Conventional Wisdom, Post-Convention Surges and a Tangental Football Reference

In this morning's news, I see that Mitt Romney's convention bounce is being assessed as 5 or 6 points, depending on your source.

Six points (or 5 if you have faith in the integrity of the NY Times, whatev) is a nice bounce, but not a gamechanger in historical terms. That's why I think that the tone for this fall will be set this upcoming week. The Romney team needs to not only build on their alleged lackluster momentum from Tampa, but they need to tamp down the bounce from the Democratic Convention as much as possible. Conventional Wisdom says that the Democratic bounce will bring this race back to "normal" with Obama/Biden back to a solid 4 point lead nationally; however, in the words of Lee Corso......"Not so fast, my friends".

Now it won't be easy. The Echo Chamber in North Carolina is going to be one big week-long hosanna to Barack The Magnificent. Everyone involved will be working hand in hand to create a groundswell for The Sun King. It's going to be hard for the Republicans to put a dent in this machine.

Thankfully for our side, we've got a secret weapon. President Kick-Ass and his New York-style thin crust skin. Playing "me-too" in visiting storm ravaged Louisiana in the wake of Romney/Ryan? Check. Acting like a teenage girl in a Facebook spat after Clint Eastwood's "empty chair" stand-up routine? Check.

Now the Tangental Football Reference: One thing I noted this weekend watching Iowa State beat Tulsa in Ames, Iowa? A quick jump to a 7-0 lead is nice, but knuckling down when you're down 7-16 and going into the half with a 24-16 lead is even nicer.

Putting points on the board is nice, but preventing your opponent from putting points on the board is not only nice, it can be very dispiriting to the other team's fans. Especially the fans that work at MSNBC and tend to interact with non-Obamoids like Sean Penn punching out paparazzi. This is the test. Can Romney's team make moves that will short circuit this week's bounce?

If they can't, Romney can still win down the stretch. If they pull it off, it's Mondale City, baby!*

*Technically, Mondale carried his home state of Minnesota in 1984. Unless I'm mistaken, Indonesia and Kenya don't have electoral votes in the American electoral process, so this might be even more of a landslide.

(I keed, I keed. Keep your panties unwadded)

posted by Russ from Winterset at 11:48 AM

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