I keep harping at how horrible the Democrats are at "working the ref" but right now they have a golden opportunity.  A damned golden one.

Why I push Eric Alterman's book and part about "working the ref" is because it WORKS.

I have been an avid reader of political magazines since the mid-80s and I used to watch many of the political talk shows back in that era, and one of the conservative's main pushes was how the media was so liberal.  And that has stuck, regardless of countless researchers and writers that have disproven that the media is not liberal, but that is how the majority of Americans see it and see it in a knee-jerk fashion. 

So the golden opportunity is this - note how many have pointed out that all the major media outlets have NEVER demanded Trump step aside. Not one of them. But now, after one horrible debate, it is piling on Biden time.

Now, if the Democrats were smart, they would use this entire episode of hammering the media and point out their horrible coverage, demands and lack of Trump demanded to do the same thing for much larger offenses (Jesus, how fucking sick is this country? You demand a man who had a cold and a poor performance to step aside when not asking a rapist, insurrectionist, horrible person, liar..............to do the same thing?).

And the benefits of such a message could resonate through November and Biden's after debate speech proves that he's not a bag of bones yet and this also could be used in the larger narrative of Biden's resolve through life.  Imagine if he came out even more energized, pointing out that he did have a cold, but that he is not making excuses like the felon sex abuser and like he did, yelling how people from Scranton always get back up after getting knocked down, brush themselves off and make no excuses.

A good political operative could build on this fiasco and turn it into a huge benefit. But alas, just like this place, the Democrats are like herding cats when trying to get them to stay on message and a similar message.

I don't know about everyone else, but I was under the impression CNN was going to fact-check, however, their failure and horrible moderation are the Democrat's fault for being fooled.  It is like boxing: the boxer is responsible for keeping themselves safe at all times and the Democrats (possibly in their poor ability at knife fighting) are horrible at this.  Going in they should have KNOWN Trump was going to lie every chance he got and here they act like, oh, someone will stop it if it gets too bloody.

What went on here is the classic story of the scorpion trying to get a ride across the river on the frog's back and both drowning when the scorpion stings the frog midstream while pointing out that stinging the frog was just in his nature and it was the frog's fault for not realizing that.

Now, as for the conspiracy part - I believe CNN received so much pre-debate backlash of the proposed fact-check that, even if they ever meant to do it in real-time, they were too afraid to do it, so they did it online.  I think this goes back to when Candy Crowley corrected Romney that Obama never called the 9/11 attacks terrorism when he in fact did.  Conservatives were madder than hell she did that, remember?

And what is this called?  Ah, yes, "working the ref."  Today, on all the Sunday talk shows, that should be the Democrat's cudgel - that all of you in the media have NEVER demanded Trump step aside.  And like an avalanche, this could have benefits the rest of the campaign.