Three times this week the major media attempted to deflate the balloon of popularity Sen. Obama is experiencing. Three times they failed. Sen. Obama's balloon must have the tensile strength of steel!
On Monday one of the most important news items reported, both to the political contest to which we're all attending and to the American people, was that Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister, said his country wants some type of timetable for a withdrawal of American troops included in any deal currently being negotiated between the US and Iraq.
yahoo's article
My gosh did the media appear to like this. Believing Iraq to be Sen. Obama's weak point, they seized the opportunity to speak with the campaigns, asking spokespersons for comments. It soon became clear that this topic hurts Sen. McCain and helps Sen. Obama since McCain has derided those who sought to establish some sort of timetable for withdrawal for US troops.
Atlantic.com's Mark Ambinder
The clash between these two items conspired to put McCaain into a box, as
Washingtonpost.com's 'The Trail', by Michael D. Shear asserts.
Mr. Shear's article
Seeing the damage being done to Sen. McCain by forcing him to either flip-flop his position regarding withdrawal timetables or assert baldly that Iraq is our puppet state whose leaders have no say in the running of their country, the media quickly found a whole 'nother bright shiny topic on Tuesday, the launching of missiles by Iran. We couldn't possibly intelligently discuss how we as a country should proceed given a clear statement by an so-called sovereign ally that he thinks our troops should leave in a scheduled fashion. Such discussion would damage Sen. McCain's chances; these must be protected at all costs.
But the Tuesday launch discussion was too nebulous; too many folks apparently remembered that Israel held maneuvers which apparently were meant to threaten Iran's alleged nuclear sites. Might the launch have been in response to those maneuvers?
The major media figured this launch business wasn't damaging enough to Sen. Obama or helpful enough to Sen. McCain. So, after two days of 'threat represented by Iran' talk by the entire range of talking heads, we now are being treated to dinner table de-balling conversations. It is astonishing to see the unadulterated glee on the faces of folks like Andrea Mitchell Greenspan or Joe Scarborough when they talked about Jesse Jackson's inadvertantly overheard remarks. Now that the punditry at large has decided that the remarks might help Sen. Obama more than they hurt him, expect the topic to morph into something else.
So today, on Thursday, we have another Iran launch, further de-balling discussions and the ubiquitous 'has Obama placated Sen. Clinton's supporters enough with enough money yet' questions. No one is talking about how to get our troops out of Iraq, how to stop spending lives and dollars there or how Maliki's timetable remarks impact our presidential election.
Here's an alliterative headline I'd like to see:
Major Media Makes McCain Miss Message!