Don't bother to vote in the mid-terms.

The media have decided the outcome. Dems will lose big in November. Yes, yes, Harry Reid has turned things around in his Nevada re-election bid, and John McCain's in a death struggle with an obscure radio shock jock. But a Dem cave-in is the conventional wisdom, and the media are sticking with it. For now. For variety's sake, an "improbable Dem comeback" storyline will commence sometime after Labor Day, then give way to a return to the current CW. 

Gloomy Gusses: Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama and Harry Reid. (AP)

Dems Start to Panic As Midterm Reality Sets In. Must be true. It's in Time, a bit of a latecomer to the Dem disaster ubiquity. I think I've seen this story now about 1,832 times in the past three weeks.

And, to be sure, there's no denying the anecdotal evidence. Pelosi has begun consulting Nancy Reagan's astrologer. In an unusual joint venture, the Dem House caucuses of '06 and '08 have formed a Wicca circle to establish contact with the spirit of the late Lee Atwater. And last Tuesday, Barney Frank, who's not even in trouble in Massachusetts, set his hair on fire.

Or so they say.

The Dems will hold the Senate and lose the House, incurring about the same number of House losses as Reagan in 1982 and Dubya in 2006. Worse things have happened. (Clinton in 1994 and Dubya in 2006.) Progressives needn't break out the cyanide spritzers just yet.