Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT LOCATION: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2004/s1234209.htm Broadcast: 03/11/2004 US result a 'crushing defeat' for pollsters Reporter: Tony Jones
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, JOURNALIST: Well, I hate to sound banal, but to me what it means is a crushing defeat for the racket that is formed by the media and the opinion poll industry, who have for weeks, months, been telling us it's a cliffhanger, purely in order as far as I can see to attract attention to themselves and the enormous tranche of campaign money that goes into their pockets the closer it is.
If this wasn't being done by the American press and poll industry, it would be being reported by the American press.
All I wanted, I have to say, is a result that made the pollsters look stupid and it well exceeded my expectations in this respect.
As to what it means otherwise, there wasn't anything very much between the candidates that you could say was a moral or political issue.
I mean, there was no big trouble between them about, for example, the war in Iraq, which did in the end I think become the single issue of the campaign even if not the only one.