Not ready for prime time

It turns out that more people were watching football — the relatively inconsequential games of week one — than were watching President Clinton’s 48-minute speech defending himself, and, by proxy, Barack Obama. So much for that.

New employment numbers come out today, and Friday is the most important day of the week in political messaging: Friday is the day when the subject of the weekend talk shows will be determined.

The job numbers, like the NFL’s opening day, will, simply by timing, overshadow the convention and soften any post-convention bounce.

The president went into the convention already with an advantage: RealClearPolitics had him and Mitt Romney tied at 46.7 percent. The convention has a number of factors working against it, and so I would be surprised if the president got anything more than a 2-point bounce.

But in 2012, in an election year that everyone knows is critical to the future of the country, and, therefore, the future of the world, in a time when independents and moderates are going extinct, that’s all it takes.

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