An Inconvenient Resurrection
A story:
Stalin was dead. He lay on a table, face ashen, eyes closed. The Kremlin inner circle was summoned and surrounded his body. At first, there was silence. Then, one after another, his top people began saying things impossible to imagine being expressed during his life. "He was a tyrant." "He betrayed the Soviet people." "A terrible time has finally ended." There were some demurrals: "He was a great man." "I loved him." "No one can fill his shoes." Then, again, silence.
And then Stalin opened his eyes. He had faked his own death in order to test the loyalty of his lieutenants.
I don't know if this story is true or apocryphal, but I'm pretty sure I read it, something like 35 years ago, in a book by Harrison Salisbury, the New York Times' longtime correspondent in Moscow.
No matter what you think about Hillary Clinton, no matter how this campaign turns out, there is undeniable satisfaction in watching the pundit class being forced to eat the words of its premature obituaries. The strategists who were called morons are suddenly geniuses again. The candidate and her husband, who were the subject of such undisguised journalistic venom just 24 hours ago, are suddenly worthy of awe again. The donors who dissed her are wondering whether they can retract with impunity. The White House staffers-in-waiting who danced on her grave are hoping they said nothing incriminating on the record.
In the Stalin story, the Kremlin firing squad was busy all night long.
In the Clinton story, if there were any justice, a number of chattering-class reputations would now be irrecuperable.
But even in an age of Google and YouTube, don't count on it. Some of the very media wizards who declared Hillary dumb and dead are already chiding savants, pundits and gurus for getting it so wrong -- as though they themselves were not the subjects and objects of their own amnesiac scorn.
To switch the metaphor, I wonder whether this humiliating turnabout, played out in real time over a very short period right in front of the American people, could be the MSM's Katrina. Political media, you've done a heckuva job.
Follow Marty Kaplan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/martykaplan
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hilary is nothing more than a lieberman double and that is where the whining victim act came from. the crocodile tears were part of the act. lieberman is israels ringer and he and hilary will false flag for israel to bomb iran. the false flags already started, the fake iranian boat incident. sick of her and her hawkish ways and attack mode.
Most all of New Hampshire voters are independents and the primary is a great game for them, many, many more would have voted for Barack Obama were it for not assuming he would win, so threw it to McCain hoping to an end to the man with magic underwear
Brilliant. Im a big Obama fan and I have serious issues with Hillary's candidacy for President. Im from New York and I voted for her last year to for her seat in the Senate. I just dont want her to run for President. She's got too many negatives and she it could hurt down ticket candidates for Congress
i think it was a good thing that Obama at least covered what he was supposed to cover according to the polls. and i agree that hillary bashing got women go to the polls....they watch tv too you know.
Marty -- on the off-chance that you skim the comments, I want to thank you for writing an artile that expressed disdain for the "polling classes" without (unlike your blog-host) also expressing an opinion about the result itself.
From your previous articles, I presume that you are not personally happy about Clinton hanging in, but you managed to describe the failure of the projectocracy without allowing your feeling to intrude.
I think they used to call that "journalism".
Cheers.
the venom not to mention undisguised contempt coming from Chris Matthews and Tim Russert was pretty revolting(their hatred of the Clintons is legend)but their attitude toward the end "She only won because The Women voted for her" made me sick.
Keith Olbermann however seemed mildly amused watching the monkeys chatter all night only to be proven wrong.His remark "We still haven't called it" seemed like a subtle shot at his co-hosts(who by the way are just barely hanging onto his coat tails).
The thing that is most ridiculous about this is that we're talking about what? Three points? Two points one way, two points another and everything is different?
God help us if we have another close election. I would love to see each network drop one person each from its staff everytime their predictions are proven wrong. Since when did politics become Pardon The Interuption?
It always seems to work for Hillary, "people are picking on me." Remember the Vast Right Wing conspiracy that made up the whole Monica thing? She makes a lot of enemies and then claims that people are persecuting her. She's now in her ultimate role as victim, and it just may get her to the White House.
It was very amusing last night to see Russert and Matthews without their prepared scripts. All they could say was that the last county to vote would be Dartmouth, and maybe Hillary would lose that. Sheer stupidity. These guys are real journalists like Dr. McDreamy is a real Physician. The polls are merely MSM's bandwagon tactics used to shape the vote, like early results that are broadcast before the polls close. The only poll that counts is the election. MSM were sure, like a gambler is sure that he won't roll snake eyes. I hope that people will lie to the pollsters in the future. It is really fun to watch.
I think it's odd that so many people did a last minute shift and more ballots had to be ordered. Where's Jesse Jackson when you need him? I felt a little sorry for Hillary too, but my bigger concern is bringing the country out of the dark, dividing age of Bush/Clinton/Bush/etc. and electing an honest leader.
Will the media admit their error? Did the media admit they were wrong when they said, rightly, that 2001 was the beginning of the 21st century when they had already said in the previous year, wrongly, that 2000 was? The media only admits to little errors, never to big ones.
Re. what some here are saying about the Republicans "swiftboating" etc. Hilary, do you really think they can come up with anything the Clinton forces don't already know and are prepared for?
Why is everyone so shocked that the MSM "got it wrong". What has changed since 2000 when they reported that Gore won Florida?
MSM polls are landlines phone polls. Do YOU even answer your phone? Or like so many people, do you wait for the answering machine? Do you even own a land line, many people's only phone is a mobile phone, which the pollers cannot call legally. How many of you would agree to spend your time on the poll? What question did they ask: Who would you vote for if the election was held today? Who will you vote for in the primary? Who would you like to see as president? Who is most likely to win? When in the day to they call? What days do they call? What about unlisted numbers? Do they publish every study or just keep taking polls till they get the result they want?
Great link on problems with modern phone polling.
http://www.pollster.com/blogs/cell_phones_and_political_surv.php
With infinite money and power at stake, With the entire rethugs party willing to steal, kill and torture to get what they want, back room poll fixing payola would be Sunday school.
The big problem with polls is they are being used improperly to shut out MSM unpopular candidate, like Kucinich and ron Paul.
It is just insane the Iowa and NH basically get to choose the front runners.
Why do we let .2% of our population choose our president????!
Please Voters:
Vote for YOUR candidate in the PRIMARY.
You don't know, nobody knows who is "electable".
And the more votes Kucinich gets, the more the front runners will adopt his platform.
Amen...to so much of this article.
Please whatever you all do, DON"T elect another president who talks to God. That's it.
Mrs Clinton is a wonderful human being and has proven that over and over the control she showed when she was in the white house would prove that she can handle anything with class & smarts.
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