Newsflash: Electoral College to Pick President

In a column under the mundane, if not inane headline "Electoral College holds key to election, again" there is actually something interesting.

Purporting to be a straight news story -- Knight Ridder, no less -- the story offers this gem:

You might recall from the last election the Electoral College determines the president.

Whoa, Nelly! The press corps is on a roll today.

Proceeding in the manner of a sixth grade civics class, the "news" story observes that state by state projections currently show a different race from projections based on national surveys. Adding a bit of useful information, the story mentions two state by state vote counting sites: The Kerry leaning www.electoral-vote.com (also accessible via the link to the right) and the pro-Bush www.electionprojection.com (which is also quite good and currently shows Kerry in the lead by a wider margin than the pro-Kerry site).

Now, for most of our illustrious press, this bit of non-news would have exceeded their quota of heavy lifting for the day. But this reporter goes further and offers us an insider's account. Thus, we're treated to these wan expressions from the campaign flacks:

Pennsylvania Kerry director Tony Podesta says, "It's graphically interesting, clever, well-done ... it's August and too early to order inauguration tickets."

Kevin Madden of the Bush campaign says, "It's an interesting snapshot analysis but it fluctuates, too, and the most important poll is on Election Day ... we're more concerned with getting our grass-roots voting-day efforts in place."

Is this feigned disinterest in the state by state breakdown necessary? Obviously, more than any one else in the country, the campaigns know the election is won or lost on the proper electoral strategy. And that strategy must be predicated on the application of scarce resources to those states where the most impact will be had, yes, but also to those states that, as a group, will add up to 270 electoral votes. You can't convince me that these people aren't paying attention to the state by state breakdown. Sure, they're probably checking their own surveys rather than the aforementioned websites, but they are definitely following the state by state give and take.

And if they're not then what, really, is the point of this pointless story?

(Via Political Wire)