Can’t wait to watch election coverage by @WolfBlitzerCNN & “best political team on TV” tomorrow. And make fun of it. And love it. #rightnow
Two weeks and six days ago — i.e., exactly three weeks before tomorrow’s elections — I posted a series of “bold predictions” on Twitter. Mostly, they mocked the myriad, easily predictable ways in which the media and the punditry and the Interwebs always, always get things wrong when it comes to elections. Anyway, I thought I’d re-publish them now, and then we’ll see how many of them come true. FWIW, these all appeared around 11:00 AM Mountain Time on Tuesday, October 12.
Three weeks from this very moment, we’ll be hearing the first meaningless anecdotal reports about turnout. #boldpredictions
Three weeks from this very moment, anecdotes regarding VOTING IRREGULARITIES!!! will be causing #PANIC!!! and #OUTRAGE!!! #boldpredictions
Three weeks + a few hours from now, we’ll see leaked exit polls showing Dems doing better than expected. They’ll be wrong. #boldpredictions
Three weeks from this evening, IN & KY (early poll-closing times) will be the first races called. Pundits will read too much into obvious GOP wins there. #boldpredictions
Three weeks from tonight, we’ll hear many overdetermined explanations of a GOP sweep that can be summed up in 3 words: The. Economy. Sucks. #boldpredictions
Three weeks from tonight, @WolfBlitzerCNN will say “right now” and “CNN projects” and “best political team on television” a lot. #boldpredictions
Three weeks from tonight, someone on MSNBC will say something asinine about how this result proves America is still racist. #boldpredictions
Three weeks from tonight, someone on Fox News will say this proves America is a center-right nation. #boldpredictions
3 weeks + 1 day from now, Dems will be scrambling around in a fit of #PANIC!!!, disarray & recriminations. More than usual. #boldpredictions
3 weeks + 1 day from now, Obama will make obvious conciliatory comments about bipartisan cooperation, media will fawn. #boldpredictions
3 weeks + 1 day from now, all those VOTING IRREGULARITIES!!!! will be forgotten, except in states with a really close result. #boldpredictions
3 weeks + 1 day from now, the prevailing CW will be that OMG OBAMA IS DOOMED!!!! Just like Bill Clinton after the ’94 vote. #boldpredictions
The Colorado Democratic Party just called to ask if I’ve voted, if I plan to vote, and if I know where to vote. No, Yes and Yes. #VoteOrDie
And the GOP wins his seat, 53% to 47%. MT @FO_DougFarrar: My wild guess: Brett Favre retires by the end of the week. This time, for good.
Jonathan Cohn on “Why I’ll Miss Russ Feingold, That Magnificent Pain In The Ass”: http://bit.ly/b7WPN0. I concur.
One of the neat things about deciding last year to name my blog “The Living Room Times,” and link it to my middle- and high-school newspaper of that name from 1993 through 1999, is that it effectively extended the institutional memory of this enterprise back more than an extra decade-and-a-half, allowing me to occasionally draw from some really old archives. I haven’t done that as often as I’d like, but current events present a good opportunity. As such, here’s the November 10, 1994 issue of The Living Room Times — I was in eighth grade, people, so be gentle — covering that year’s Republican midterm landslide:
The coverage is mostly AP copy (see the later quote from AP spokeswoman Tori Smith about that), but here’s my article on reaction at Martin Kellogg Middle School:
#demPANIC #REDALERT #HEADFORTHEHILLS RT @ewerickson: http://is.gd/gA2ul “Democrats currently have 93 seats listed as Lean or Toss Up.”
RT @breakingweather: Election Day Weather Outlook for the Nation: http://bit.ly/90I19w
RT @dmataconis: One Polling Chart To Rule Them All http://bit.ly/9Ukuqu