Call me silly but I think the REALITY has set in for Joe Scarborough!

[CTyankee]

He was giddy after the debate but today I noticed three things happening on the show that seemed to sober him up:

1) the good numbers from polling done over the past few days, esp. internals from one swing state where there was a strong percentage of "already voted" Democrats.

2) the Bloomberg rep whose analysis of "Are you better off today than you were 4 years ago" was pretty stunning. He knocked down one of Joe's fave talking points: it was lack of revenue that was the major cause of deficit growth, not the stimulus, as Joe likes to posit on a regular basis...oops...

3) Mark Halperin pointing out that Romney has to win ALL of the swing states to win the election. Halperin had a "not taking any of your shit, Joe" look on his face as he was reporting.

Joe was weakly trying to keep up his enthusiasm for Romney but I thought it was getting pretty clear to him that his guy wasn't gonna make it, despite Joe's joy after the debate.

Too bad, so sad...

[Whiskeytide]

1. Joe's enthusiasm after the debate was ginned up...

... for ratings - the "its gonna be close, you need to tune in tomorrow" meme. He's an actor now, not a pundit.

[CTyankee]

2. All the more surprising, then, that he got such cold water thown on him from guests and regulars on

the show today. Usually, Chuckles Todd and Mark Halperin are weak on any Obama gains but it looks like they are just not going to be caught on the wrong side of this election. And I was expecting a real Obama teardown from the Bloomberg guy. I was VERY surprised to hear their analysis! Usually, Joe's "expert" guests are their to bolster the Republicans arguments, not the Dems.

If you get a chance, folks, look at the clips from the show today on the Morning Joe page of nbc.com.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. That's because they went way overboard

earlier in the week including the Gallup poll fiasco and the deceit of not distinguishing or explaining "registered voters" vs "likely voters", and downplaying the jobs numbers.

I've noticed that Mika has been a little more vocal the past couple days.

[CTyankee]

4. Fools gold. That's what they were finding!

[julian09]

6. I think they just didn't want Obama's base to get overconfident, and not show up to vote.

[julian09]

5. When unemployment numbers drop came out

which were very good, Joe took to talking nonsense to kill time in that segment, because he doesn't want good economic news to
be out front. Rmoneys gains were expected to close some from their lows, anyway. Joe was campaigning hard for Rmoney the last three weeks. He was saying that Obama was really bad debater, trying to depress Dems into not voting. He knows that Obama will win, but is more worried about down ticket for Repugs. Obama was right on the facts in the debate, but he didn't challenge Rmoney on
his new change in positions, because no one knows his true positions.
Repugs block every move Obama does to improve economy and jobs, then blame him for economy, Joe should make that main point tonight to huge audience. Another R talking point is Obama will raise taxes on small business, while in truth he actually cut taxes 18 times for small businesses. He does want to increase taxes onbig corporations that do not pay ANY income taxes and some actually get a rebate on top of not paying taxes.

[libodem]

7. Anything that makes that babyfaced twit cry

Is fine by me. Mica should act like something other than a pet rock, once in a while, too.

Is she THAT pretty, never to have to speak anything of substance, while sitting at his side? Nice work if you can get it.