Numbers guys whose smarts and analysis we respect agree: The alleged Gaza protest vote had modest support in yesterday's Michigan Democratic primary.
"'Uncommitted' didn't really get that big a share of the vote," says Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. "Yes, it got 13 percent, although that's not terribly larger than the Uncommitted vote against Barack Obama in 2012...You could spin the results as being bad for Biden...You could also spin the results as being good for Biden, because turnout was robust and he still got a very large chunk of the vote."
("Very large chunk," in this instance, is 81 percent. Not too shabby, especially when you take Trump's underperformance in the same state on the same day. More on that later.)
We cats got all our primary night news from the interwebs, because cable TV is insufferable, and last night was no exception. It's very frustrating that so-called journalists appear to think that hewing to their scripted narratives is more important than how people actually vote. Just when we're ready to hack up multiple hairballs, though, Sabato has beamed in with a very mild-mannered observation.
"This might, collectively, be the least-competitive Presidential nominating season in modern history," he says. "There's usually a lot to talk about during primary season, but this time there isn't. We are building toward another blockbuster Presidential general election. But the primary season isn't providing much drama. So there is a desire to hunt for drama."
Thanks, Professor Sabato — what a low-key, super-nice way of saying that the media are only interested in likes, page views and clicks. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.
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