It is interesting to watch the reaction as Dems take a lap to celebrate their presumptive victory in November. It used to be that the reaction to these kinds of stories was positive from the party who is poised to take power – people would say that voters liked to cast votes for the “winning team” so they’d be more inclined to get out and vote or cast a vote across party lines to think of their team as winning in the election. Increasingly, the response I see is despondence – reports of a Democratic lead in the polls suppress voter turnout because “well, they’re going to win anyway so why do I have to vote.” I don’t think the mentality of voters trying to decide how to vote in the face of polling numbers has changed much, so I’m inclined to believe it has more to do with what kinds of comments get play on traditional and social media.