Y’know….
Maybe, just maybe, a candidate’s wins can be attributed to the candidates themselves, rather than their opponents.
But no — according to the latest media narrative, Obama’s 2-to-1 victory in South Carolina, where he drew more votes than the top two candidates in last week’s Republican primary combined, is apparently “a rebuke of the Clinton’s strategy,” rather than, oh I dunno, people voting for him because they feel that he’s the best candidate.
Nah, couldn’t be that. Everything’s got to be about Hill and Bill, even in defeat.
As long as the media can make this about the candidates and not the issues, then they can continue to obscure the fact that they’ve avoided the issues for the past six years.
Well, Jeez — ya can’t fill programming on 24-hour news channels with issues, man.
It’s probably harder to find advertisers if you focus on issues.
As much as I hate slapping laws on what people can say, I’m beginning to think that, in the interest of truth in advertising, if you call your network a News Organization, you have to be 80% important, relevent news.
And all entertainment news counts as entertainment, not news.
I don’t think there’s a way to do with without shredding freedom of the press. But I don’t know freedom of the press is really being used anymore, anyway.
While I agree with the fundamental principle wholeheartedly and agree in this instance to some extent, I do think there actually was some Clinton backlash at work here. Ironically, leading up to the primary, the media made Bill’s attack stance a major story and made him highly visible to potential voters. It would only seem natural that it had an impact on the outcome. I believe the exit polling bore this out as well.
Relatedly (and related to your prior journal entry), Hillary attended 3 “fundraisers” in Florida this weekend and is returning on Tuesday. (N.B. – I live in Florida.) There’s been a decent amount of coverage in the local news regarding this “backdoor” campaigning in light of the prior pledges not to. Indeed, there have been picketers at at these fundraisers, who are getting coverage. (She’s also been quoted as telling Floridian voters that “their voices will be heard at the convention.”)
I will be very interested to see the results of the Democratic primary in Florida, because of this: Early voting numbers show Democrats casting twice as many votes as their Republican counterparts. Keep in mind that there are approximately an even number of registered Democrats and Republicans in the state and about 10-20% independent/unaffiliated/minor third party registered voters. This turnout, of course, is interesting in light of the fact that delegates aren’t to be assigned. So, what’s going on? Are tons of Hillary supporters coming out since she’s the only visible candidate? Is there some sort of protest vote going on? I wouldn’t have expected Obama to do particularly well here anyway given our relatively high senior and Northern-transplant populations. We’ll see what Tuesday brings.
Finally, I mentioned Barry Eisler the other day. In addition to being a great author, he is a pretty saavy armchair political analyst. His blog is always a good and quick read.
Why would the advertisers want them to focus on issues when some of those issues are bound to be with those very same advertisers. :)
Hey…
everyone swore the recent big Democratic win had nothing to do w/ the Democrats & everything to do w/ the Republicans….