political upsets in American political history” is beyond stupid and shows how they desperately tried to keep their predictions valid.
Clinton was leading by a significant margin in the polls in New Hampshire for months…she was leading in New Hampshire during the Iowa caucus and the day after that.
John Edwards winning would have been “one of the greatest political upsets.” This was punditry and polling gone awry, pure and simple.
I think we’ll be seeing a lot of disclaimers in the immediate future when they start to look at the polls for Michigan, Nevada and so on.
Comment by FishOil — January 9, 2008 @ 11:04 am
“One of the greatest political upsets in American political history”
Uh right…for her to have to fight so hard and trick women voters with her tears to win a primary she was supposed to walk away with is no great upset it’s pretty sad.
As for the MSNBC crew treated Mccain..well thats no surprise,,MSNBC will trash who ever is the Republican top runner to help the Dems.
Comment by mlong — January 9, 2008 @ 12:09 pm
I was glad to see Hillary win just to prove the media wrong! They couldn’t help themselves this weekend, just mesmerized w/Obama and the big “Obama wave” sweeping the country. He’s JFK; he’s RFK! They’ve never seen anything like him.
Sadly, they forgot to mention even one position he takes, just that he’s running on “change”. They all are!
Comment by Missy — January 9, 2008 @ 2:20 pm