Clinton has just won West Virgina big. This is based on exit polls; it seems no actual votes have been counted as of yet. But the result was never all that much in doubt.
Here are some thought I have on the campaign so far:
In general I’d say the media is very much against Clinton. If the media had had its way she would have dropped out before anyone voted in New Hampshire. I remember an opinion piece in the Post the morning of the New Hampshire primary. The subject was how Clinton could graciously withdraw from the race. Gee maybe we should let the voters decide that.
And at just about every stage of the primary process the talking heads stated how her campaign was over. Once again maybe we should let the voters of the country decide that.
Now does she stand a chance of winning at this stage of the game. No not really. But there are several contests to come and maybe just maybe the punditry of the country should let the primary process play itself out.
Here's another gem from the media. The democratic campaign is very nasty and divisive. What campaign is the media watching? This is tame by just about any measure possible. A divisive campaign is the South Carolina Republican primary in 2000 or Willie Horton or Swift Boat. Nothing has come close to those in this campaign. That is not to say that some people have not had their feathers ruffled. Or that there are not hard feelings between the camps and some of their followers. But there is plenty of time to heal over whatever wounds have been inflicted. After all the goal is to defeat John McCain.
The Rev. Wright stuff. Well I'm not even going to start on that.
In the next few weeks the time will come to close ranks behind Obama. Clinton will realize that. The goal will then turn to defeating John McCain. In the process the country will be making history on a very grand scale.
But then again the Democratic Party made history on on grand scale in the primary season. The two major contenders were a woman and an African-American. I have to say I did not think to see that in my life time.
I look forward to the general election.
1 comment:
I basically agree with you. However, I do think there was a lot of bitterness between the two camps a couple months ago, but I've noticed that it's definitely cooled down. Some of that is probably that both sides know that it's inevitable that Obama will win the Democratic nomination.
Interesting thing about Wright: How come Obama has to repudiate him, but McCain doesn't have to repudiate the hatemonger Hagee? I had the misfortune of seeing part of Fox Noise and one commenter pointed out that McCain was saddled with George Bush. The Fox talking head said, dismissively, "Bush isn't running!" to which the commenter retorted, "Neither is Jeremiah Wright". Touche.
I agree that Democrats will unify against McCain because they know the stakes are too high to do otherwise, no matter what Fox Noise and the other right wing media like to think. The only thing I have no knowledge about is whether there was truly a bias against Clinton; since I saw very little US media, I didn't get that impression. Outside the US, it seemed like the media's target changed constantly, and whoever it was, Clinton or Obama, they were all going after the same target.
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