What To Watch For In Tonight's Election Coverage
As noted, it is election day in several states and municipalities. Here's The Awl's list of 5 essential things to watch for during the coverage of the results.
1) Do analysts note that off-year elections following a presidential vote are often heralded as deeply important indicators of the national mood by the victorious party and dismissed as unrepresentative contests predicated upon local issues by the party that loses?
2) Do those same analysts mostly concede that it is difficult to draw any meaningful conclusions based on the election results but insist that, no matter how lacking in historical precedent, the mere perception that the results they've just dismissed indicate some sort of change will, in fact, make things more difficult for the party that loses?
3) Are representatives from each party allowed to trumpet their respective spins on the results in such an over-the-top way that it is clear were the results reversed, the spins would be similarly reversed? If there is a mixed result, are party representatives allowed to overstate the significance of the results most favorable to their party and ignore those results which are less favorable?
4) Do DNC Chairman Tim Kaine's eyebrows appear as if they're trying to escape his forehead and make a daring journey to a brave new land where they can live free?
5) In the event of an extremely close race, does the designated Republican representative bring up ACORN and "massive vote fraud" within the first two minutes of his or her appearance?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, you are watching election results! Congratulations!
Here's hoping Andrea Mitchell's invited to a victory party! http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2217/2829827654_f5e2038d93.jpg
Everyone knows what will happen, there is a vast right-wing conspiracy
For the love of God, Kool and the Gang, pull a Jackson Browne and give the GOP a cease and desist order before they start ruining "Celebration".
Just like every election involving anyone remotely related to the Clinton Administration (remember that?) is a referendum on Clinton, so every person who votes anywhere today will be doing nothing more or less than registering their verdict on the Obama administration.
I looked at the title to this and for a moment thought it read "What To Wear While Watching Tonights Election Coverage."
Media coverage of election results is such a plague.
They like to say that every boring local election is a referendum on the party in power in Washington because otherwise no one would care.
And I love how they make big generalization about what our neighbors all care about based on exit polls.