So, in the last few weeks there has been an ISIS-loving Muslim who shot up a gay night club in Orlando Florida, an ISIS-loving Muslim in France who drove his truck into a crowd on Bastille Day, and an ISIS-loving Muslim in Germany who stabbed several passengers on a train. There has also been the murder of five Dallas police by a radical black sniper, the murder of three Baton Rouge police by a radical black semi-anarchist, and several simple criminal killings of police. This sort of thing is supposed to rebound to the advantage of the tough-guy candidate. But none of it seems to be making much difference now. Why not?
I can only assume, because the way the US media operate these days, in the last few months before an election, the election sucks all the oxygen out of the news cycle, so nothing else gets any sustained attention. The only exception I remember is 2008, when we suffered the worst financial crisis since 1929 less than two months before the election. But that was obviously an exceptional case.*
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*In 1956, which was before my time, the Soviet Union invaded Hungary, Israel invaded Egypt with British and French backing, and the Secretary of State had emergency surgery for cancer, all in the immediate lead-up to the election. Needless to day, all of this grabbed headlines. What I don't know is whether presidential elections were such all-deadening events then as they are now.
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