The right’s “narrative skewing”: How it dupes itself over Obamacare, Benghazi and Christie

[DonViejo]

Remember poll skewing? Here's GOP's new self-delusion: Obama's done, Hilary's imploding and Christie's doing great!

BRIAN BEUTLER

If I had to craft an irresponsibly optimistic prognosis for liberals looking ahead to 2014 and 2016, the short version would probably go something like this:

Forget about Obamacare’s rocky rollout. The law has already hit escape velocity, and by November 2014 it will be a political wash and a bourgeoning success story. By 2016 it’ll be a huge asset to Democrats. If Republicans don’t figure out how to come to terms with its permanence, they will doom themselves for another four years. And even if they reach the acceptance stage, they’ll have to grapple with the fact that their tireless campaign to destroy Hillary Clinton with ugly Benghazi conspiracy theories has already failed, and their own strongest candidate — Chris Christie — is about to be permanently crippled by the George Washington Bridge scandal.

Maybe that’ll all turn out to be right. But I think it’d be a bad idea for liberals to saunter through the next year or three with such untempered expectations. Obamacare could easily be a political liability for Democrats in November, and even though I don’t doubt its permanence — or at least the permanence of its coverage guarantee — it’s possible that it’ll never actually be a big political winner. By 2016 we could easily be on to something else. Benghazi conspiracy theories probably won’t crawl out of the conservative fever swamp into the mainstream, but perhaps Benghazi itself will contribute to a line of broader questioning that ultimately damages Hillary’s candidacy in a way that Bridgegate never does lasting damage to Christie.

Obviously I didn’t pick these stories at random. They’re the three biggest stories in American politics right now. And if American politics were in a healthy place, conservatives would have an equally restrained, but politically opposite assessment of the landscape. They’d consider the possibility that Obamacare might not be a complete political and policy disaster for Dems, or that Benghazi will never become the scandal they hoped it would, or that they have a 2016 candidate problem of their own.

But that’s not where they are. It’s too early in this political cycle — and way too far out from 2016 — for conservatives to be unskewing polls. Instead, they’re undertaking an ambitious new venture in narrative skewing.

:::snip:::

http://www.salon.com/2014/01/16/the_rights_obsessive_narrative_skewing_how_it_dupes_itself_over_obamacare_benghazi_and_christie/

[Scuba]

1. Silly. Benghazi can't hurt Hillary. Anyone who buys Benghazi wouldn't vote for her anyway.

Hillary's chances are slim, however, 'cause Harry Truman was right.

“Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time.”

[Proud Liberal Dem]

2. Which Republican, though?

Cruz? Santorum? Nobody but a Tea Party darling (or a heavily pandering "establishment" GOPer) will make it through the primary. Hillary- and anybody to theft of her will appear eminently more reasonable IMHO

[sendero]

3. That's practically a best-case scenario..

.... for Democrats. I truly believe that a Teahadist will never be elected president in this country.