When the sleeper wakes

Watching the mainstream anti-Howard media at the moment, I get the uncomfortable feeling you might get from watching a sleepwalker marching towards the edge of a precipice. If you could wake them, wouldn't it be almost as dangerous?

I confess to being disconcerted by the degree to which the media have wrapped themselves up in the story spun from the ludicrous polling being delivered at the moment. The 'story' of Howard's imminent annihilation is, as of about 48 hours ago, now the new gold standard in reporting on this subject, and everything is framed against this assumption.

I'm not discounting the possibility that Howard might lose, though personally I think it unlikely. My real question is, what will all these people, who are now so convinced that Howard is finished, do if he wins? I've noted before the need of the Howard-haters to invent myths to explain his repeated election victories, when everything in their worldview tells them that such a thing should be impossible. The emotional investment at this point, however, seems so great that no myth could explain it. Still, I probably underestimate the capacity of the Howard-haters for mythic rationalizations. If you can persuade yourself that vast numbers of people who normally vote for Howard are now enraged by his IR laws, you can surely believe six other impossible things before breakfast.