To prove that in our steady euphoria of "Talks to a Chair!" "Screwed up the Libya Response!" "Alienated 47% of the Population!" there's still a lot going on behind the scenes, electoral-vote.com has shifted Colorado's nine electoral votes out of Obama's column into toss-up territory. Nate Silver has his own bucket of cold water ready with his column title "Sept. 18: Obama’s Bounce Erodes in Two Tracking Polls." Sure, one of said polls is Rasmussen, but Nate Silver's not carrying the "What does this mean for Romney's campaign?" torch. He's looking at the facts.
Granted, it's way too early to be discussing the effects of this video. It only came out yesterday, and there's so much in it that it's impossible to digest even now. (My "favorite" part, the barbed wire that keeps those pesky workers out of a Chinese sweatshop, will probably never be understood properly in today's media environment.)
But still, there is a large, unshakable amount of people who WILL VOTE FOR ROMNEY. Nothing Romney could do, barring having sex with a dead thirteen-year-old girl, will shake that. Romney's response of using a fourteen-year-old quote out of context, will likely gain some traction among the True Believers. (Look at how they elevated the lie of "you didn't build that" into their encapsulation of who Barack Obama is.) Fox News will give it equal weight to the fundraiser video, and other news outlets might say "Hey, we've all done some shaky things in the past." This is the appalling level of discourse in today's news media, an environment that wants to pay attention to selling their demographic to advertisers much more than revealing the truth.
Stating that "there's a large number of people who will vote for Romney" may sound like I'm using the same tactic Romney used ("moochers will vote for Obama, period") but the basic point is that devastating revelations often fizzle outside our comfort zones. There are people who are unshakable in their desire to unseat Obama. Some of it is racism. Some of it involves poor education on who would actually do more to benefit their lives. And others... well, it's just stubbornness.
Willard Romney's slow implosion will not be enough for him to lose this election decisively. But Barack Obama's clear underlining of the real choices involved in the election might be enough to win it handily. As in 2008, if the country's on fire, you have to know who is still actively trying to put it out versus who just wants to "let it go bankrupt" and burn to the ground.
The ball is in Obama's court. But let's let him know we have his back, eh?