How High Will Media Set The Bar For Romney?

Mitt Romney continues to hold onto a Big Lead going into next Tuesday's New Hampshire primary.
But just any Romney win may not be enough for the dominant media.
Instead, the media will insist on a veritable Romney landslide.
The way the media will set this up, the expectations game will prevail. So, for example -- they may say that a Romney vitory of 20 or 25% over his nearest opponent is expected. They may very well decree that's the kind of margin that will be needed for Romney to claim victory.
Forget that Romney lost New Hampshire last time around.
Forget that New Hampshire voters may be notoriously finicky and change their minds at the last minute.
Forget that the Anybody But Romney crowd is now pouring a ton of dough into New Hampshire.
Forget that people in the granite state don't often follow Iowa's lead.
All of those things would make ANY Romney victory all the more impressive.
But those things don't matter to the New York Times, the Washington Post, The LA Times or the Boston Globe. And they don't matter to NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN or MesSNBC. What will matter is the threshold they determine -- probably up to a 20% Romney margin of victory. They mean to set the bar for Romney, period.
So, if Santorum (just as an example and not to predict he'll actrually be the runnerup) finishes in second a full 10 points behind Romney, the dominant media may very well declare it a Santorum "victory."
It's an expectations game.
And the media delight in this sorta thing.
They want to see the GOP presidential battle go on as long as possible with the thought that any eventual Republican nominee may emerge so bruised and bloddy that there will be no road to victory.
So, in response the Romney people are wise to lower expectations in New Hampshire.
It's the only thing they can do in the face of this ridiculous nonsense.