Media Desperately Searching for Black Clouds Over ObamaRandy Shawbyline‚ Aug. 12‚ 2008Something almost shocking occurred last week on Keith Olbermann’s Countdown show: MSNBC political expert Chuck Todd announced that the electoral math made a McCain victory extremely unlikely, if not near impossible. Such comments are rarely expressed in the media, which studiously avoids state-by-state poll numbers and spends much of its time probing for weaknesses in Obama’s candidacy. For example, various media have found “problems” for Obama in John Edwards’ admission he had an affair, in the publication this week of internal emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign that reveal Mark Penn sharply criticizing Obama, and in Obama’s vacation to “foreign, exotic” Hawaii, rather than to a place like Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. These and other story lines are worrying activists about a McCain victory, despite an electoral map that prevents such a result. |