Seven days to Election Day. Here’s our linkfest guide that whisks you to weblogs on the right, left and center, big and small which will be presented daily until after election day. TMV encourages you to bookmark these sites and return to them as part of your daily reading if you want a good sampling of Internet opinion.
Making Ayers, Reverend Wright And Rezko A Major Campaign Issue: A conservative group has found a way of bypassing TV buys to get the equivalent of a major attack ad out to the public: by putting DVD inserts in newspapers in major swing states. The one consolation for the Obama campaign: newspaper readership is on the wane and inserts are often tossed away. Another: early voting may mute the impact of such late-breaking attacks. This approach also allows the McCain campaign to say it has nothing to do with them (but don’t hold your breath waiting for a denunciation).
Media Bias For Obama? The Los Angele’s Times’ Andrew Malcolm has this on a story related to Slate.
Speaking Of Slate, Polling Mania Sweeps The Old And New Media (including this site) and Slate asks: what would happen if polling was banned?
Speaking Of The Los Angeles Times, the LAT is under fire by the McCain camp and its supporters for not releasing a video of Obama praising a Palestinian scholar. This is typical of the eleventh-hour charge in politics that you see at all levels of elections — but an approach that could diminish in efficacy due to early voting, if early voting continues to spread.
One Hitch For McCain & Co On This Charge: The Huffington Post reports that McCain once helped fund this scholar’s work. What this means: this topic will rage on blogs and on conservative talk radio and probably make it into the mainstream media. But the mainstream media coverage will likely include some info from the HP piece, which means the issue will have most impact on the GOP base. To independent voters it’ll seem like one more political tempest that upon investigation proves not to be what it appears to be if you listen to Sean and Rush. Unless the HP story is knocked down, it will diminish this issue as having significant impact.
Another Generational News Media Figure Leaves The Scene: Fox News’ Britt Hume has been a major political player for years, starting with his work with columnist Jack Anderson. And now he’s about to retire. Progressives have (and will) attack Hume, but he still remains a journalistic figure who came to broadcasting after solid experience in print journalism — a part of the news media withering each day. The question now becomes: who will replace him? (Hey, Dan Rather is available!)
Bloggers Continue To Decide On Who To Vote For President: Some argue in favor of John McCain. And a centrist agonizes over who to pick and finally opts for Obama and tells you why here in step-by-step detail.
And Obama Gets A Vote from a 109-year-old daughter of a slave…
Sarah Palin: Diva or not?
But Then Some Point To What They Call “Obamania moments….”
Yet Others Point To Obama’s Untraceable Donations and the way the story was played in the media.
So Who Did The Computer Search On Joe The Plumber’s Government Records? Is this the answer?
Joe The Plumber Gets Blasted – by Fox News’ Shepard Smith, that is, (VIDEO HERE) for saying Obama will mean death to Israel. (This shows that demonization has its limits. Smith was also notably outspoken during Hurricane Katrina, refusing to tout the official Bush administration line).
John McCain Is Getting A Lot Of Early Votes in Israel.
Voting In North Carolina: Will North Carolina become “the next Florida”?
And Will There Be A Surprise in South Carolina?
Is It Now All About Sarah? So what is GOP Veep candidate Sarah Palin’s future? Some thoughts here. And has the media vetting of her been overdone?
Oh, Those Madcap Political Polls: They are tightening and not tightening. It all depends on the “spin” but even that depends on what you think “spin is” and whether spin is being spun…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.