September 23, 2004

Debate Countdown

One week till the first debate! Can you feel the excitement? Kerry's voice is gone, which is a little troubling. Rest up big guy. Good news is that when he can talk he is hammering Bush really hard on Iraq. TNR has a good post about how this changes the coverage of the race. By the rules of current jouralism, reporters can't just say "Bush lied about the state of Iraq today" even if he does. That would be 'bias.' But they can write "Kerry says Bush lies about state of Iraq." This is balance. The thing about reporters is that they hate to cover issues. They don't want to write about what Bush and Kerry are talking about. The need to event drama with the horserace. So we go from "Kerry's race to lose" to "Kerry is doomed." Prepare yourself for a "Kerry comeback" and "Race still tight" to be the next storyline. All based on little swings in the polls.

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