Dear Media: Where's the "knockout blow" meme this time...?

[regnaD kciN]

It never fails. As the days of the campaign tick off, and the last debate approaches, a familiar meme begins to spread through the "conventional wisdom" -- the candidate who's behind by even a few points needs to score a "knockout blow" in the final debate.

It happened to Mondale in '84.
It happened to Dukakis in '88.
It even happened to Bush in '92.
It happened to Gore in '00.
It happened to Kerry in '04.

Once the final debate was over, the media trumpets the consensus was "that there was no 'knockout blow'" (which there hardly ever is, since it practically requires the leading candidate to make a fool of themselves), and, thus, that the election is pretty much over. (The exceptions were the last two times around, but that was because both candidates were dropping into and out of the lead during that time.) But the general consensus, once the final debate ends with no "knockout blow," has been that the remaining few weeks of the campaign were really a mop-up operation, with the outcome already preordained.

So, why haven't we been hearing the meme of the "knockout blow" this time around? Indeed, the meme has been pretty notable by its absence this past week. Why is the general narrative that, no matter what happens in Wednesday's debate, the race will continue just as before, with each candidate (especially the Corporate Media's beloved inside-the-beltway "maverick") having a good chance of winning?

Why is this election not like any other election? :shrug: