How insufferable will the national media be on Election Night if Barack Obama is elected? Or imagine how several talking heads might explode on the MSNBC set if McCain pulls it out?
On the weekend NPR show On The Media, CBS political analyst Jeff Greenfield insisted that when (okay, and if) Obama wins in a landslide, the pundits will then be able to fill the hours with discussions of how they succeeded in making the nation comfortable with President Obama and fascinating tributes to the arrival of History in the dulcet tones of His Truth is Marching On:
JEFF GREENFIELD: But let’s say that it becomes a blowout. Now, of course, casual political people who simply want to know who won would be able to know who won, you know, by 8 o’clock at night. Obama would be winning states like Virginia and Indiana or – and/or North Carolina. But for people who are interested in this process beyond that, there’s a whole lot to talk about. How did people decide that they were comfortable with the idea of Barack Obama as president?
BROOKE GLADSTONE, NPR host: But hasn’t that been the story since the primaries, I mean, not the exact same story, but pretty much the drift?
GREENFIELD: Well –
GLADSTONE: Don’t you worry that you may end up with not much to say on that big night?
GREENFIELD: Oh, Brooke, I think the election of the first African-American president probably will not leave too many of us without anything to say (Gladstone laughs), in addition to which, whatever happens, in my view, at least, makes for a really interesting story if you think about politics as more than just the horse race.