Are we all 'Bronco Bamma' girl, so tired of election we could cry?
Are we all 鈥淏ronco Bamma鈥� girl, so tired of the election we could cry?
Don鈥檛 know what we鈥檙e talking about? You obviously haven鈥檛 wasted any time on viral videos over the last several days.聽 is four-year-old Abigael Evans, a Colorado tyke who burst into exhausted tears after hearing one too many reports on the 2012 presidential election.
The You Tube clip of this sobbing tyke has drawn close to 2 million views. It shows a crying Abigael saying 鈥淚鈥檓 tired of Bronco Bamma and Mitt Romney.鈥�
Off, screen, her mom Elizabeth Evans asks, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why you鈥檙e crying?鈥�
Abigael gives an affirmative nod, and hiccups.
鈥淥h, it鈥檒l be over soon, Abby, OK?鈥� says her mom.
Apparently the little girl had heard one too many NPR election reports in the car transporting her to and from day care, since her family doesn鈥檛 watch TV at home. That鈥檚 what her mom said, anyway. You know E.J. Dionne and David Brooks 鈥� when they get into it, it鈥檚 terrifying. It鈥檚 like pro wrestling, except they鈥檙e both wearing ties and neither one is rising from their chair or raising their voice.
NPR issued a . 鈥淲e must confess, the campaign鈥檚 gone on long enough for us, too. Let鈥檚 just keep telling ourselves: 鈥極nly a few more days, only a few more days, only a few more days鈥�.鈥�
You know what we have to say to NPR about that? Liar, liar, your pledge-drive tote bag鈥檚 on fire.
NPR, as well as the entire US media, would be thrilled if the campaign kept on for at least a few more weeks. That鈥檚 because it鈥檚 a huge viewer/listener/reader attraction. The cumulative number of people who watched the three presidential debates was about 192 million. The first debate alone drew 67.2 million viewers. That鈥檚 over half the number of people who voted for president in 2008.
Yes, but average citizens are sick of the campaign, right? So Bronco Bamma girl speaks for them, like the Lorax speaks for the trees? After all, her You Tube clip attracted lots of comments seconding her emotions and bemoaning the length and negativity of the campaign. 聽(At least, it did until the comments section was disabled. Haters, you know.)
We鈥檙e not sure about that either. Theoretically we can understand how three months of attack ads would render one mute. But polls show voters have mixed views about the presidential race per se.
Let鈥檚 look at a that鈥檚 apropos. It finds that 63 percent of respondents see the campaign as 鈥渋nteresting.鈥� Interestingly, that number has almost doubled since June, when only 34 percent made the same choice.
So as the campaign has progressed, more people, not fewer, got sucked into the drama that is Obama versus Romney.
As to whether the campaign has stretched on and on, the public is about split, according to Pew. Forty-nine percent judged that it鈥檚 gone on too long. Fifty-five percent said it was too negative. So the majority went with 鈥淏ronco Bamma鈥� girl on that.
On the whole, though, we鈥檇 conclude from these numbers that sometimes an unhappy child is just an unhappy child 鈥� not a symbol of US populace frustrations.
