Throughout this excruciatingly long presidental election (it seems like it’s been going since 2000), I’ve been a frequent reader of blogs and other internet news sources. While reading my favorite blogs, I’ve often had to tell myself to keep my eye on the big picture and to not let the immediate reactions of someone else get me worried. Well, today I seem to have forgotten my own advice. Earlier today, we saw the entire blogosphere either cheer or panick (depending on their political leanings) curtesy of the explosive headline of Matt Drudge saying that exit polls were favoring Kerry. I have to admit: I worried. A lot.
I’m a self admitted news junkie, and I just eat this stuff up. I was the same way during the Iraq War and its runup. The problem, as I see it, is that the blogosphere is an echo chamber, with any and every piece of news being disected by thousands of people. This makes it very easy to get begin treating opinion as fact. Today, bloggers are waiting anxiously for anything new, so they immediately bit onto Drudge’s numbers when they were the only thing out there.
So, this is my advice to you and me: Relax. Take some deep breaths. Wait for the actual results to start coming in. Right now, Republican insiders are very optimistic about the President’s numbers. I still am too.