Is Romney Blowing the Election for Fox News, or Did Fox News Blow It For Romney Long Ago?

by Don Manning

Romney's campaign appears to be betting that there are enough Republican media consumers in America to win a general election. But my guess is they realized long ago that this is a losing bet. The problem is that, if Romney so much as mentions facts and events from the reality-based world, he is crucified by consumers of Fox "News" and Rush Limbaugh whose self-esteem and/or business plans depend upon denying any such a world exists. The man can't win!

Tomorrow night's Coffee Party Radio show will be a forum for moderates who remain in Republican party, and the conflict they have with the "base" of the party. But when we talk about the "Republican base," who are we really talking about if not Republican media consumers?  As Jonathan Bernstein explained recently in Salon: 

"....Romney himself, or at least his campaign, seems to have massively misunderstood how the economy is perceived. That’s perhaps due to the conservative closed-information feedback loop. If most of your information comes through Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, you might think that the economy was just fine or maybe a bit on the weak side until January 2009 and that it has gone from bad to worse since then. Certainly, that’s what Republican rank-and-file voters seem to think.

"The result is ...rather than inviting people to compare the present to how things should be — and therefore encouraging them to compare Barack Obama to whatever their ideal might be — Romney is asking people to compare Obama to George W. Bush. While that might work really well among those listening to Sean Hannity or Glenn Beck, it’s a losing fight with everyone else."