Bob Herbert: The country doesn't think the way it did 30 years ago.

Because we're just about into the home stretch of the 2012 presidential election, I literally rush home now in anticipation of watching Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz, Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell. I go to Martin Bashir's MSNBC page as well to see what I missed from his program @ 4:00. I sit there each evening and listen to these hosts and their guests so passionate about bringing America the truth of what is going on in this election. Night after night they tell us the truth.

Chris Matthews to me has been the biggest surprise and he should be acknowledged for his willingness to show case what the GOP is doing with voter suppression. I don't sit there and applaud as I listen to him. I just thank him quietly for speaking out. He is getting accolades all across our country, deservedly so.

All the guests on MSNBC in the evenings - from Eugene Robinson and Richard Wolffe to Crystal Ball to Bob Herbert to David Corn to Howard Dean to EJ Dionne to Karen Finney and on and on. These are the real professionals. They hold nothing back. Without them, the lies would go unanswered, as they did for many many years.

They are simply telling the truth.

It took many years to get to this point. It should never have happened to begin with.

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Markos/Dkos wrote this this morning. It's beautifully written.

From Day 1, all of Mitt Romney's foes had a clear narrative about him—he was a callous, heartless, elitist, vulture capitalist. In other words, "a dick."

The stage was set by Occupy with their "99 percent" narrative, which allowed Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich to get mileage with their "vulture capitalist" attacks against Romney before the party establishment shut them down.

But it's been the liberal establishment that has cemented that narrative, from the genuinely liberal media, to the Democratic Party, to the big money groups (from Super PACs to labor unions to progressive issue groups). It's been an easy narrative to work with, given that Mitt Romney is genuinely a***. From the way he treated his lessers at prep school to his tenure at Bain, from the way he demeaned NASCAR fans to the insufferable entitlement of his wife—all of that has allowed us to paint a picture of Romney that has left him the most unpopular GOP nominee in modern polling history, and the first to have higher unfavorable than favorable ratings.

And why is that narrative important? Because as people become aware of such narratives, they then try to decide whether it's legit. If you can reinforce a negative narrative, you're winning. Hence, the importance of the 47 percent video.

Tim, 57, said he and his wife had "worked all our lives and played by the rules." Though he voted for Ronald Reagan and considered Romney, Tim said he now feels "threatened by this person and what he is liable to do."

"It just validated things I had felt about him before," said Tim.

Now let's look at the conservative narrative against Barack Obama—he's an incompetent bumbler in way over his head! But he's also a ruthless communist hell-bent on destroying capitalism. He's a secret Muslim! But he associated with a racist Christian preacher. He's not even American, doesn't understand our values and was probably born in Kenya! But he's a corrupt Chicago street thug.

It's quite obvious why Republicans can't get any traction against a president who should've been, by all measures, vulnerable this year. If you're an undecided voter, you've got two messages hitting you. The first is all about Romney's immense wealth and inability to connect or even understand people like you. The other is a "throw stuff against the wall to see what'll stick" mishmash of crazy.

But here's the thing—our narrative against Romney has the benefit of being true, and Romney has a proclivity of reinforcing it on a daily basis, literally. Meanwhile, none of the GOP narratives against Obama are true, thus the only way they get reinforced is through repetition of the same old baseless and long-discredited claims. It's not like Obama will suddenly announce a pilgrimage to Mecca, or have afternoon tea with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. He's not going to shut down the stock exchange or vomit on a foreign head of state. The birthers aren't going to find anything remotely looking like "evidence" anytime soon, or ever.

Thus conservatives, frustrated that the nation doesn't see Obama like they do, simply amp up the volume, getting shriller and more unhinged. They try their once-successful standby, the veiled appeal to racism, by insinuating that Obama is weakening welfare requirements. They bizarrely claim he wants to destroy Medicare. They shriek that he's weak on national security.

But none of that conflicting mishmash is working. For a party and movement that once enjoyed enviable success in setting and reinforcing narratives (remember "Gore is an exaggerator"?), this utter fail is nothing short of remarkable. It's not like conservative message-meister Frank Luntz can get the tea party crazies on the same script.

But of course, they can't run on what really drives them to insanity about Obama. Though in this day and age, fewer and fewer people care that the president is black. Heck, they're not blind. They've figured it out.

Pat, It's sad to say, but a lot of older Americans can't accept the fact that a black man is President.

I don't care if he's purple or green. He's the best hope our country has for recovery.

Look, I went to hear Romney speak in Portland during the primaries. As a Democrat, I wanted to see what we'd be up against in the general.

What I saw did not give me pause to worry: Romney could not connect to the audience, even a friendly one. And it wasn't because he was so intellectual, like Al Gore. Romney did not impress with the quality of his arguments. No, the feeling I got from Romney, was that he was just an entitled puppet of corporate interests.

He came across as some CEO's idea of a presentable presidential candiate, the best that money could buy. His ideas were all boilerplate right-wing Republicanism. One minute he was talking about cutting entitlements, the next minute he was waxing lyrical about increasing defense spending and funding NASA. He was not a convincing speaker.

Amy, have to disagree with you here. Carter was not a good president. However, he is one of the best ex-presidents we've ever had!

Obama/Biden 2012

Carter was a clueless liberal idiot. Remember when Russia invaded Afghanistan?? Carter's response was: "Gee, I didn't know they would do that"

What a fool.

Remember 18% inflation under Carter? Reagan turned that completely around. I was amazed.

Yes, until Barrack came along, Jimmie "peanut head" Carter was our worst President by far.