I never watch the blessed things, myself – there are people who do that so I won’t have to, and God bless their sacrifice – but I do note who’s on them, because if you know who’s usually on them then you know when something unusual is going on. And something unusual is going on: the lineup this week is Robert Gibbs, Gov. Martin O’Malley, Brett O’Donnell (professional TV debate coach), Sen. Kelly Ayotte, Ed Gillespie, Newt Gingrich, Chuck Todd, Mike Murphy, Hilary Rosen (finally out of the penalty box?), Arnold Schwarzenegger, RNC chair Reince Priebus, and DNC figurehead chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
(pause)
It would seem that both campaigns have decided to mostly skip this week’s festivities. Makes sense for Romney-Ryan – they had a great week, and are busy, accordingly – but Obama-Biden did not have a great week*. If there was ever a time for damage control, this is the time… but apparently the Democrats are hunkered down and buttoned up. Which is rather typical of them; and before you say ‘Good,’ remember: the Obama administration does the same thing with natsec problems, too.
Moe Lane
[UPDATE]: Oh, wait, they also have Axelrod on. Yeah, that will save the Obama campaign. Not.
PS: Do click the link: Andrew Malcolm has some good snark this morning.
*When you are stuck trying to demagog Big Bird and act as if a 7.8 unemployment rate is great news, you by definition are not having a great week. When you apparently have to hide your record fundraising tally by reporting it on a Saturday, you are apparently having a sockelganger of a bad week; the kind where the full details don’t come out until everybody involved is out of office.
I was watching the morning local CBS affiliate news in Balt this morning and I think there was zero (=0) coverage of the campaign. And the anchor really really wuvs Obama. Another dog that is not barking, to my mind.
I try to watch MTP — which on a good week can be very watchable. The problem this week is that they started with the unemployment numbers, and then they went to the debate. Everyone (Democrats, SNL, etc.) was talking about the debate, and the unemployment numbers conveniently changed the subject.
FWIW: I was in SF last week, and there was literally zero mention of the campaign the day after the debate. Fascinating. And comical.
There isn’t a whole lot of control you can do after you self destruct.