If we lived in a country with an ethical and serious media, this story would be all over the news as yet more evidence of the press throwing this race for John McCain.
In a country with a truly "fair and balanced" media, after the the press were done wringing their hands for weeks debating the charges they were being unfair to John McCain because they are following his lead and focusing their attention on Barack Obama, they would have flogged themselves over charges that their coverage of the Obama campaign was disproportionately negative.
But, Sadly, No, the American press isn't that kind of journalistic institution. Because as Gavin M. from that very same blog discovered, we are being fed political analysis from reporters who get their stories from message board comments in threads they started themselves.
Welcome to the world of the National Organization of Hillary Clinton Supporters for John McCain, population 5000. This is supposed to be the massive uprising of pissed off Hillary Clinton supporters who would rather destroy the Democratic Party, and American Democracy, by undermining everything Hillary stands for to elect John McCain.
That's right. John McCain.
The John McCain, who unlike Hillary, wants to see 100 more years of the Iraq War. The John McCain, who unlike Hillary, still thinks that NAFTA is working out great for American workers. The John McCain who, unlike Hillary, doesn't want our returning veterans to have the same GI benefits that WWII veterans had.
Looking at the website of this supposed long-time Democrat, veteran, and so-called Hillary Clinton supporter, Ed Hale, how many things can we find wrong with this picture?
I'll start first.
Once again, the Republican faux outrage over Barack Obama's comments is under undermined by their own typical, hypocritical behavior. In trying to take pot shots at Michelle Obama for saying that she is proud of the hope she sees for the first time in her adult life and uniting to bring change, the Tennessee GOP asked voters to tell them why they were proud of their country. And not so shockingly, after one young Reaganite paid homage to the symbol of the flag and USA ass-kicking in WWII and the Cold War, what do you think the next guy wanted to cling to celebrate?
If you said guns and religious freedom, you either knew what Barack Obama meant when he spoke in San Francisco or you're the type of voter who responds to these kinds of code-word laden ads:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YmWEaqxkGtU
First posted at the DailyKos
I've had about all I can take of the media circus surrounding the whole "Obama can't win the white working class vote" hype.
And now that Dave "Mudcat" Saunders is back on TV piling on with the criticism of the Obama campaign, there's only one thing left to do to end this self-fulfilling prophecy of the media- hire Saunders and his buddy Steve Jarding and let them win the spin war for the Obama campaign.
Because as this primary devolves into a bitter custody battle over who is more entitled to the Democratic nomination- the one who gets the most votes, delegates and states or the one who can convince the superdelegates that more lost states, more lost money, more lost votes is the necessary formula for being McCain, it's the media spin that is keeping this campaign going.
And it's media spin that will end it.
In their rush to judgement, the media has not only misrepresented Obama's message to donors at a San Francisco fundraiser recently, they are spinning the story at rural voters which is completely the opposite of reality.
Once again, like Obama's assurances to Canadian officials about NAFTA, like the media's portrayal of Jeremiah Wright and like their distortion of Michelle Obama's comments that she is proud to see this country unified, the corporate media machine has decided to spin an Obama controversy where there wasn't one.
Just ask West Virginia-born law professor David Coleman, who happened to have heard the same exact remarks that Mayhill Fowler and came away with a much different interpretation of what Obama said.
Note: This is my open letter to any undecideds, Hillary Clinton-leaning primary voters or soft-supporters of Barack Obama. In a perfect world, it'd be a message I would send via a full-length ad to every Hillary Clinton super-delegate demanding that they hold Hillary Clinton accountable for the rift that her campaign and her husband have caused in our party. But since I lack the $77,000 that would take, I'll have to be content with saying my peace in a blog in the hopes that it makes just one person think about the current state of our political discourse.
Recently, the smear tactics and slimy politics have taken the luster off the Obama campaign. Where there was once the promise of an uplifting campaign, we now find ourselves mired in the muck of sleaze politics.
But while many find themselves understandably resigned to another 8 years of hyperpartisan division, there is an alternative. For every voice silenced out of the expectation of a predetermined result or because of old-fashioned election day dirty tricks, there is an alternative. For every fearful, uninspired vote for Hillary Clinton, there is an alternative.
And that alternative is courage. And it is why I'm voting for Barack Obama.
