IF DEMOCRATS DO WELL IN THE MIDTERMS, THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA WILL STILL SAY THEY LOST

I was planning to write about Herschel Walker's very bad day when I ran across this tweet, in which a former New York Times and CNN reporter quotes Democratic pollster John Anzalone:

hobbling Democrats: history, high inflation and weak presidential approval

hobbling Republicans: delusions, dead dogs, abortion deception and Donald Trump

"this cycle is literally nuts," says Biden pollster @JohnAnzo. "headwinds vs headcases."

— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) October 4, 2022

"Dead dogs," of course, is a reference to another story that broke yesterday: a report on scientific experiments overseen by Dr. Mehmet Oz at Columbia University that killed hundreds of dogs.

Harwood and Anzalone are telling us that Democrats should be losing, because "high inflation and weak presidential approval" are creating "headwinds," but Republican "headcases" -- especially Walker and Oz, who were endorsed by Trump -- are on the verge of depriving Republicans of their rightful victory.

I'm not convinced that the electon is over for either Walker or Oz. Walker has been neck-and-neck with Raphael Warnock despite past revelations of unacknowledged children and domestic abuse. News that he paid for a girlfriend's abortion might be shrugged off by Georgia's mostly Christian conservatives as bad behavior the Lord is now helping him to avoid. Last night's tweetstorm by Walker's right-wing son Christian might be harder to dismiss.

I know my mom and I would really appreciate if my father Herschel Walker stopped lying and making a mockery of us.

You’re not a “family man” when you left us to bang a bunch of women, threatened to kill us, and had us move over 6 times in 6 months running from your violence.

— Christian Walker (@ChristianWalk1r) October 4, 2022

Every family member of Herschel Walker asked him not to run for office, because we all knew (some of) his past. Every single one. He decided to give us the middle finger and air out all of his dirty laundry in public, while simultaneously lying about it.

I’m done.

— Christian Walker (@ChristianWalk1r) October 4, 2022

But I lived through 2016 and "Grab 'em by the pussy." I thought it was over for Trump then. So I'm not declaring Warnock the winner yet.

And Oz has been gaining ground on John Fetterman, although a new USA Today poll has Fetterman up by 6. Fox News won't stop trying to elect Oz. So he's still very much in contention.

Nevertheless, if Democrats do well in November, the mainstream media takeaway will be that it was a transitory reaction to the Dobbs decision and the result of bad candidate selection on the Republicans' part. There won't be any acknowledgment that a large portion of the country is disgusted with Republicans and that other voters voted Democratic because they started to notice what Republicans really believe. It will be suggested that a Trump-free GOP would have run the table, as if such a party is even possible. Democrats might exceed expectations, but they won't get credit for it.

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UPDATE: Here you go (Axios's Josh Kraushaar responds to a GOP consultant):

Just like they didn’t want to confront Trump’s election conspiracy theories in 2021 — which cost them *two* Georgia Senate seats.

— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) October 4, 2022