Monday, January 21, 2008

Re: The barbarians are in the backyard   [Andy McCarthy]

Mark S (or, er, Ramesh Steyn), that's all true as far as it goes.  But I think where my candidate's strategy missed the boat is that, as played out on the national stage, these were not the IA, NV, WI, NH and SC caucuses/primaries.  They are the MEDIA primary:  "You Decide 2008" — a non-stop event with twists and turns and focus groups and celebrity boosters and engaged handicappers, etc.  It's not that New York cares all that much what red-neck evangelists who don't even know which one is the salad fork think.  It's that New York cares deeply about what the media think.  If they're not leading it, they're following it so as to appear to be leading it.  It's a show Rudy could not afford to be out of.  No one could.  We should have known, and we didn't.  If the Milwaukee Brewers were playing the Kansas City Royals in the World Series, Fox would still hype it and, in New York, they'd be watching.

01/21 05:04 PMShare