Jonathan Chait:

In recent days, the vibe emanating from Mitt Romney’s campaign has grown downright giddy. Despite a lack of any evident positive momentum over the last week — indeed, in the face of a slight decline from its post-Denver high — the Romney camp is suddenly bursting with talk that it will not only win but win handily. (“We’re going to win,” said one of the former Massachusetts governor’s closest advisers. “Seriously, 305 electoral votes.”)

This is a bluff. Romney is carefully attempting to project an atmosphere of momentum, in the hopes of winning positive media coverage and, thus, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If our media wasn’t quite so credulous this would be written off as the self-delusion it is. Instead, partly because reporters can’t stand anything but a horse race in politics because it’s so much easier to write about that than it is to write about policy differences, which are legion, many trees will be sacrificed and many pixels wasted telling us that Romney’s a likely winner.

Put your faith in guys like Nate Silver instead.