Basically, it came down to the various left-leaning talking heads acknowledging among themselves that Stephen Harper was indeed "scary smart"... and that, this time around, to paraphrase LBJ... the Liberals apparently "couldn't pour piss out of a boot, if the instructions were written on the heel."
Of course, these guys are all privy to a little media peekaboo... and they're all desperately trying to get ahead of the next pitch... which last night, came screaming right across home plate...
“The bottom line is that the Conservatives are in significantly better shape in these battlegrounds in the three provinces than they were in the election,” said Peter Donolo, a partner with polling company the Strategic Counsel.I have to confess right here, to a moment of unadulterated glee... imagining Peter Donolo, Teflon Jean's former Director of Communications... bleeding from his ears... as he contemplated releasing the results of this latest poll.
“People who reside in these ridings think the country is on the right track.”
The fact is, only diehards like Cherniak still think Stephane Dion has a chance of weathering, never mind overcoming, the rising storm. It could be, that things are even more volatile than folks have previously imagined.
It oughta be an interesting five weeks.
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RELATED: Meanwhile, south of the border
According to Safire’s Political Dictionary, the “heartbeat away from the presidency” locution may date from 1952, when the Democratic nominee, Adlai Stevenson, attacked the Republican V.P. candidate, the 39-year old Richard Nixon, “who asks you to place him a heartbeat from the presidency.”*
A half-century before, William McKinley’s campaign manager, Mark Hanna, alarmed by the prospect of the 41-year-old Teddy Roosevelt as the V.P. nominee in 1900, is reported to have warned “that there is only one life between the Vice President and the Chief Magistracy of the nation.”
In neither case were voters moved by the “heartbeat away” concern.
McKinley and Eisenhower both won easily.