Introducing Front Row

Read the article. Mr. West's lack of insight is perhaps best exemplified by his remark: "Rudy Giuliani, on top in the national polls, has been the biggest surprise in either party. No one expected a socially liberal Republican to be ahead on Labor Day in the year leading up to the election."

"No one expected..."? Mr. West, a lot of people expected it. Just not very many political reporters, who as a class know as much about Republicans as they do about quantum physics.

This is Beltway leftwing media group-think at its best. If Republican voters don't conform to the template political reporters go by, the same reporters express astonishment rather than question whether their template is correct.

Get some help, bruce. You see a bogey around every corner. "No one expected" is a figure of speech, generally meaning it's a surprise to most people. Just like "no one expected" the Cubs to be in first place in September.

Well, of course, some people did. I'm sure that Lou Pinella did, I'm sure the Cubs players did, maybe even a few fans.

"Few people expected", might be a more accurate term in this situation, or "the general consensus was". Anyway, who cares? We get the idea. For god's sake, man, get a life. Your rants about perceived liberal bias, the counting words, the "stunning" revelations from opensecrets.org, your pathological hard-on for Tribune reporters, is beyond tiresome.

And what makes you think you're an expert on Republicans? Where is it written that only Republicans know what other Republicans stand for? I'm a Democrat and I'm certain I know more about the views of my Republican friends and family than you do.

You personify the divisive politics that is so poisonous to discourse in this country. You want everything to be defined in terms of "sides", us vs. them, as if it were ever that simple. Many, if not all the topics of discussion on this blog transcend political party. Your silly posturing as the poster-boy for the hapless victims of the "drive-by" Media, is laughable on its face, counter-productive and anal-retentive, to say the least.

You want to pigeonhole everyone and everything. Not the kind of behavior one expects from a member of academia, unless of course, you have an agenda. My guess is that your agenda is that of your RNC employer. Until you say otherwise, I'm going to assume that that's the case. No law against it, but you should come clean. Are you a paid political whore, Mr. Analdice?

Another example of Mr. West's accuracy: "Still, nobody seems fully convinced that either man [Giuliani, Romney] will become the nominee."

"Nobody"?

Perhaps nobody Mr. West talks to. But a lot of people are convinced that one of these two will be the GOP nominee.