Matt Lewis revisited some last-minute election stories over the years – some true, some kinda-sorta true but not really, and some outright whoppers, and concluded:
Well, we have now entered the period in the campaign cycle where people go crazy and campaigns get utterly desperate. This is good advice for the political activists and operatives who tend to go insane this time of year. It’s also valid advice for the general public who are media consumers — but it’s especially good advice for those sleep-deprived bastards charged with covering the dwindling days of the 2014 campaign: For the next week, be even more skeptical than normal. Don’t trust anyone. Or, if you prefer, as the saying goes, “Trust, but verify.”
My rule of thumb: if it sounds too good, or too bad, to be true – it probably isn’t. But I do not point fingers; I have been fooled myself, and I do not flatter myself by thinking that I will never be fooled again. I probably will be. Most of us will be, at some time or another.