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Covering Obama And McCain: What Was It Really Like?
Some answers from CBS News’ Maria Gavrilovic and John Bentley:
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PERSONAL NOTE: From the standpoint of someone who is a political junkie, a former political science major, a former full-time journalist and a blogger who wrote extensively on this campaign there were several truths that I took from this year:
1. Barack Obama exceeded initial expectations and showed how someone who harnessed the new technology, offered a consistent message and ran a disciplined campaign could prevail and give the conventional wisdom a collective red face.
2. John McCain showed the perils of tinkering with a name brand. He spent much of the past few years walking on the tightrope — trying to keep his appeal to independent and centrist voters base while also trying to woo the social conservative Republican voters and GOP establishment which destroyed him politically in his 2000 presidential run. He finally jumped — not fell — off the tightrope, landing on the right, lost control of his image and his brand name was ruined as he became fixated on his party’s base..becoming seemingly alien to many of those who fervently supported him in 2000.
3. Obama reportedly kept his distance from the press corps but didn’t aggravate them since there was no substantive shift as the campaign went on in the way he dealt with the press. McCain made a major shift, freezing out (and often blasting) the press after July, after having been one of journalists’ most accessible and beloved politicos. A huge mistake (which we noted at the time). Obama didn’t take anything away from the press; McCain did. Any reporter will tell you that having direct access to prime sources may not change the reporting of a story, but it could influence how reporters perceive a story if they are locked out from hearing first hand from the primary sources. In addition to squandering his imagery, McCain squandered a still potentially advantageous relationship with reporters covering his campaign.
3 Responses to “Covering Obama And McCain: What Was It Really Like?”
Anyone who doesn't definitively state that the MSM was actively campaigning for BHO is delusional. As for Maria, see this.
[...] Joe Gandelman weighs in… Obama reportedly kept his distance from the press corps but didn’t aggravate them since there was no substantive shift as the campaign went on in the way he dealt with the press. McCain made a major shift, freezing out (and often blasting) the press after July, after having been one of journalists’ most accessible and beloved politicos. A huge mistake (which we noted at the time). Obama didn’t take anything away from the press; McCain did. Any reporter will tell you that having direct access to prime sources may not change the reporting of a story, but it could influence how reporters perceive a story if they are locked out from hearing first hand from the primary sources. In addition to squandering his imagery, McCain squandered a still potentially advantageous relationship with reporters covering his campaign. [...]
These were extra ordiinary times. The GOP offered up a sacrifice in John McCain while at the same time trying to shift some of the party focus away from far right issues and become a little more mainstream. Only time will tell if they succeeded in their efforts to move a little more to the center.
The party of fiscal restraint, Fiscal discipline and economic muscle is lost and wandering in the wilderness. The party of personal responsibility has none. The only one offering personal responsibility is Barak Obama and friends. I have often lectured that the time is ripe for a doctrinal shift from left to right with each party moving to embrace the other parties key policy positions. I am seeing a democratic party and a world economy that is forcing the Democrats to focus on fiscal restraint, Military spending and tax breaks while the gop in an effort to redefine themselves will call for a military withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq, a shift in military spending and NO tax cuts for the 95 percent of Americans that Obama says he wants.
The real story here is how the Democrats and the GOP are switching political perspectives as times change. Barak Obama is a Christian and John McCain hardly ever spoke of religion. The RR was non existent in this election and many Republicans going so far as to support Obama much as 20 years or so ago many Democrats shifted to support Reagan. The times they are a changing and the political course is set for the Democrats to become the party of fiscal and social discipline while the GOP in an effort to redefine itself will shift to the left more and more picking up disgruntled Democrats.
My hope for this is that in the end we will end up with two parties that are more centrist, mainstream and focused on solving problems then they are in maintaining their own power at the expense of 300 million Americans and 6 billion World Citizens.