The “somehow” is incumbency bias in the case of Barney and flat out vote stuffing in the case of Al Franken. These are phenomena that exist in the “marketplace”, in the environment, that are knowable and in some, perhaps many cases overcomable.
If I wanted to convince you that Joe Speedster was the greatest race car driver in history and then showed you footage of Joe in a formula 1 car on the starting line with flat tires, you would think “WTF?
If I wanted to convince you that another guy was the fastest runner on earth and showed you a race where he tripped on his untied shoelaces, same result.
Bachmann is new material, she is *not* what voters are used to. She has to be sold, or sell herself to some extent. That is not a complex realization. When you see an “expert” slip up over an amateurish mistake or misstep, you and I may know better and may overlook it; or we may not. But no sale is going to be made to the unconverted. Even if I were the biggest 0bama supporter ever I would be dreadfully embarassed by Robert Gibbs. I know lots of liberals who like Nancy Pelosi and think she’s grand but think her delivery needs polish. That’s all I’m saying.
I agree. But it sure helps to have the media in your corner. Obama bumped his head on AF1. If that was a Republican it would have been played over and over and over on TV. Obama and other dems have made many media mistakes. But they are played down not up. The only way any Republican can overcome the media is to be absolutely perfect ... and even then they find something to harp on and on an on about. The media still has the power to control the message even if someone hits a homerun. Paul Ryan is next once they chop down Michelle Bachmann.