Beware of the press script on Hillary, Obama
Consistent with Walldon’s note and the exchange in the comments yesterday, today we have reports (Salon $) of the press demanding that Hillary declare that Obama is “qualified” to be President – and implying that she is being a dog-in-the-manger for not outright saying that in so many words despite her words of praise for Obama – supposedly in contrast to Obama’s response to her announcement that she is a "good friend and a colleague whom I greatly respect" and an ally in the work of "getting our country back on track."
No question, Obama has an incredible knack for saying just the right thing for the moment, and I am extremely enthusiastic about his candidacy. He is qualified, and that ability may well be the single most important quality needed today. It includes ways of preenting liberal policies such that virtually everyone would have to say, “How can you disagree with that?” Indeed, I have never seen a candidate as effective as he was in the 2004 Illinois Senate race, commanding something like 70% of the vote as a first-time candidate at that level, strong support even in what were traditionally Republican suburbs despite his liberal philosophy (or was it because of?), and praise as a “fantastic candidate” even from his opponents in the primary. In addition to his real public-service experience, as I said to someone recently, besides his in-the-streets experience and in his in-the-trenches” experience in state government, and now his exposure and even prominence on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he was the friggin Editor-in-Chief of the friggin Harvard friggin Law Review. Of course, they all have brains big-time: certainly Hillary, and Edwards gives every indication of being extremely sharp, too. We surely need that now to work our way out of the messes Bush and Cheney have created.
Having said all that, however, look at the strawman the press script-writers are setting up that gives them a two-fer: try to make the current front-runner Hillary look like a win-at-all-costs jerk, while pounding home the “inexperienced” rap on Obama by putting the burden on Hillary to dispute it. They might have well have demanded that Obama admit that Hillary’s qualifications are stronger. They are going to compete now, and while I desperately hope they have figured out how to do so vigorously without trashing each other, it is patently unfair to expect any candidate to pump up the credentials of the other at this time. The mainstream press needs to be pounded relentlessly on this.
No question, Obama has an incredible knack for saying just the right thing for the moment, and I am extremely enthusiastic about his candidacy. He is qualified, and that ability may well be the single most important quality needed today. It includes ways of preenting liberal policies such that virtually everyone would have to say, “How can you disagree with that?” Indeed, I have never seen a candidate as effective as he was in the 2004 Illinois Senate race, commanding something like 70% of the vote as a first-time candidate at that level, strong support even in what were traditionally Republican suburbs despite his liberal philosophy (or was it because of?), and praise as a “fantastic candidate” even from his opponents in the primary. In addition to his real public-service experience, as I said to someone recently, besides his in-the-streets experience and in his in-the-trenches” experience in state government, and now his exposure and even prominence on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he was the friggin Editor-in-Chief of the friggin Harvard friggin Law Review. Of course, they all have brains big-time: certainly Hillary, and Edwards gives every indication of being extremely sharp, too. We surely need that now to work our way out of the messes Bush and Cheney have created.
Having said all that, however, look at the strawman the press script-writers are setting up that gives them a two-fer: try to make the current front-runner Hillary look like a win-at-all-costs jerk, while pounding home the “inexperienced” rap on Obama by putting the burden on Hillary to dispute it. They might have well have demanded that Obama admit that Hillary’s qualifications are stronger. They are going to compete now, and while I desperately hope they have figured out how to do so vigorously without trashing each other, it is patently unfair to expect any candidate to pump up the credentials of the other at this time. The mainstream press needs to be pounded relentlessly on this.
posted by KISSWeb | 1:20 PM
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