Punditry Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry (or Wrong)

**Lemur** · 11-26-2008, 23:09

A look back at some fantastic (in every sense of the word) punditry from the 2008 election cycle:

"When he is forced to fight, Sen. Obama's inexperience shows. His record, slight as it is, is tough to defend. He's got a glass jaw, and he will fall into the trap of identity politics. In fact, he already has. The 'could we beat Obama?' conversation is purely academic. It's over. The Clintons have defeated him already, because he is leaving South Carolina as 'the black candidate.' He won't win another state. Even worse, in November Hillary will carry 90 percent of the black vote, despite their cynical, race-based campaign against the first viable black presidential candidate," — Michael Graham, January 26, 2008, NRO

"This year's primary results show no sign that Obama will reverse this trend should he win the nomination. In West Virginia and Kentucky, as well as Ohio and Pennsylvania, blue collar white voters sent him down to defeat by overwhelming margins. A recent Gallup poll report has argued that claims about Obama's weaknesses among white voters and blue collar voters have been exaggerated - yet its indisputable figures showed Obama running four percentage points below Kerry's anemic support among whites four years ago... Given that Obama's vote in the primaries, apart from African-Americans, has generally come from affluent white suburbs and university towns, the Gallup figures presage a Democratic disaster among working-class white voters in November should Obama be the nominee," - Sean Wilentz, May 23, 2008, Huffington Post

"Barack Obama is on his way to a McGovern candidacy," - Victor Davis Hanson, March 29, 2008, National Review

"All of these articles about his boyhood in Indonesia and his life in Hawaii are geared towards showing his background is diverse, multicultural and putting that in a new light. Save it for 2050 ... I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and values. The right knows Obama is unelectable except against Attila the Hun," — Mark Penn, March 19, 2007.

**Husar** · 11-27-2008, 14:30

Well, they're experts...

**naut** · 11-27-2008, 15:22

I think I have to join Jon Stewart in saying, "Who the

are these guys!?"

**Hosakawa Tito** · 11-27-2008, 16:59

Originally Posted by Rythmic

I think I have to join Jon Stewart in saying, "Who the

are these guys!?"

Paid fortune tellers and self proclaimed oracles who profess to have their finger on the pulse of the subject at hand frequently find that it is best not to be too explicit. If one could examine their track records I imagine you would find that most can't prognosticate the future any more accurately than Magic Eight Ball.

But hey, it generates a paycheck and provides comic relief so there are benefits to society.