The Six Dirty Secrets of Presidential Politics in 2012 By John Ziegler

The "dirtiest" little secret on my list is one that, because it is so obvious, I am astonished has not been mentioned in any significant way.....

... The Obama presidency has been a financial windfall for all of them. Fox's ratings have never been higher, Drudge's traffic has never been better (which is rather "ironic," given how blatantly he protected Obama during the 2008 primaries), talk radio has been at least temporarily saved, and dozens of "Tea Party" groups have raised millions of dollars with which to line the pockets of their organizers and consultant friends. If Obama loses, not only does all of that stop, but the prospect of possibly eight long years of being "obligated" to support a rather boring Mitt Romney with no "boogieman" to attack must scare the daylights out of them.

...While Gingrich has been criticized by many conservatives for his actions here, there has not been nearly the universality of ferocity of condemnation on the right as there would have been on the left had Hillary done the same to Obama (which is probably why she never dared to go there).

...The primary reason for this is that the conservative elite are simply not as willing to go to the mat for Romney as their counterparts on the left were (and still will be) for Obama.

It is amazing to me how many political opinions/predictions from seemingly intelligent people are so clearly wrong and how little it seems to matter to them or anyone else in the punditsphere when this is inevitably proven to be true.

The reasons why this is the case are many, but at the core of this phenomenon is the fact that there are several basic realities of presidential politics that appear to have somehow failed to pierce the bubble/echo chamber of the media elites. These are, if you will, the “dirty little secrets” of presidential elections in general and 2012 in particular.

You simply can’t properly evaluate what will happen this November without first understanding that:

Ignorant votes rule

Issues/Ideology Mean Very Little

The 2010 Midterms Are Largely Irrelevant

The Liberal Media’s Influence Is Increasing

Obama Will Be Much Tougher to Beat Than Perceived

The Conservative Media Has an Incentive for Obama to Win

Therefore, the most likely scenario is that Obama gets re-elected, the country is harmed, and many so-called “conservatives” will smile.

OK, HERE is the money shot. The one paragraph in this long doom and gloom surrender speech that explains the POV of the author.

This is also why Newt Gingrich is so unelectable, especially against Obama. All these voters would ever really know about him is that he is a fat, old, angry white male, with two ex-wives, who resigned as speaker of the House because he got Clinton impeached while he himself was having an affair. Game, set, match.

I read this article today and find it the most insightful political analysis that I have ever read. There is just too much conventional wisdom in politics and too many hidden agendas as well, for instance, giving up a run against an incumbent then waiting for a better opportunity four years later.

It has always been frustrating to me that so many people don't pay attention yet they can vote just like anyone else. It is also frustrating that conservatives never want to leave their comfortable conservative media ghetto. Most of the voters are not going to look for conservative tv, radio or website because they think politics is boring. They live in the land of pop culture and entertainment. You have to enter into their world and sneak in little messages that will wake them up and inform them in simple language. Informed citizens are more conservative citizens. We have to follow the “spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down” approach. We have to go onto entertainment media such as music and sports radio stations in order to deliver conservative public interest messages that would educate people and raise their awareness. People need to learn the basics of how the economy works, how small government is better government, how big government threatens our freedom etc. etc. Most people are not going to tune in to Rush Limbaugh or any other conservative program because they are just not interested. Rush Limbaugh has been on the air for over twenty years but little has changed. Massachusetts, where I live, has some good conservative radio, I have been listening to it for thirty years, but nothing has changed in Massachusetts politics because most people just to not want to listen to politics, it is just human nature and it will not change. We have to go where people are and educate them in little bits when they are not expecting it...the spoonful of sugar.

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