8/1/2008
The loving and focused treatment that Senator Obama receives by the mainstream media is positively shameful. The fact that four news anchors accompanied the Senator on his “world tour,” and newsbreaks throughout the day telling Americans about the latest leg of his trip. CNN even interrupted a show to announce that Senator Obama’s plane had landed safely on the first leg of his trip. Personally, I cannot remember ever seeing a candidate get such four-star treatment.
Meanwhile, McCain has been getting minimal notice in the press. What has been clear, however, is that the media is more than willing to tell us when McCain “disagrees” with Obama. So, when McCain talks about his own vision for the country, he gets no attention. When McCain critiques Obama’s words or actions, he gets attention.
Well, it seems the McCain Campaign has figured this out and rolled out an ad two days ago which threw Senator Obama’s rock-star like status and treatment right back into his face. And it did so very effectively, with nothing in the ad being false or deceptive, but rather giving us a visual view of where this candidate is on the issues.
Of course, the media was livid. And in their anger, they moved this ad up to the top of every media hour, right where you can be sure most Americans who are paying attention could see it.
What has happened since the debate began? If you look at the Gallup daily polling numbers, you find that the first major lead Obama has enjoyed so far in the race, which came on the heels of his world tour, has been erased. For the first time, Senators Obama and McCain are tied at 44% each.
Of course, there is still a great deal of time left in the race and this will change again, but it will be interesting to see if this trend produces any change in strategy from the Obama Campaign. In speeches over the past several days, Obama has been accusing McCain of “inciting fear” in voters over the fact that he does not “look like those others presidents on our currency.” Certainly a less-than-subtle referral to Senator Obama’s race. But other than that, it has been business as usual for Senator Obama.
So is Senator McCain the problem here? I would argue that he is not.
Senator McCain is merely responding in the only way to which the media rewards. The media has consistently rewarded McCain for negativity, therefore he is giving them what they want; what they are willing to respond to.
These media professionals tell you they hate negativity, but, at the same time, they reward it with more attention. So, it is a surprise that we see more from candidates?
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