Obama, Dems, media in denial
by Daniel T. Zanoza
Heading into the primary season, George Bush’s favorability ratings hovered somewhere around 30%, the Democrats just came off of winning back both Houses of Congress in 2006 and, in general, during the last decade the Republican Party was doing its best imitation of how to govern like Democrats.
Hillary Clinton herself had high http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4521 numbers, but a faltering economy, an unpopular war and uncontrolled spending was sure to mean Bill would be, once again, frolicking around the White House while his wife was away. Republicans seemed to make it worse, if that’s possible, when they nominated Sen. John McCain to be their presidential candidate–a man who many said agreed more often with the opposition than his own Party.
A funny thing happened along the way to November’s election. Out of Illinois came http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4550.Obama’s first big win came in Iowa. Perhaps the most surprising result of his triumph in the Iowa caucuses was how many white middle-class voters bought his act. From that moment on, Hillary Clinton was playing catch-up. Even though she won in New Hampshire–some say with the help of more than a few visitors from New York and Massachusetts–Obama had the momentum.
However, suddenly the Rev. Jeremiah Wright popped his head out of a church on the south side of Chicago and he has been reluctant to let go of the limelight ever since. Unfortunately for Obama, Wright rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Wright http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4466.
But Obama didn’t help himself either. During a speech in San Francisco, in front of some very wealthy left-wing Democrats, Obama said, “You go into these small towns in … And it’s not surprising then they get http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4414, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
Now if I didn’t know better, I would think Obama was trying to throw the race for the presidency. Perhaps the heat in the kitchen was getting to him and an escape out the back door seemed like a good idea.
The only problem for the Democrats was they were committed. Obama had a small, but big enough lead over Hillary to simply run out the clock and he would be the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee. However, since the Pennsylvania primary, Obama’s candidacy has hardly looked like a juggernaut. In fact, Hillary Clinton beat him by 40 percentage points in West Virginia and followed up with another impressive performance in Kentucky. Plus, exit polling seemed to indicate white middle-class voters had changed their opinion about Obama’s message of “hope and change, change and hope.”
What started out as a friendly competition between fellow Senators has turned into a knock-down, drag-out alley fight with allegations including charges of racism, sexism and any other “ism” that would stick to the wall. Yet the dominant media, which can’t see the forest because those doggone trees keep getting in the way, doesn’t seem to understand the predicament the Democrats are in. Perhaps they don’t want to understand would be a more accurate statement.
The mainstream press keeps on talking about how well Obama did in Iowa and in some western states where Democrats haven’t fared well in recent years. The only problem is Obama won many of these primaries before the Wright controversy and his comments about “bitter” Americans surfaced. The political picture has changed drastically since the American people unwrapped the Obama package and found out what the surprise was inside. For the Democrats and the media to deny things have changed regarding sentiments about Obama is akin to playing Russian roulette with a fully-loaded revolver. EDITOR’S NOTE: No ill intent meant by the use of above metaphor.
So, what’s the http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4752 for the Democrats?
http://rffm.typepad.com/republicans_for_fair_medi/2008/05/obama-dems.html