NYT: Obama Laments Media Image, Says FOX News Cost Him in Polls
New York Times article looks at Obama's attempts to court working-class voters
FOXNews.com
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Barack Obama riffs on his media image in an interview for the New York Times Magazine, which quotes him as suggesting FOX News has cost him a few points in the polls.
The interview with reporter Matt Bai, to be published Sunday, features the Democratic presidential candidate feeling lamenting a "media narrative" that has pigeon-holed him as a liberal stereotype.
"I am convinced that if there were no Fox News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls," Obama says in the article. "If I were watching Fox News, I wouldn't vote for me, right? Because the way I'm portrayed 24/7 is as a freak!"
He continues that he is being typecast as "the latte-sipping, New York Times-reading, Volvo-driving, no-gun-owning, effet, politically correct, arrogant liberal. Who wants somebody like that?"
Obama's reference to his poll numbers comes at a time when he has opened up a commanding lead over his rival, John McCain, in national polls, as well as in several battleground states. A recent New York Times poll puts Obama ahead by 14 percentage points.
In the New York Times Magazine article, Obama tries to explain a comment he made during his primary race against Hillary Clinton, during which he was quoted as saying to an audience in San Francisco that some working class voters "cling to guns or religion" in response to economic woes.
Obama calls that comment "my biggest boneheaded move," adding that his point was to say that "these voters have a right to be frustrated" and their concerns shouldn't be ignored.
Click here to read the New York Times Magazine interview. |
