Even before I get to the Republican convention -- I'm blogging from the Humphrey Terminal at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport -- I'm discovering how useless the mainstream media will be at this convention. Drudge links back to what could be described as Dan Rather's blog, and he manages to make it even more content-free than his news broadcasts. As an example, here's the first entry for Rather today at his Convention Journal site:

Not much of it, really. Only a few people besides workmen inside the hall. Among the few who were there, the most popular topic of conversation was whether President Bush might surprise and announce during the convention that Vice President Cheney would not be running with him this year.

This rumor has swirled around a bit from time to time throughout the year, the chatter being that Mr. Bush would prefer to run with Sen. John McCain – or maybe Rudy Giuliani – and will sooner or later find a way to do it.

Now that would be stunning news -- President Bush reversing himself on the status of Dick Cheney after insisting for months that he would never dump Cheney from the ticket. If Rather broke that story, he could face his oncoming retirement knowing he went out on top. It might even be enough to knock the Republicans off their winning stride and change the face of the election, a result in which Rather would especially delight.

So what does he have as sources for this new lead?

No one can be found inside the Bush-Cheney campaign who does anything but scoff at this. That, of course, doesn't keep people from musing about it and some were today, but none of them were anywhere near in a position to know anything.

They were just shooting the bull.

Dan Rather and CBS News -- they're on top of all the news that isn't.

His next item manages to be even less exciting than merely repeating an old and discredited rumor from people who don't have any access to decision-makers. He spends five paragraphs of text explaining that CBS News uses six analysts to determine whether the Republicans will get a bounce out of this convention. The analysts come up with the following possibilities:

1. Bush will get a significant bounce.
2. Bush will get no bounce at all.
3. Bush may lose a point or two.

If you want more of this cutting political analysis, be sure to keep your eyes on CBS. Oh, and please remember that the November election will be on November 9th this year.

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I'm in a pickle of a dilly here (said in Ned Flanders' voice). On the one hand, I don't want to write anything about the convention because its a serious non-event and makes me snooze just thinking about it. On... [Read More]

Tracked on August 29, 2004 4:49 PM