American Other

The Economist's campaign blog had an interesting post from the other night positing a new low for punditry. A strong claim is being made that Chris Matthews* (and presumably his industry kith) are unable to objectively hate on Hilary, thus increasing the compassion voters have for her. It makes sense, if you think about it in an irrational way -- and most voters vote irrationally. I can see many people, especially women, saying to themselves "Well she's been through so much already and Obama is winning by a lot, so I'll just vote for her to make her feel better".
As far as the recount goes, I think it will have little effect on the outcome. It's unlikely that Hilary swindled anyone. I think more independents voted for McCain over Obama (and Ron Paul) and more people turned out in general. Hilary has more support from voters than Obama does and the loss of the indie vote to McCain hurt him more than we realize. I think Clinton was (pleasantly) surprised by the NH win, expecting a second place finish instead. Even if something suspicious did happen, it's going to be nearly impossible to connect Hilary to voter fraud. It's not like Bush himself rigged the election in 2000. We like to say he stole the election, but it's more plausible that Republican operatives rigged the vote in Republican held districts than that Bush directed them to steal the vote for him. The orders for voter fraud are more likely to come from the party than the candidate. Also, if there was voter fraud, you can bet that the parties do not want it openly reported to the public and here's why:

1. Apathetic voters will be even less likely to come to the polls.
2. It will seem like the candidates are already chosen and this is only a dog-and-pony show.
3. It gives the edge to the other party in terms of ethical reputation, potentially hurting the
entire part in the Congressional elections (occurring the same day as the Presidential vote).
And finally,
4. It cements the suspicions that the public has about how votes are meaningless, politics are
inclusive of the people, politicians are calculating, power-greedy, and patronizing. It will
demoralize the voters and make the elections even less credible.

*The most disturbing thing about this whole theory is Chris Matthews. He's a pundit's pundit who looks like he's having the slowest stroke in history. The worse thing about him is that he can't even laugh. Instead of producing the sound of laughter that all humans make when they're amused, he actually pronounces the word (HA!) that represents the act.