The blog-o-sphere was roiled yesterday by Obama’s fast-declining lead post-debate, especially Andrew Sullivan at the Dish. HuffPo stirred the pot, posting about Sully’s supposed freakout:
After Obama’s poor debate performance last week, and the release of what Sullivan described as “devastating” Pew poll results yesterday, the Newsweek/Daily Beast writer had what can only be described as a major freakout. He flatly declared that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney “is kicking the president’s ass.”
Sullivan did not hide his astonishment that, after the debate, Romney’s poll numbers swung 12 points in his favor. “I repeat: a 12 point swing,” he stressed. “On every single issue, Obama has instantly plummeted into near-oblivion. He still has some personal advantages over Romney – even though they are all much diminished.”
Since the article went up, Sullivan’s inbox has been flooded with readers’ reactions. Conservative blowhard Matt Drudge also capitalized on Sullivan’s rant, using it as fodder to incense right-wing bloggers. Today Sullivan responded:
They infer that I’ve given up or turned on him or whatever. And, yes, I am prone to drama, but have safeguards against it – we made sure to run dissents all day yesterday, and the Dish team’s mission is to push back at me, not echo me. I just want to reiterate a few things: that I still firmly believe it is essential for global stability and economic recovery that Obama be re-elected; that his record is about as good as anyone could expect given the circumstances; and that I have seen the alternative to him lie and shape-shift so much in the last couple of weeks, he is even less principled and more ruthless than I feared.
