johnnyhongkong says…

The press is in a tizzy over Hillary’s “shocking win” in New Hampshire. Every news story I’ve read today seems to be a riff on one of the following themes:

“Who saw it coming?”
“New Hampshire is independent!”
“She’s the Comeback Gal!”
“It was the tears mobilizing the women in New Hampshire!”
“We are so dumb!”
“The campaign staffs are so dumb!”
“It was the Bradley-Wilder-Ford-Gant-Jackson effect!”

While most journalists only had the fortitude to wrestle with one of these themes but Brian Williams’ is no mortal man. His MSNBC story, “New Hampshire voters defied polls, media” managed to cram all of those themes, and some lyrical prose, into 1500 muscular words.

Seriously…

Can we fucking relax?

Maybe dial down all this CAPSLOCK JOURNALISM?

You know what would have been shocking? Like a real, searing middle finger to the polls and the media?

If John Edwards won. Or Bill Richardson. Or Dennis Kucinich. That would have been shocking and truly exemplary of the independent character of the New Hampshire electorate.

Nothing like that happened.

Was Clinton’s victory in New Hampshire a rebuke of big media who had gleefully signed, sealed and delievered her death warrant? No.

New Hampshire was not even a “market correction”. Obama got a push from Iowa which made the results in New Hampshire much closer than anybody expected. Clinton strategist Mark Penn was both right and wrong when he asked, “Where’s the bounce?” Obama got his bounce, just not as much as the polls indicated.

And yet, there’s part of me that’s still dubious about whether or not all of that was staged. Clinton decides to bag Iowa, the press says she’s finished, Penn says there was no bounce, there was, the “stark reality” of being the third leg in the race makes her cry, she wins New Hampshire by a hair and the press says, “Magical! Heartwarming! What a great story!”

Kind of sounds like Seabiscuit.

Now, back to your regular coverage of the People’s candidate on today’s edition of johnnyhongkong: ELECTION FEVER.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed that my open letter to the fuckers in New Hampshire didn’t reach more people and deliver the 40,000+ votes to swing the election in our favor. I’m terrible Edwards supporter.

I’d also be lying if I said that I’m not disapponted that Clinton didn’t lose big - not because she’s a woman or that she cried - but because it would have continued the chain of events leading us to a two person race. Hell, it didn’t have to be Clinton, she just happened to be saddled with the losing mo’. Obama could have lost big and I would have been cool with that.

But I am heartened by felagund’s diary on DailyKos on why he contuinues to support Edwards rather than going over to Obama:

I don’t want reconciliation, unity and bipartisanship. I want the next President to investigate, indict, prosecute and convict the living shit out of the thieves and murderers that have despoiled our beautiful country over the last seven years and well before. I want a President who’s going to put on some boots and stomp on the throats of the Republicans, tear away the media lies and the layers of obfuscation and show everyone in America just what was done in our name. I don’t want warm and fuzzy: I want thunder and lightning. I want a perp walk every night on the news. [Emp. not mine]

And here’s a video, just for the hell of it, from the ABC/Facebook debates in New Hampshire on Saturday because none of you saw it: