I don’t think I can remember when the primaries were contested to the very end. Most of the time these contests are just proforma the nominee has been selected long before this. That’s not to say that the nomination race isn’t essential over. Obama will win but he probably won’t get the magic number until Wednesday or later when the super delegates finally make a decision.
I’m still a little puzzled by the coverage that calls this a divisive campaign. I think in general it’s been pretty mild. Now if Clinton were to continue the fight on seating the full delegations from Florida and Michigan that would be divisive. Mud would fly if that were to happen. But I really don’t see that happening. I also not so sure that Clinton would accept the VP spot.
I think one of the more interesting stories during this process was the media's rush to judgment on Clinton's campaign. Yes, in the end she will not get the nomination but if the pundits had had their way she would have bowed out before the New Hampshire primary. I'd like to say the media learned something but they never do. They are too busy going on to the next major story which I think is rather sad.
The other story coming away from this process is the unprecedented number of people that participated in the primaries. From a couple of places I've checked it looks like about 33 million people have participated in the Democratic primaries. I would think and hope that would give Republicans some pause.
Now on to the general election.
1 comment:
The mass media response to primary coverage, especially TV, has been to follow the candidates with "horserace" stories and to analyze their campaign performance skills. Journalists' support their work with demographics and opinion research. They never discuss what the candidates stand for except for the utility of policy to get votes. The traditional role of journalism, to provide information to help citizens become free and self-governing, is gone. I am speaking of idiots like: John Halperin of Time, who likes to give candidates grades for stuff; Chuck Todd of NBC, who spews population trends, and the cable news dolt who uses the interactive U.S. touch-screen map to create confusing scenarios. Such crap! The real champs of journalism are the informed-opinion people at places like HuffingtonPost and TownHall.com. At least they're willing to talk about stuff that you might base your vote on. — Ed
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