What If the Strongest Candidate Doesn’t Prevail?
27 May 2008 11:05 am by Taylor Marsh
BY TAYLOR MARSH
Obama’s making mistake after mistake, but it’s Hillary’s RFK gaffe that’s news
all around.
Who did he see? Robert F. Kennedy? Martin Luther King? George Washington?
Shades of Haley Joel Osment–Barack is seeing dead guys. Why is Barack
being treated like a Special Olympics athlete? For the love of all things
holy, he is applauded for his “brilliance” despite claiming to
see dead people, flubbing the names of the cities he is visiting, blithely
insisting there are 57 states, and noting that we are suffering setbacks in
pashto speaking Afghanistan because we do not have enough Arabic translators.
If John McCain or Hillary were stumbling like this the press would crucify
them. – Larry
Johnson
MSNBC has led the pack on a criticism
free Obama zone.
Dangerously, too, MSNBC’s coverage can lead to a perverse sort of cognitive
dissonance in viewers like, well, me. Throughout the primary process, I often
found myself much more bullish on the Illinois Senator’s chances after watching
MSNBC than I had any reason to be. After Obama’s Iowa victory, for instance,
I remember hearing Matthews’ description of a giant “wave” of Obamamania
sweeping across the nation; surely, the race was over. Likewise, during the
month of February, when Obama won eleven straight primaries, I recall watching
the network and occasionally convincing myself that Clinton was certain to
drop out before Texas and Ohio because her chances had become so diminished.
The problem here is that when supposedly “straight” news anchors
phrase questions in leading ways, and report one campaign’s spin as if it
were fact, it distorts what is actually going on in the campaign–even for
those of us who make a living obsessing over and writing about politics. And
when anchormen themselves shill for Obama, the distinction between his talking
points and the truth grows even blurrier still. So, as much as I find MSNBC
entertaining, their creation of a parallel, pro-Obama universe is the type
of thing I’d expect of Fox. That’s when I know it’s time to change the channel.
Just look at the news today. Hillary’s getting creamed from wingnut radio to
op-ed to blogs and beyond, with overkill on the RFK kerfuffle trumping anything Obama does. Only wingnuts are covering his serial gaffes, none of which are making it on cable. It’s all Clinton all the time.
Marc
Ambinder provides what many see as the coming finale. It’s the story that’s been percolating for weeks, now seen as reality. Is it? Maybe we’ll know next week.
Honestly, I wish I could give you better news, but things are moving against
Hillary everywhere. That doesn’t change her map. It doesn’t change the fact
that she’s the better candidate against John McCain. The reality is that candidate
Clinton of the last couple of months may have shown up too late. It’s the math,
stupid, because electoral college and delegate count trump popular vote, and unless superdelegates change their minds and move towards her, which
they haven’t done so far, the Fighting Hillary who has emerged at the end of
this primary season may not get her due. It could cost the Democrats the election
in November, but the fact remains February was the cruelest month for Clinton and the
truth is the campaign missed the importance of the caucuses, which made Fighting
Hillary’s job, when she showed up, even harder. Unless, of course, superdelegates wake up and see her electoral victory is far more realistic than bama’s. No evidence that’s about to happen anywhere.
Hard to swallow medicine, I know, but the odds against the better candidate prevailing are getting larger. Those are just the facts. The reality is that the strongest candidate
has a very tough road ahead. That’s reality.
