The Gadfly Climbing The Wall
No Winners: John McCain and Barack Obama are among those who won nothing in the bailout mess. Neither (apparently) helped deliver an agreeable compromise despite attempts to show them working to do so.
Flawed: The McCain strategy of keeping Sarah Palin from the media has troubled me from the get-go. I understand the desire to shelter her at the outset, but to trot her out for high-profile interviews with Charlie Gibson and then Katie Couric leaves me wondering if McCain's media advisers have any brain cells that still function. An alternative strategy would have been to trot her out for multiple press availabilities at the same time instead of funneling all attention on her first two major interviews, in neither of which did she distinguish herself.
Media Bias: Forty years ago, when national politics became of intense interest to me, I could not have imagined the national news media would become the cesspool that it is today. Fairness? It's gone. Journalistic ethics? Gone. Telling both sides of the story? Sadly, almost non-existent. Targeting public figures in "gotcha" interviews is today the norm; witness the non-stop villification of George Bush, John McCain, Sarah Palin, almost any prominent Republican. While Barack Obama's family (half-brother, half-sister) and his ties to radical friends, and Joe Biden's family (lobbyist son) get passes from the media, they focus on Palin's family. While Biden's laughable gaffes are virtually ignored, any perceived stumble by Palin or McCain is non-stop fodder for reportage and extended discussion by Obama surrogates on MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, The Washington Post and The New York Times. And by "surrogates," I don't refer to guests...I refer to reporters and commentators employed by those entities.
Possible? Is it possible that the Obama-Biden ticket will set a new low for the Democratic presidential ticket vote in Oklahoma? With repeated state polls showing the duo at less than 30 percent and going nowhere, a 77-county sweep by McCain-Palin appears likely at the moment. There's still a month to go, and anything can happen, but it's clear the two have no base upon which to build. The weakness of the Democratic ticket has clear implications down-ballot, particularly in the Senate race where incumbent Jim Inhofe has a commanding lead of 20-plus percent over challenger Andrew Rice. Whether the lack of enthusiam for Obama-Biden will impact races farther down the ballot, like those involved in the battle for control of the State Senate, is yet to be seen but the lastest Sooner Survey showing the GOP likely to easily take control has them almost giddy with excitement.
Flawed: The McCain strategy of keeping Sarah Palin from the media has troubled me from the get-go. I understand the desire to shelter her at the outset, but to trot her out for high-profile interviews with Charlie Gibson and then Katie Couric leaves me wondering if McCain's media advisers have any brain cells that still function. An alternative strategy would have been to trot her out for multiple press availabilities at the same time instead of funneling all attention on her first two major interviews, in neither of which did she distinguish herself.
Media Bias: Forty years ago, when national politics became of intense interest to me, I could not have imagined the national news media would become the cesspool that it is today. Fairness? It's gone. Journalistic ethics? Gone. Telling both sides of the story? Sadly, almost non-existent. Targeting public figures in "gotcha" interviews is today the norm; witness the non-stop villification of George Bush, John McCain, Sarah Palin, almost any prominent Republican. While Barack Obama's family (half-brother, half-sister) and his ties to radical friends, and Joe Biden's family (lobbyist son) get passes from the media, they focus on Palin's family. While Biden's laughable gaffes are virtually ignored, any perceived stumble by Palin or McCain is non-stop fodder for reportage and extended discussion by Obama surrogates on MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, The Washington Post and The New York Times. And by "surrogates," I don't refer to guests...I refer to reporters and commentators employed by those entities.
Possible? Is it possible that the Obama-Biden ticket will set a new low for the Democratic presidential ticket vote in Oklahoma? With repeated state polls showing the duo at less than 30 percent and going nowhere, a 77-county sweep by McCain-Palin appears likely at the moment. There's still a month to go, and anything can happen, but it's clear the two have no base upon which to build. The weakness of the Democratic ticket has clear implications down-ballot, particularly in the Senate race where incumbent Jim Inhofe has a commanding lead of 20-plus percent over challenger Andrew Rice. Whether the lack of enthusiam for Obama-Biden will impact races farther down the ballot, like those involved in the battle for control of the State Senate, is yet to be seen but the lastest Sooner Survey showing the GOP likely to easily take control has them almost giddy with excitement.
Labels: Gadfly's Columns
posted by Mike McCarville @ 5:34 PM
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