Why do Americans continually listen to these self-anointed electoral pundits in the media (who speak in the name of “everyone” ) when they have such a miserable track record on predicting the campaign viability of presidential candidates.
Look up the historical factual data for yourself on these past races.
In 1972 “everyone” early on predicted Edmund Muskie was the cinch Democratic candidate until the melting snow on his face incident outside the NH Union Leader building in a snow storm where “everyone” reported he was crying; Later the Watergate break-in caused the most serious electoral scandal and disruption of politics in American history. Yet Nixon went on to defeat George McGovern in the most decisive victory carrying 49-1 states.
In 1976, dark horse Georgia governor and Trilateral Commission candidate Jimmy Carter astounded the pundits with his acceleration in the primaries due to massive coverage from the establishment media (while those in the know knew that the “fix” had been on from the beginning for Jimmy);
In 1980, “everyone” early on predicted GOP candidate John Connolly and Democrat Ted Kennedy were the sure things;
In 1984 Democratic candidate Gary “Where’s the Beef?” Hart was the sure thing;
In 1988 Democrat Gary Hart was again the sure thing until that “Monkey Business;”
In 1992 “everyone” was eyeing Democrat Jerry Brown;
In 1996 lackluster GOP Bob Dole challenged incumbent Democrat Bill Clinton (the “fix” was on for Dole to take a fall) and take down the 1994 congressional insurgents elected by promoting the Contract on America opposed by the GOP party elite;
In 2000 “everyone” was touting GOP maverick John McCain;
For most of 2003, insurgent antiwar Democrat Howard Dean had been the apparent front-runner for the 2004 nomination, performing strongly in most polls and leading the pack in fund-raising. Then over a span of a few days his candidacy was destroyed by the most intense mainstream media barrage in history, constantly re-airing the “Dean Scream” leaving John Kerry as the establishment’s anointed;
In 2008, “everyone” early on asserted Rudy Giuliani was the sure thing for the GOP, while Democrat front runner Hillary Clinton was upended by the unknown dark-horse Barack Obama.
In 2012, Ron Paul, the GOP candidate with the largest grass-roots base of enthusiastic supporters and the most phenomenal online campaign funding abilities in history in raising millions in his celebrated “money bombs,” was sabotaged in state after state and destroyed by the GOP elite who hated, feared, and loathed his insurgent candidacy, placing the lackluster corporatist Mitt Romney as the nominee.
In 2016 “everyone” got the Trump insurgent candidacy wrong from almost the get-go.
In 2020 after years of relentless and entirely baseless Russiangate collusion charges and allegations Donald Trump had the presidential election stolen from him by a feckless feeble degenerate who cowered and hid in his basement yet received the largest purported vote totals in American history.
To those know-it-all pundits who say Trump and the GOP are finished and that the insurgent RFK Jr. has no path to victory had better hold fast on their premature predictions.
In these wildly unpredictable times with major unforeseen events and “black swans” appearing almost daily, such Nostradamus punditry is bullshit.
