s far as the TV networks are concerned, it was a not-so-Super Tuesday.
The stale air of anticlimax hung over the coverage of yesterday's presidential primaries, although the ever-resourceful talking heads of television strained to ratchet up the drama by forecasting a torrid general election campaign.
There was no hiding a certain disappointment, however, as the challenger-squelching scope of the victories by Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush became clear. ''It was an awful lot of fun while it lasted for us political junkies,'' ABC analyst George Stephanopolous sighed last night.
Just five short weeks ago, after a New Hampshire primary in which GOP insurgent John McCain pummeled Bush and Democratic challenger Bill Bradley finished just four points behind Gore, the networks had reason to expect that yesterday might be a pulsing cliffhanger.
But both upstarts faded badly, and killjoy pollsters took away any hope of a gripping story line with pre-primary surveys indicating a cakewalk for Gore and a comfortable victory by Bush. With just a handful of primary results in at 7:45 p.m., CNN analyst Tony Blankley proclaimed: ''Both McCain and Bradley had their chances and probably blew it.''
That leaves the TV networks staring across the arid desert of an eight-month general election campaign. Even Bush seemed to allude to the general media malaise, saying yesterday, ''I know there's maybe a sense this primary may be ending.''
There was so little suspense that broadcast networks CBS, NBC, and ABC - which have tiptoed away from politics because it's a ratings loser - confined their Super Tuesday coverage to the evening newscasts and brief cut-ins during prime time.
On the national 24-hour cable outlets that dominate political coverage nowadays, the absence of suspense left CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC groping for subplots and alternate themes.
A few that emerged early and were recycled throughout the day and night: Can Bush and McCain mend fences, or will the latter - despite his disavowals - consider a third-party candidacy? Will Gore be hobbled in the general election campaign by the criminal conviction last week of his longtime fund-raiser? Will Bush's embrace of the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson be a political liability in the long run? And whatever happened to the once-red-hot Bradley?
As with sportscasters who possess 20-20 hindsight once a football game tilts decisively , reporters and pundits picked apart the tactics and messages of McCain and Bradley.
Fox News Channel Trace Gallagher said McCain erred in spending only $2.1 million in California, ''a drop in the bucket ... not enough to get a challenger's message out.'' On MSNBC, analyst Laura Ingraham opined that McCain was undone because he didn't realize ''you can't run a primary against your own party.'' CNN pundit Robert Novak thundered that McCain's speech labeling Pat Robertson and the Rev. Jerry Falwell as ''agents of intolerance'' was ''a major political mistake.'' On Fox News Channel, Mara Liasson of National Public Radio chimed in that the speech ''definitely, definitely backfired on John McCain.''
Inevitably, Falwell and Robertson were in demand last night. Falwell, on MSNBC, showed a gracious side, saying that ''John McCain would make a great vice presidential running mate.'' But Robertson, who popped up on all three cable networks, was less forgiving. He smugly pronounced on Fox News Channel that ''this is the beginning of the end for [McCain] .... I knew at the time it was going to destroy his campaign.''
Relatively few words were wasted on Bradley, which was perhaps fitting because he has been the forgotten man of the primary process since New Hampshire. MSNBC anchor Brian Williams summarized the media rap on Bradley: ''aloof at times, imperious at times.'' CNN's Jeff Greenfield said shortly before 11 p.m. that Bradley's candidacy ''appears to be effectively over.'' Greenfield underscored the steep odds Bradley faced against Gore by noting that 1952 was the last time a sitting vice president was denied the endorsement of his party.
Tiring of the postmortems, many pundits surveyed the road ahead. Following an interview with a moderate-sounding Bush on CNN, analyst Margaret Carlson observed dryly: ''That scampering sound is Bush [moving] back to the middle.'' On MSNBC, Jonathan Alter threw cold water on speculation that McCain might seek the Reform Party nomination by noting that McCain had once told him that party founder Ross Perot was ''nuttier than a fruitcake.''
Locally, campaign coverage received prominent play during evening newscasts on WCVB-TV (Channel 5), WHDH-TV (Channel 7), WBZ-TV (Channel 4), and NECN. As the evening wore on, though, Channels 5, 4, and 7 largely aired network entertainment programs - except for the occasional cut-in - while NECN stayed with the Super Tuesday story.
In keeping with tradition, the networks refrained from explicitly revealing the head-to-head results of exit polls, though several did report the results of samplings of general voter opinions of the candidates. The instant that polls closed in each state, the networks leapt to project the winners, concluding at 11 p.m. with the California results.
