MANCHESTER, New Hampshire – This year’s New Hampshire autumn was strange. Until September’s final days it was hot and then there was a sudden downpour, an abrupt cooling — and leaves started changing color within one weekend.
Just like the conventional wisdom suddenly changing as a hot media narrative moves out of season and a new one pops into view.
Are we seeing this now in the 2010 mid-term elections?
The University of Virginia’s Larry Sabato points out on that when campaigns veer into October the press looks for every little change but his reliable “Crystal Ball” team sees little shift from their Labor Day predictions that the Democrats will likely lose the House. But the new narrative is: Are the Democrats are coming back?…Maybe they can stem catastrophic losses…Maybe they can hold onto the House.
Conventional wisdom has often been wrong.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.