Let me put it out there. All this "gut feelings" "we don't really know what's gonna happen" shit?

[smorkingapple]

Is because Obama is black. And I don't think it has to do with racism in the media(for the most part).

Now let me explain.

Many of the clowns in the media which are peddling this garbage are dinosaurs from another era, when we didn't have 24/7 cable news, the Internet, Twitter, polls out the ass and basically a real time pulse of what the nation was thinking and feeling about the election. This was an era where the Bradley effect could actually have an impact and not be picked up in polling. That whatever latent racism that exists in America still could hide in the shadows and only reveal itself on election night.

Toss in their cognitive dissonance that a black dude named BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA came out of nowhere and in less than 5 years pulled off and is about to pull off the following:

1) Defeated the Clinton machine. Now has them working FOR HIM and is set to make Hillary's election in 2016 a lot smoother than it would have been in 2008. He basically absorbed the worst parts of the post Bush years and greased the skids for her in 2016. This is why Bill is out in full force this year. He wants this for her badly.
2) Decimated a war "hero" with 30 years in the Senate. Landslide.
3) Is about to decimate a "successful businessman" with all the pedigree we've been conditioned to believe a US President should have. The guy is literally a President Ken doll made in a factory: Comes from power, looks the part, Harvard degrees, CEO, ran Olympics, multimillionaire, nice looking family, etc etc etc.
4) And he's about to decimate that Ken doll facing the stiffest headwinds an incumbent has faced in several decades. Struggling economy, nation at war he didn't start, opposition party determined to stifle him at every turn.

Mix in the nerds showing there's a much better way to quantify and predict elections and measure the pulse of a nation compared to the "touchy feely" bullshit these assholes have been getting away with for years on TV and in print.

In other words, the paradigm these guys have been analyzing politics under for decades and the expectations of who SHOULD be President has been blown to bits by a black man and "effeminate" nerds using statistics, Excel and SQL Server in less than 2 election cycles. Their whole world has been shattered completely.

So they want to believe that given the economy, this will be the election that restores sanity to their world. That there's this secret wave of Romney support out there that hasn't shown up in any poll whatsoever. That there's some secret desire to get rid of Obama that just hasn't been captured by the 2900 polls that have come out this cycle but will reveal itself tonight. What could that be that hasn't been captured by the polls? We all know the answer. America will finally recognize Obama as a black man, and vote the old world order back into power.

Anyone thinks they'd feel this way if Obama looked like John Edwards or had his name? Not a chance, you'd see them all calling the election for him and saying it would be shocking if he lost. Why? Because it would fit into their old paradigm very easily of the WASPY stereotype who looks and sounds the part being President.

Sorry for the rant but this has been pissing me off for a while now...

[txdemsftw]

1. Good Post!!

[driver8]

2. Right on!!

Let me be the first to recommend this post!!

[driver8]

3. Ok, let me be the SECOND to recommend this post! n/t

[panAmerican]

4. Yup; it's the same undertones when you hear the words...

"natural constituency" when GOPers are trying to woo Hispanics or other ethnic groups.

[PsychProfessor]

5. I also think is a discomfort with the Frat Boys losing their spot

The idea that the nerds have taken over where the good old boys used to be, predicting election with NUMBERS!! This is just plain wrong. I think that there are a lot of old timers in politics (on both sides, actually) that are feeling sort of displaced by the statistical sophistication of the newer prognosticators. They feel like their "expertise" which was pretty much based on gut feelings is no longer relevant. Which it isn't.

[Faith9326]

6. Nice post!

[GallopingGhost]

7. I know a man who said,

after the 2008 election, that "it would be better if he (President Obama) were descended from slaves."

But he'll look you right in the eye and say it's not a race thing.

[russspeakeasy]

8. Nicely done.

[msrizzo]

9. I think this is part of it....

Perhaps the larger part of it, and it is helped by the fact that Romney is the exact type of white male that always comes out on top so their gut can't quite believe that America would reject him in favor of Obama. McCain wasn't quite that guy.

But I also think it has to do with the fact that they just can't believe (in their greedy guts) that ALL THAT MONEY could have been spent in vain. It just messes up their world view too much to accept that an election couldn't be bought. They are probably expecting some cheating too, and are doing some preemptive cover up. All those things. The media is just one big lost soul these days, with a very few notable exceptions.

[smorkingapple]

10. Good point on the money. Another stereotype they thought would play out. I did too...

[wishlist]

11. they can't believe voter suppression will not be successful either

Seems that only MSNBC has been talking a lot about the Repub Voter ID laws and voter suppression. The other networks have talked a lot more about an enthusiasm gap where Dems aren't enthused like Repubs, which seems to be disproved by early voting returns and recent polling.

Contradictory that much of traditional media denies racism in play but are still saying that although Romney may get 60% of white votes to win he really needs more than that. So it is no wonder he and his surrogates use all the dog whistle politics.

[NCLefty]

12. How is Barrack Hussein Obama more of a funny sounding bunch of syllables than Willard Mitt Romney?

[theKed]

14. It doesn't sound "funny"

It sounds "ethnic".

[theKed]

13. I think it's telling that

Nate Silver, the biggest name this election in statistical forecasting, comes from a background in sabermetrics. That same paradigm shift (albeit with less real-world impact) existed in baseball when the statisticians broke into the game. Entrenched bureaucracy that trafficked in "gut feelings" and "hunches" and "tradition", blown out of the water by mathematics. And just like in baseball, there will be no going back now that the genie is out of the bottle.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

15. Exactly

John Hollinger uses the same system to evaluate NBA players and teams. Is he perfect? No. Does he do a lot better than the gut based NBA analysts? What do you think?