Whatever happened to the post-bounce era?

"A day or two later, the numbers came in and showed that Kerry's "triumph" had mysteriously not prompted the traditional post-convention bounce in the polls. Even Michael Dukakis got a bounce. But not Kerry. Indeed, according to Gallup, he had the first recorded instance of negative bounce. Fortunately, the Dems and their chums in the press were able to reassure themselves that this lack of bounce didn't mean anything.

"'Just before the convention, polls showed that many more Americans than usual had already made up their minds about whom to support, leaving a small number of undecided voters to woo,' explained Bill Straub of the Scripps-Howard news service. As for the Republican convention, 'Bush is similarly unlikely to see his poll numbers flourish.'

"Ingenious! It was the instant conventional wisdom. There are no swing voters left to bounce. The post-convention bounce is no longer relevant. It's a thing of the past. It belongs to the age of buggy whips and whalebone corsets. Forget about it. We're living in the post-bounce era of American politics. Only a chump not up to speed on this new political reality would be dumb enough to suggest that the absence of bounce is because Kerry's Vietnam-retro acceptance speech was a flop."

Read the rest of Mark Steyn's column here. Trust me, you need to read the whole thing.