Liberals Beginning to Realize They’ve Overestimated Obama’s Popularity?

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A steady drip, drip, drip of polling data — including a new Battleground poll showing Democrats on the losing side of an “enthusiasm gap” — has started to undermine the carefully maintained perception of Obama’s re-election as inevitable. Ed Morrissey comments:

If Obama trails in a D+8 poll by 6 among the extremely likely voters with four weeks to go, he’s in deep trouble — and his debate performance certainly won’t boost him.

Meanwhile, also via Hot Air, we find the WaPo’s Chris Cilizza as the first liberal analyst to try getting ahead of the chance that Obama might lose:

Obama’s debate performance also raised a bigger question: Is he overrated as a candidate?
Four years ago, that question would have been unimaginable …
Fast-forward to this campaign — and specifically its last two major public events — and you see Obama’s flaws as a candidate in starker relief.
His acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention was flat and, rhetorically, felt like a patchwork effort — five or six different speeches all clumped into a single address. His debate performance was glum and defensive, leaving anyone who watched with the overwhelming sense that the president would have rather been anywhere but sharing the stage with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R).

That the question “would have been unimaginable” in 2008 is likely a result of Cillizza having his head inside the liberal media echo chamber where never was heard a discouraging word about Obama. Democrats were pumped up and eager for action after eight years of Bush, and having a completely untested candidate allowed them to project onto Obama whatever they wished to see there. If you bought into that hype (as Cillizza evidently did), then it was easy to imagine Obama the Light-Bringer riding to glory astride a flying unicorn, eating Magic Peace Flakes for breakfast and farting rainbows all day long.

Reality? What a bummer. It’s like the old joke: What did the Grateful Dead fan say after the dope wore off? “Dude, this band sucks.”

Two weeks ago, I warned that Democrats were “spiking the ball early,” but they didn’t listen to me then, and I don’t expect them to listen now. Cillizza is shrewd enough to see the value of hedging his bets, being one of the first liberal media types to warn of the possible defeat ahead, but Nate Silver seems unwilling to kick the Kool-Aid habit just yet.

Remember that a month ago, Silver gave 4-to-1 odds against Romney. Nate’s confidence is quietly fading, as he starts to wonder what excuses he’ll make on Nov. 7 if he has to explain why he was wrong.

“Ride Right Through Them — They’re Demoralized as Hell!”

UPDATE (Smitty): Welcome, Instapundit readers.

170 comments

  4. Poor Biff. Little did I realize he was leading a life of crime and is now in Twitmo again. I’m baking that “cake” for him Also, his kids want to visit him, so I’ll be bringing all 25 of them with me. All his baby mamas also want their support checks. What should I tell them?

  5. I saw she followed me, so followed her back. Then checked and saw she had no tweets, and remembered someone mentioning something about blocking trolls who follow but never tweet.
    What’s that about?
    (Re-following her now, btw).

  8. And I forgot to ask him if it’s cold there and should I pack his feetie PJs for him. I already know to pack his Obama voodoo doll and a fresh pack of pins. Poor guy.

  9. Well, how does this work – it’s funny, but true:
    All of a sudden, I’m getting ads for Black BBW dating sites. It started right after I followed @SaltyBlackBroad. Is everything really that tied-in?

  10. O, thanks for reminding me about that. Please tell Vito that he will be cutting the checks in my absence and that if there’s a problem to leave a message with Jake the Suit’s secretary, little Miss Greta Bagdonnabitch.

  11. Lmao …. Yup it is. Twitter is a business. When I started the hashtag #Obamathemovienames the other day, after just three posts, there was an Obama Ad headlining it. It really is remarkable.

  21. I’m chuckling like a ffrigging maniac. The dog just woke up and looked at me like “You really need to put that thing down and go to the bar or something.”

  27. I gave my Barney Frank doll to my cellmate’s Pit Bull when he came to visit this afternoon. Problem solved.

  30. Hmmm. I might try that! Trip on this: whenever there’s a piece about Romney & Obama, Obama gets all the sound bites and about 10 seconds more of face time. #OBVIOUS

  32. I once worked on a team project where we had to cut together daily death announcements for the Pope with different potential dates up to 10 years in advance so that they would have one handy when the day finally came. And that way, whenever the schedule had some down time there was always something to do.

  34. I can’t. Right now my eyeballs are so tired that they feel like cartoon ones… popping out of my head on springs and making a funny noise (Foiiinnnnng)
    Interesting observation: all the normally vocal Libtards here have been vewy, vewy quiet lately! I’m loving it.

  41. Oh, ACK. And I’m at work so I don’t have my Braino Brand Brain Bleach with me. I wonder if they sell the purse-sized mist.

  45. It’s mainstream media so it’s bias. And the reporters are pretty much in the tank for O. They don’t sit with me unless it’s a special project or I record a track for them. My instructions come from the writers or producers via iNews.

  47. They do. I have one in my glove compartment. If you call down to the main desk and speak to my buddy, Butcher Knife Ralphie, he’ll run down to the parking garage and grab it for you on your way out.

  48. Yes we’ve got a dead file here too. I’m looking thru it now: Nancy Reagan, Annette Funicello, Richard Riordan, ZsaZsa, Doris Day, Fidel Castro, Ariel Sharon, Kirk Douglas, Betty White… I want to add Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, and Lindsay Lohan, but they won’t let me!

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