Pacific Views

Covering their asses.

It's interesting to watch mainstream journalists (and some bloggers, too) scrambling to recover from having been so very wrong about the Iowa results. We're particularly enjoying how lots of people are remembering that Iowa's results are only a fair predictor of who will get the nomination — a fact that many of didn't seem to think important when 'common knowledge' said Dean had Iowa in the bag.

CJR's Campaign Desk has a good post from Zachary Roth about how the press spin on the Democratic race for president is changing already:

Leading the pack are The New York Times' Adam Nagourney and Jim Rutenberg, whose page one story focuses on sniping between Kerry and Edwards, and also devotes prominent space to a deal between Edwards and Kucinich. Dean isn't mentioned until the story's thirteenth paragraph, and Gephardt doesn't show up until the fifteenth.

The flip side of the sudden infatuation with Kerry and Edwards is the simultaneous estrangement from Dean. Exhibit A is The Wall Street Journal's lead story today by Jacob Schlesinger and John Harwood (subscription required). The article -- whose sub-head reads "With Dean's Aura Dimming, Democratic Rivals See Chance to Pick Up New Momentum" -- seems almost designed to consign Dean's campaign to the graveyard even while his corpse is still alive and breathing.