News Corp maven and Fox News boss Rupert Murdoch, the man Democrats love to hate, has made a surprising prediction: he says Democrats will win the 2008 Presidential election in a landslide. And he has notably nice things to say about Democratic Senator Barack Obama.
His comments can’t be good news for GOP presumptive nominee Senator John McCain, or for Senator Hillary Clinton who in the past 12 months was featured in news stories about how she was burying the hatchet with the owner of Fox News, New York’s potent New York Post, the nationally respected Wall Street Journal and a host of other worldwide media properties:
News Corp Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch on Wednesday predicted a Democratic landslide in the U.S. presidential election against a gloomy economic backdrop over the next 18 months.
Murdoch has yet to endorse a U.S. presidential candidate but considers Barack Obama very promising, the media magnate said in an interview by two Wall Street Journal reporters at an annual conference for high-tech industry insiders.
…”You have got the Obama phenomenon. You have got, undoubtedly, a recession … The average American is really getting hurt financially and that all bodes well for him (Obama), Murdoch said.
“You have probably the making of a complete phenomenon in this country,” Murdoch said in describing what he predicted will be a sweeping victory for Democrats in November.
Murdoch pointed to the loss of a Republican Congressional seat in Mississippi as to how powerless the GOP may be as economic and political forces converge to work against it.
And he said what many bloggers and pundits have said: McCain’s ties to Bush won’t help the Arizona Senator.
Murdoch said Obama and John McCain, the expected nominee of the Republican Party, both have a lot of problems, but McCain will be hurt by his party and his close ties to Washington. Race will be an issue for Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, but “it looks like he overcomes that, overcomes that totally.”
Some critics have said Obama’s efforts on that score have not been helped by some of the official and unofficial comments coming from the Clinton camp. The Reuters story also points out an important fact about Murdoch:
Murdoch is associated with conservative political views but has a reputation for a pragmatic streak in major national races where he has shown a willingness to switch sides when he detects major political changes afoot.
“I think it (a recession) is one we will be coming out of for quite some time,” Murdoch said. “In the next 18 months, this country is going to be in for a very hard time.”
He said he isn’t backing anyone — but made a VERY significant statement that should cause Clinton and McCain to reach for their pack of Tums:
In the 2008 U.S. Presidential race, Murdoch said he is not yet backing anyone, but then quickly added: “I want to meet Obama. I want to know if he going to walk the walk.”
Murdoch said he had played a role in the endorsement by the New York Post, one of his global stable of papers, in endorsing Obama during the Democratic primary with Hillary Clinton in New York.
And Fox News? If Murdoch winds up preferring Obama, or basically deciding Obama is the wave of the future and he needs to live with him, don’t expect to see Fox News become anti-Obama.
Fox News is an exceptionally efficient product, appealing to what was once a vacuum in the media market. It’ll likely continue its skewered-to-the-right coverage with the conservative assumptions providing the context for comments.
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.