If Obama Wins… And if Not…
Jack Shafer says let’s watch as the press corps battles its performance anxiety:
[I]f Obama wins, these scribes know that they’ll be facing the toughest assignment of their careers. They’ve all oversubscribed to the notion that Obama’s candidacy is momentous, without parallel, and earth-shattering, so they can’t file garden-variety pieces about the “winds of change” blowing through Washington. They’re convinced that not only the whole world will be reading but that historians will be drawing on their words. Will what I write be worthy of this moment in time? they’re asking themselves. It’s a perfect prescription for performance anxiety.
Howard Kurtz on journalists naming the 44th president:
Many pundits and publications seem so certain of a big Democratic win that they’re exploring the intricacies of an Obama administration and whether the party will have a filibuster-proof 60 votes in the Senate.
“If the mainstream media are wrong about Obama and the voters pull a Truman, that is going to be the end of whatever shred of credibility they have left,” says Tobe Berkovitz, associate dean of Boston University’s College of Communication. [...]
Given mounting signs of the Democratic nominee’s strength in key battleground states, he says, “we’re not crazy to think it’s all going Obama’s way.” But, [Slate correspondent John] Dickerson says, “we’ve seen how this can go horribly wrong when you call the thing too early, and voters find it offensive when journalists skip over the event the voters are supposed to be taking part in.”
3 Responses to “If Obama Wins… And if Not…”
I hope all journalists realize that overblowing the Obama story is itself a form of racism.
Think about how demeaning that would sound to a given group. A [insert sterotype here] wo/man made it to the Whitehouse!! History is made!!
Do you see how demeaning that is? Implied message: “they're so inferior we cannot believe they actually made it.”
Now I realize that may not be the impetus behind many people who see this as a historical moment. But playing it up will give it a roman-candle effect. We don't want future elections botched by Obama's failing to live up to superhuman expectations, simply because he's a member of a stereotyped group.
Just let the man be. Let him do good and let him screw up, just like anyone else. Trump nothing up. The more mundane you make his presidency, the more likely that others who aren't being represented right now will not be afraid to step up and run for Office.
OK?
???
The media, much more liberal and Democratic than the public, have been part of the Obama campaign! They don't just predict or expect Obama to win; they have always wanted, if not demanded, that Obama win.
They will be revealing after the election.
If Obama wins, they'll be stupidly gushing, alternating at times with smugness and typical contempt for those who don't robotically adhere to their views, in reptilian, brain-stem-only fashion (while they wink and giggle to each other in a silly manner).
If McCain wins, they won't just be surprised, as normal people will be; they will openly profess first shock and disbelief, denial until the unavoidable can no longer be avoided, a great deal of anger, and all kinds of vile statements directed at McCain and at the public that elected him. It will be a combination of the shock of 1994 and the scumbag-anger of 2000.
DLS, that's a heck of a caricature you've thrown together. You get points for creativity – even if you are full of beans.