Romney likely loser, even without famous video

http://www.salon.com/2013/03/13/romney_was_a_loser_even_without_famous_video/

With the anonymous bartender who taped the “47 percent video” set

 to reveal his identity tonight, the popular consensus appears to remain that the recording did major damage to Romney’s bid. But now that the election is over and we’ve had a chance to analyze its dynamics and results, it looks like it did not have the effect everyone thought.

When the video was first released by Mother Jones magazine on Sept. 17, it produced a rare moment of unity among pundits of all stripes. Even conservatives criticized Romney or his campaign, such as the Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan (‘incompetent”) and the New York Times’ David Brooks(“depressingly inept”). Other commentators simply declared the Romney campaign over within hours of the video’s release.

i believe we all thought such a bigoted response would and should sink a candidate in his tracks.

In reality, the impact of the video was much more muted. This is the argument UCLA political scientist Lynn Vavreck and I make in our forthcoming book on the election, “The Gamble.” Here is our argument in a nutshell.

First, it’s absolutely true that the 47 percent video generated bad press for Romney. The reactions of Noonan, Brooks and colleagues were reflected in news coverage. Drawing on data on thousands of news outlets collected and analyzed by the company General Sentiment, we found that the week after the video’s release was the worst week of news coverage for the Romney campaign between May and November.

And yet the public’s reaction wasn’t that dramatic

numb to our furure being what it will be or are we still waking to a new why do we take these things with such indifference, are we numb to politics and it's ultmate effect on our lives or arewe waking and realizing this does not have to be i'm more for the latter.