Worst 2012 Predictions…
Salon’s Jim Newell writes about the worst predictions of Campaign 2012. Why is this being linked here? Go down the list. Just about every one of them ate up considerable airtime on cable news. If the predictions proved woefully off the mark, what’s that say about cable news?
The dirty little secret about political punditry, that is not actually a secret to anyone who watches and reads it, is that it’s all lies. It requires very little knowledge or skill, and there are no consequences for being wrong. For a major newspaper to fire one of its columnists for getting something wrong would bring down the whole pundit industry, as that logic would necessitate the firing of them all. Every election pundit is wrong about everything, nearly all the time, and there’s usually a direct correlation between a pundit’s frequency of wrongness and his or her status — see the Washington Post’s stable of columnists for a prime example. The entire punditocracy is a sham, but thank you for reading anyway.
April 24, 2012 at 12:22 pm
It’s like color commentary in sports, but the resume requirements aren’t as stringent.
April 24, 2012 at 1:21 pm
I disagree that a Bachmann nomination was out of the question. She was an appealing candidate for quite a while before the realization she could actually win snapped her cookies.
April 24, 2012 at 2:22 pm
I’ve heard people say that Dick Morris is NEVER right. But look at the weather forecasters we have, both locally and throughout the country. How many times have we hunkered down for a snowstorm, tornado or hurricane only to see just a little windstorm occur, if that?
Bottom line, only God knows the future.
April 24, 2012 at 2:33 pm
Three words you’ll never hear out of a pundit’s mouth: “I don’t know.”
April 24, 2012 at 2:36 pm
“I disagree that a Bachmann nomination was out of the question.”
HAR!
April 24, 2012 at 2:43 pm
I’m still marveling over Joe’s remark that MB “snapped her cookies”.
April 24, 2012 at 2:47 pm
That’s either a mixed metaphor or an Oakland thing.
April 24, 2012 at 2:58 pm
“Snapped her cookies”, “coocoo for Cocoa Puffs”, “el bonkerino”, take your pick. If you got some other meaning from my comment, you’re on your own.
April 24, 2012 at 3:01 pm
Ginger snapped. Simple.
April 24, 2012 at 3:05 pm
Karl Rove says, “I don’t know” surprisingly often.
April 24, 2012 at 3:07 pm
Tom Bodett: “Tuned out of politics this past week to prune and mulch the fruit trees. The similarities are striking.”
April 24, 2012 at 3:49 pm
I’ve got caterpillar like things eating my apple tree leaves. They are carrying little signs reading “Occupy Apples!”.
April 24, 2012 at 4:42 pm
Bottom line, only God knows the future.
Which makes Dick Morris all the more irrelevent. He’s to FNC what Donnie Deutsch is to NBC/MSNBC.
April 24, 2012 at 5:09 pm
Morris could be very good if he could stick to analysis. He’s smart and knows the inside baseball stuff.
April 24, 2012 at 5:12 pm
Tom Bodett: “We’ll leave the light on for ya”
April 24, 2012 at 5:57 pm
Morris … smart and knows the inside baseball stuff.
His proven expertise is in political strategy. I’m sure he’s a good one to hire if you need that sort of thing. But the FNC hosts seldom ask him about the political punches and counter punches and, instead, want him to predict what’s going to happen. For that, he’s worthless.
April 24, 2012 at 6:21 pm
Morris sole criteria for predictions is whom he wants to stick with a dagger.
April 24, 2012 at 6:26 pm
^ That’s such a hateful thing to say about Morris, true as it may be.
April 24, 2012 at 7:21 pm
At least Donny is remotely likable compared to that gross pile of flesh we otherwise call Morris.
Anyhow, what if the problem is more that the pundit class is getting far too much more television these days than in the past, assisting in them having to even more constantly get out there to say things, thus saying more stuff from nowhere and getting more and more wrong. After your previous mention about how cable has changed, it is kind of surprising to really watch stuff now and realize just how swamped we are in analysis of analysis by analysts who analyze the analysis of the other analysts while analyzing their own analysis, as if anyone actually could get anything right after getting that deep.
April 24, 2012 at 7:36 pm
^ I would agree with him if I wasn’t so damn confused.
April 24, 2012 at 7:39 pm
Most of these pundits are people who once held prominent positions in previous persidential campaigns. Half of them were for losing presidential campaigns.
April 24, 2012 at 7:41 pm
Beckel served with Carter and led Morris to an historic loss. Is this a great country or what?
April 24, 2012 at 7:42 pm
April 25, 2012 at 5:32 am
^Get it right s***head, for F***’s sake! — Beckel’d