Can someone please explain to me how the Washington Post’s own polling shows Ralph Northam up 13 points (note: I don’t believe Northam’s really up 13 points; Real Clear Politics’ average has Northam up 5.8 points right now), yet a big article about the Virginia governor’s race in today’s paper says that the election is “neck-and-neck?” It’s almost like the Washington Post’s left hand doesn’t know what its right hand is doing. Or maybe, just maybe, the (Com)Post is simply addicted to “close horse race”-style coverage, as they believe – probably correctly, sad to say – that it drives a lot more clicks than, let’s say, an article on the candidates’ policy positions, or on important House of Delegates races or whatever. Is this more the media’s fault, or are they simply giving the people what they want, so to speak? I’d say both, but we can’t ONLY blame the corporate media for our own addiction to “who’s up, who’s down”-style campaign coverage…
P.S. Standard disclaimers and cliches about how we “all need to act like the race it tied,” “leave it all on the field,” “work like we’re behind a point,” “don’t get overconfident,” blah blah blah.
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