Atrios is writing on Iraq but he could well be writing about presidential politics or Bush’s approval ratings or any other number of subjects:

The absurdity of everything continues. It’s just impossible for common sense and facts to penetrate our contemporary discourse anymore.

This is seen in the primary setting in Matt Yglesias’s post on Romney and the South Carolina primary titled, “Heads Romney Wins, Tails Romney Wins.”

To which Atrios writes, echoing his previous post on Iraq, “It’s amazing the degree to which the actual mechanics of winning the primary contests are ignored in favor of how various outcomes impact press narratives that the press is somehow powerless to control.”

Delegate strategies, caucus mechanics, and efforts to make it harder for people to participate are all facts that should have some penetration into press narratives. Instead we get narratives on momentum that only look forward towards the winnowing of a field, with no retrospection on what happens when the press is wrong about what voters will do with their opportunity to participate in the presidential process.

Oh and somewhere along the way it was decided that there would be no substantive coverage of policy proposals of the various candidates. But haircuts and swimsuits are OK.