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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction
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To: Sully- who wrote (61037)7/17/2007 11:47:54 AM
From: Sully-  Read Replies (1) of 90947
 
    In such a postmodern election, it will not be the issues 
    or candidates' platforms or biographies that will matter 
    so much as that shining image on the magazine cover of 
    what America can be.

How the media will cast the 2008 election race

Betsy's Page

In a column looking at Newsweek's third cover story on Barack Obama since 2004, Brent Bozell touches on what will surely be the mainstream media's approach to the general election.

<<< The 2008 presidential campaign could be one of the most critical in recent history. As things now stand, it could also be one of the most tiresome.

Nowhere is media snobbishness more evident than when the big picture begins with the snide liberal elitist take on America: Is the country "ready" to elect a black like Barack Obama or a woman like Hillary Clinton?

If Americans reject the icons of liberalism and vote Republican, apparently they will be proving the country is stuffed with benighted bigots who refuse to "expand America's sense of possibility." Those gauzy words came from Newsweek in its Barack-and-Hillary cover at the end of 2006. Obama's back on the cover of Newsweek again for the July 16 edition, photographed in black and white, with another question from left field: Will Obama be black enough for blacks and yet conciliatory enough for whites? >>>


If the Democratic candidate is either Hillary or Obama, the contest will not be between one set of ideas for the country and another. Oh, no. The media will cast it as a contest between those who are progressive enough to accept the idea of a woman or black president and those who are so hidebound and racist that the mere idea of such a leader will send them over to the Republicans. They will be fighting for an image of an America that they want to be and Hillary or Obama will just be the symbols of that image. Voting for Obama will be seen as a "Get out of racism free" card that people can wave to demonstrate that they are fair-minded non-racists who want a better America by putting our racist past behind us. And voting for the Republican will, of course, be limited to those who still hug that past. And if the Democratic ticket should be, joy of all joys, a Hillary-Barack combo, expect that dramatic plotline to be intensified even more. And don't underestimate that storyline's appeal on the undecided voter. In such a postmodern election, it will not be the issues or candidates' platforms or biographies that will matter so much as that shining image on the magazine cover of what America can be.

Ugh.

betsyspage.blogspot.com

pittsburghlive.com
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