Politics: Tampa or Bust

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Politics Tampa or Bust Forget what the pundits tell you. The Republican race will go on and on—and there's nothing wrong with that. By David Weigel Posted Wednesday, Feb 08, 2012, at 07:41 PM ET Political reporters make for lousy gravediggers. Find a primary, pick a day, and I can point you to a story pronouncing the campaign "over" or "almost over" or over, pending the judgment of a proverbial Fat Lady. Let's make it easy and start last month. On Jan. 10, as Romney was winning New Hampshire, NPR quoted a Republican strategist who counted the margins and pronounced the race "over." On Jan. 18, the Los AngelesTimes informed us that South Carolina's primary "could essentially end" the Santorum and Gingrich campaigns. Two days later, NBC News told us that a Romney win in the first southern primary would make him "the de facto nominee." When Romney lost, we got pre-Florida primary headlines like "Can Mitt Romney recover from his South Carolina 'disaster?' " Days later, Howard Kurtz was tap-tapping about the "distinct possibility" that the media would "bury Newt Gingrich for the third time" in Florida. No one was talking about Rick Santorum until yesterday, when the Wall Street Journal saluted Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri for "puncturing Mitt Romney's claim to be the unstoppable front-runner." My old colleague Jack Shafer once praised "horse race" coverage of presidential politics. "Every political reporter I know," he wrote, "yearns to cover a deadlocked presidential convention." It's true. So why has every single primary spawned dull, topsy-turvy—and ultimately wrong—stories about how it "Marked the End" of one candidate or another? Tuesday's caucus-goers have done us a real solid, forcing the media ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Why Gay-Rights Leaders Don't Want Their Big Prop 8 Victory to Go to the Supreme Court Yglesias: The Five Things You Need To Know About Today's Foreclosure Settlement Three Cases in One School: How Common Is Teacher Sex Abuse?	Advertisement
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