Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Mea Culpa and the Comeback Kids

I promise you I am not going to turn political, but as I make observations on the news, politics has to creep in once in a while, especially during an election year. Here are a handful of observations from the New Hampshire primaries:

1. Despite all the polls, the pundits, the media, the commentators, it's the American public that gets to elect a president.

2. Both John McCain and Hillary Clinton referred to their "comeback." Is the election already decided? I thought we were at the beginning of the race, not in the sprint to the finish line.

3. I appreciated Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News owning up to making wrong predictions. Here's what he said on his blog.

We in the media will beat ourselves (and deservedly so) for reaching conclusions before the voters have spoken. A further prediction? Give us a few weeks — we will promptly forget the lessons of this debacle in polling, predictions and primary politics. We will all live to screw up another day, though our performance in New Hampshire will be hard to beat.

4. I think we're all apt to forget lessons we should have learned long ago. I know I am. Still, I look forward to seeing if the major news outlets can stand to bite their tongues for at least the Michigan primary.

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