Comments on: Quote Of The Day: On The Media And The Obama Bitter Small-Town Controversy

By: EEllis

EEllis — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 10:52:49 +0000

The fact is Obama is running a movement , a borderline cult of personality, so what else would be reported. He doesn't get bogged down in facts and figures but rather big ideas and sweeping remarks that have so little info it's hard to combat. Personally I don't have a problem with that I figure more facts will come out in the general election and I don't like Clinton anyway. But when you run on soundbites then people might listen.

By: ryan

ryan — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 08:19:56 +0000

The problem isn't just with the media – the fact that candidates micro-parse each other's words and records is just as much to blame. In this case the reaction by voters to Obama's statements may well reveal whether people really are tired of this sort of “politics as usual”. My reaction to the current “uproar” is that if a statement that people are “bitter” about their conditions is going to be the focus of Clinton or McCain's campaigning, they will suffer a backlash from anyone looking for a candidate who willing to speak honestly, even if it means tripping over his/her words occasionally.

It's clear that any uproar over a comment like this one is manufactured – whether it is Hillary saying “as far as I know” about the Obama-Muslim rumors or Obama mixing up his words while describing why people are upset with their government, any reaction is making mountains out of mole hills. Should this tactic backfire during this cycle (and hopefully it will) then maybe the micro-parsing will go away for a while as voters learn to see these types of issues as the distractions that they are. If that's the case then (hopefully) both candidates AND the media will be less likely to focus on these non-issues in the future.

By: Pyronite

Pyronite — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 06:05:12 +0000

It would be nice if we could look back at a campaign and say that the course of our country was decided by something a bit deeper than campaign politics.

I understand that values are more important than issues when deciding upon a candidate, but the amount to which opinion of the INDIVIDUAL plays a role in U.S. politics will always astound me.

It can likely be chalked up to our political system, but just for once I want to see an election where we are voting for the direction of our country and not simply against the perceived inadequacies of an individual candidate.

By: vwcat

vwcat — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 05:13:43 +0000

I would add that I always thought the political reporters came from the Hollywood beat. Their love of gossip and scandal and breathless reporting over nothing is so Hollywood.
Plus, they seem to have zero idea of what the people in the real world are like and presume to tell us what we think and feel.

By: vwcat

vwcat — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 05:10:47 +0000

Ezra is right. However, I would add that many are simply bored and looking to make up a scandal out of whole cloth. They have nothing much to do now while waiting for the last gasps of Hillary's campaign to finally be done.
I also figured some it was being pushed by Hillary's campaign. The self pity in how the media is mean to her and their obsession of trying to seem balanced, they go for the over kill over a non issue like this to prove they are not favoring one candidate. Even when the other is the one who is making all the gaffes and news, they are desperate to seem like they are not just focusing on the one.

By: Marlowecan

Marlowecan — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 04:09:22 +0000

GeorgeSorwell said: "They don't have interest in covering issues."

I fully agree. Gaffes are wonderful for them. Shorthand to capture what the media want you to think of a person's character.

Was '04 fought on the issues? Or '00? Or remember '06 when Dick Morris inspired Clinton's campaign focus on school uniforms?

The issues will be lost again, I am sure.

My objection here is: Ezra Klein is one of the last people who should be making lectures on this topic. He is a pure partisan.

By: Marlowecan

Marlowecan — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 03:54:09 +0000

Ezra Klein's quote above is utter, “Holier-than-thou” self-serving RUBBISH!!!!

Point 1: “And this is why I don’t like writing about the campaign. It’s full of hollow scandals and ignored travesties.”

Oh come on…!!! All anyone has to do is Google, and one finds Klein's considerable writing on this campaign.
All of it, by the way, hammering at any McCain gaffes…and then piously defending Obama!
For example: Klein's tortorous sophistry in explaining away the Wright issue…deconstructed admirably by Douthat in “The Atlantic”:
http://rossdouthat.theatlantic.com/archives/200...

Obviously, Klein expects that no one remembers any of his innumerable low-blow partisan hits on McCain. Instead, he is here assuming a “moral high ground”:

[Cue the whine] What about the “ignored travesties”? Why is the media paying no attention to them?

Hmmm…this, from the author of the “McCain Suicide Watch”?
Quote Ezra Klein: “So, what’s it gonna be, Johnny-boy? Guns, pills, the noose? I await your decision with eager anticipation.”

The above quote derives ENTIRELY from the fact that Ezra Klein's beloved Obama scored a rather serious “own goal” . . . that will certainly cost him . . . and Ezra is morally outraged at how low American journalism is that it is covering the “hollow scandals” (only, of course, when this hurts Obama).

The condescension is, in fact, more nauseating than Obama's….for Klein expects that everyone will simply forget what he has written…and is too dumb to do any digging.

Next week we will see Ezra Klein focusing his laser-like gimlet journalist's eye on that “ignored travesty” of this campaign to date:
“McCain and the Rumours of Impotence: Why the Voters Should Care!”

By: GeorgeSorwell

GeorgeSorwell — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 03:47:26 +0000

I think Ezra Klein is right about our media. They don't have interest in covering issues. It's more fun to cover the latest gaffe.