Today's bitch about reporters is one my friends have heard out of me for years: The tendency to speak of elections in the future as if someone has a worthwhile notion of who'll be running, let alone who will win. The next time we go to the polls to cast ballots for president is 959 days in the future. No one has a clue who'll be running and how we'll feel about any of them by then. Someone may die. Someone else may get caught in a scandal of monumental proportion. There may be more terrorist attacks or some marked victory over those who committed the last biggie. The economy may go way, way up or way, way down. And at least one prominent contender — you can just about bet on this one — will go out and say something so all-fired stupid as to marginalize his candidacy.
Everyone knows it's way too early to project whether Bush will run or win or, if not, who will. But, as reporter Jack Germond once said, "We aren't paid to say, 'I don't know.'" So they say things even when they don't know, aided by the Bush fans/detractors who are over-eager to declare that G.W.B. will win in a landslide or be ousted from office. I especially love the pundits who say, "It's way too early to tell who'll run" and then, in the next breath, tell us not only who'll run but how many states each will carry.
Among reporters these days, one sees a tremendous personal contempt for Al Gore and an eagerness to write him off. I am no fan of the man and hope not to see his name on my ballot. Still, he did get more votes for President than the man currently in the White House. I'm not sure that doesn't trump all the catty remarks about his beard (which he has now shaved-off) or wardrobe choices. I also suspect that, at some point, the pendulum will swing back and we'll be reading of Al Gore's remarkable comeback…not that that means he'll be the Democratic nominee.
Here's one example of how things can change. One year before the '92 election, Saturday Night Live did a sketch in which various theoretical Democratic presidential contenders debated. The premise was that none of them wanted to be the guy who lost to Bush, and each argued that he should not be the candidate. That's how unbeatable the previous President Bush looked then…only 365 days before Election Day. Somehow, Bush lost that election.