"Diehards" unconvinced? |
So, "Super Tuesday" has come and gone. Mitt Romney managed to net five solid victories by substantial margins in Alaska, Idaho, Massachusetts, Vermont and Virginia while eking out a narrow victory in the battleground state of Ohio. It seems to me that these results indicate a pretty convincing level of support across several broad categories of the national population. Romney has now succeeded in securing primary wins in conservative states as well as progressive states, in the northeast, the southwest, the upper midwest and even the south. That seems like a good cross-section of the country so far, and a clear indication that, while voters are not enthusiastic , the broad spectrum support for Romney is there.
But no. According to CNN, the fact that four races went to other candidates (three to Rick Santorum and one to Newt Gingrich) perturbs them. Rather than seeing the fact that there appear to be other candidates whom people consider viable as an indicator that the democracy is working and that there is, in fact, room for a diversity of viewpoints in the country, CNN wrings its hands and bleats about an imploding GOP.
Pockets of regionalized enthusiastic support for secondary candidates should be seen as supportive evidence of a working democracy, rather than as evidence that somehow "the process is breaking down". Also, to paraphrase Mark Twain, I think reports of the Republican Party's impending demise are greatly exaggerated.
But never mind all that. I've barely written three paragraphs on this topic and I am already out of patience with it. The thing that really prompted me to post this morning is the CNN home page above. Yet another misleading, pandering headline from the news source that has sometimes seemed like our only option for even a chance of even-handed news coverage. Some days, it gets really depressing.
"Diehards", CNN? If this story was being written about any other country but the USA, by journalists who were not fearful of their corporate overlords wrath, then this headline would have correctly read:
Front-runner wins 6 states, but hardliners unconvinced
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