[hytem]

The power of spin and 24/7 cable has never seemed greater than this year's Presidential sweepstakes.

First of all, the campaign was initiated by those cable pundits about a year ago,
well before any primaries, as if they had nothing else to talk about. I remember wondering about that. I guess a lot of it centered around MSNBC, which has become the King of Punditry, this year, with a seemingly inexaustible supply of
Opinionators.

The statistics are alarming: the candidates will spend $2.5 BILLION dollars on TV ads this year-- too much of it those phoney negative type, designed to paint their opponent in a negative image. The TV networks profit from this system: you pay, you can say anything you want about anybody. Freedom of speech--for profit. Leave the newspapers to take a couple of weeks to dig out the lies.
Who profits? Obviously, the networks. But also the special interests whom the candidates must depend on to finance all this advertising. And those special interests ultimately get their pound of flesh from the candidates.

But beyond the profiteering by the networks, what about the fairness and objectivity of the coverage? And the attention paid to issues vs personalities and polls? Do issues important to Americans really get discussed in those debates? Or is it more "gotcha" type personal questions, designed to impress your boss?

From what I've seen, some candidates have a right to complain that they've been sound bited to death. Joe Biden, for example. And then there's John Edwards, who never had a chance against the two media "stars", Clinton-Obama. Not to mention Bill Richardson and a few other male Dems--perfectly good candidates, but no airtime available to cover them.

If you follow MSNBC, you can trace the campaign back to when it started all Hillary, then Obama-Clinton, and now decidedly Obama. They've even resorted to snide, tasteless remarks about the Clintons, including their daughter, Chelsea. Seems they are out to get the Clintons, for some reason. After all, if Bill Clinton could run again, he would win in a heartbeat--despite all the girl-chasing and the partisan hate. The media has never been pro-Bill, anyways, and he knows it.

Obama? The kid gloves treatment is a mystery. Political correctness? Yeah, but Hillary's a woman. The gloves will come off if he is the nominee. Guaranteed.

Republicans? McCain seems to have been anointed lately. He's been helped by winner take all, with all the split vote in a lot of states. He has had to flip flop on issues to become more conservative than his voting record, but he's getting away with it. But the way he was treated eight years ago, he deserves it.
Go for it, John.

The bottom line: you watch the polls evolve and you watch the media. The polls seem to reflect the media coverage more than the opposite. More positive coverage, better polls. Clinton has shrunk in the polls partly because of negative media coverage vs the positive coverage for Obama. Her husband has been sound bited to death, which has angered him. And you can't get angry with the media. No sir.