Posted by
Andrews on Wednesday, September 17, 2008 12:28:13 PM
Recently I have started to wonder if I am losing my mind. Or maybe if my understanding of human behavior is somehow flawed. Why? Because it seems the media and I are watching two different election campaigns. I see an Obama who looks desperate, lashing out at the vice presidential candidate while leaving his challenger for the presidency alone, who is looking increasingly nasty and pety, who has gone completley off message and who has doen little to promote himself, concentrating instead on petty attacks on the bottom of the rival ticket. On the other hand, the rpess continues witht he same triumphal tone they have had all along, telling me again and again that Obam ahs sored another success against the McCain campaign. (And the less said about Katie Couric's supposed "reality checks" the better.)
Then again, it is possible the press is engaged in wishful thinking. There are some small signs they see the writing on the wall, and that we do not inhabit entirely separate universes. There are their efforts to prepare ready made excuses for an Obama defeat, the focus on "racism" and their belittling of the public which was bamboozled by the Palin pick. It sounds as if they see the defeat coming and are getting ready to explain it away. They also appear to have stopped covering for every little Obama stumble, perhaps trying in a last ditch effort to retain some small appearance of impartiality, should the expected Obama coronation not come to pass.
At least I hope that is the case. Otherwise, I am at a loss. I just can't explain how the press and I can be seeing the same election in such completley different terms. How the desperate man I see, grasping at straws and aiming at the wrong target (and still missing, anyway) can be the same triumphant candidate the press presents every evening. It is truly baffling.