AP headline: wtf? (Obama/Hillary related)
erewhon
1,123 Posts
Anyone else catch this unfortunate piece of copy from the AP that is popping up all over the place?
WTF? Please to 'splain?Obama predicts Clinton win in Pa. but says it will be close[/b] By NEDRA PICKLER and LIZ SIDOTI Associated Press WritersSCRANTON, Pa. (AP) -- Barack Obama predicted Monday that Democratic presidential rival Hillary Rodham Clinton would get the critical victory she needs in Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary, but said his goal is to keep it close."I'm not predicting a win," he told Pittsburgh radio station KDKA. "I'm predicting it's going to be close and that we are going to do a lot better than people expect."
Comments
Anyone wanna go on the record with a prediction for tomorrow? I'm feeling optimistic, so I'll say Clinton by, say 3-4%.
Unless he pulls out a huge upset/close win, her confetti will fall, but she'll make up little to no ground. Hopefully this slow-motion car crash is over soon. Fingers crossed...
I think you're missing the point. The headline says Obama is predicting a Clinton win, but the quote from Obama doesn't really support that. Not predicting a win for your team is different from predicting that the other team will win.
What are you puzzled by?
Everyone expects her to win PA--that doesn't mean she gets the nomination.
i am
A) if she smashes in PA, the nom race will go all the way to the Convention.
B) Obama ekes out any sort of win, it's definitely a wrap for her.
C) She wins by less than 5%, she won't hang it up, but everyone around her, like superdelegates and campaign funders, will face the music and start to pull out/pull away, forcing her out of the race.
Clinton by 3-4% would be fine for me if that means the hurt is going to be put on her.
I hope that Obama wins.
I think (hope) that the margin will be narrower than that..praying for big turnout in the cities and hoping that the cement-headed punditocracy has played this incorrectly, but my crystal ball is out of order, and since Hillary is pure evil and clearly in league with Satan, the Freemasons and the Lizard People, anything is possible.
What everyone seems to be missing here is that nothing in the article supports the claim of the headline. This is about shoddy journalism, not the particulars of the PA race itself. I get that Obama is inevitably going to downplay his chances, but, again, saying "I'm not predicting a win" is not the same as saying "my opponent is going to win".
But if there's only two teams, and you're saying your team isn't going to win, then...?
Clinton: Obama should be fighting against McCain not helping him.
WHAT THE FUCK???
Aren't they saying that Obama has Philly on lock, but it's the whole rest of the state that's going to fuck him up?
My info's all coming from the Today show, so I'm not trying to front like I know the deal.
I hear some people find it difficult to get laid if they admit to being a hillary supporter (I wouldn't know). so yeah, I can understand the calculated silence in Philly and elsewhere.
Riiiiiight... your "friend" told you. Sure.
Well, Hillary is the status quo in Pennsylvania. Once upon a time it was Hillary who was expected to win the state in a landslide, easily a double-digit victory. She's never had to work to get the votes in Pennsylvania, it's been Obama who's had to work and chip away at the lead. I imagine that's why you see Obama supporters out there trying to whip up a frenzy and not so many Hillary supporters. For all the talk of Hillary not getting the landslide victory in PA the fact is virtually everybody still expects her to win the state so I can understand why it's not her supporters out there making noise. Perhaps that's an error on Clinton's supporters' part, taking the state for granted for so long and just expecting an easy victory there.
wtf? That is probably the logic of the reporter of this story, but it is terribly flawed and can have serious consequences. "I'm not predicting a win" can just as easily mean "it's too close to call" or "I can't promise a win here, but...", which, in the context of the other quotes from Obama about the closeness of the race from the same interview, seems to be closer to the gist of what he's saying. Either way, it is irresponsible of the reporte to make an inference like that.
This whole race has been marked by warped press coverage, especially a pack of inside the beltway weasels who still don't understand that they're supposed to be reporting the news, not making it.
no. it is do or die for hillary. she has been campaigning here hardcore for the past month, particularly in philly where she has the support of mayor nutter and ed rendell, the former mayor.
my point is that, while expected that obama would take philly, i think the polls are underestimating obama's domination here. i don't think philly could get 35,000 people to show up in one place on a friday after work unless they were giving out free yuengling or carbs.
Word. I'm not shocked or anything...just trying to police it when I see it or at least get a sympathetic "amen" from folks. It's a little frustrating to have to spell it out over a couple of posts.
There was an oped in the NYT a few days ago where David Brooks was going on and on about how the last debate showed that Obama was done, tired, over with and all but dead in the race. It was typical of the kind of intellectually dishonest, self-fulfilling hoodoo that the talking heads have been peddling.
I mean, Stephanopolous and that lapel pin bullshit? What the f*cking F*CK?
I guess I'm not getting what the big deal is. The article is poorly worded but I don't see how the first paragraph of the article disagrees with the headline. The headline is that Obama predicts Clinton will win in Pennsylvania. Then in the first paragraph when he says "I'm not predicting a win" what he means is that he's not predicting a win for himself. Again, it's poorly worded, or not framed particularly well by the writer, but it doesn't disagree with the headline.
This ranks so low on the scale of media travesties related to this campaign....
Brooks is a republican and it was an op-ed, so i don't know why you wouldn't expect a slanted view. Stephanopolous was in Clinton's cabinet but he left on bad terms so, if anything, there would be a bias to obama.
i agree that many of the questions posed to obama were lame, including that one. however, america is filled with morons and i interpreted that question as a favor to obama so he could explain himself. there is so much watercooler talk about obama's refusal to wear a pin, secret muslim worship, etc., and therefore, letting him set the record straight could only be advantageous to obama. and...its not like obama hasn't been scripting an answer to that question for the past 6 months. wasn't exactly a sneak attack.
I'd like to see republican water carriers or Clinton apologists explain that one as simply "tough questions" or heat in the kitchen....
Even if that was Stephanopolous' intent - and I think you're being overly generous giving him the benefit of that particular doubt - I think that in the end placing memes like that back into the discourse is counterproductive.
my criticism of last wednesday's debate is that the questions were idiotic...not biased or unfair. our economy is in crisis and we get 45 minutes of questions related to timetables of withdrawal from iraq. thats exactly what people who can't afford to pay their mortgage want to know - the minute differences in hillary and obama's dates for withdrawal. please.
and...the people who actually care about lapel pins weren't tuning into the debates, they were playing xbox or watching nascar.
Here, me and KVH agree 100%.
I didn't think the debate was harsh on Obama - and I thought he did perform poorly, all things considered - but the questions were ridiculous. It was the crowning achievement for a media who's been trying their best to make this political season into a reality TV show. Shameful shit.
Obama, for his part, should've knocked those questions out of the park. He's smart enough to make the point that they are irrelevant and disconnected, and even though he was frustrated that he couldn't talk bread-n-butter issues... he shouldn't have let that be his main reaction.
Seriously, what the hell kind of "water cooler" do you guys hang out around??