Peculiar Coverage of Obama
February 12th, 2007 at 06:05pm Geraldine
Last month, when Hillary Clinton came to Des Moines and had an audience of 1500-3000 people for her campaign kickoff, she attracted tons of media attention, including a softball interview with David Yepsen. When Obama attracted a crowd of nearly 5,000 in Ames, twice as many as Hillary, he got less attention from the national media (although it was day two of his campaign). In addition, Yepsen wrote a curious piece on Obama. The headline “Can a candidate be too candid?” made it seem like Obama was the second coming of Bulworth. So what sacred cows was Barack Obama slaying? David Yepsen was shocked because Obama didn’t want to immediately cut military spending when we have 200,000 troops overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then again, if Obama was in favor of cutting military spending, Yepsen would probably label him as almost as unelectable as Dennis Kucinich.
So what’s happening? Part of it is that Obama has increased expectations for drawing crowds. When you can draw 17,000 people to attend a speech on a Saturday morning when it’s nine degrees outside, the bar has been raised. Especially when it involves a relatively minor effort to build a crowd (compared to Hillary Clinton’s effort for her Des Moines event two weeks ago.) The rest is just about the day’s news cycle. Unfortunately for him and for America, Barack Obama is in direct competition for attention with Anna Nicole Smith. However, there’s only one explanation for Yepsen’s weird coverage of Obama. It’s a realization that is an important part of the civil and considerate discourse that Drew Miller is famous for.
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Entry Filed under: President 2008, Barack Obama
Related Searches: david yepsen, campaign kickoff, anna nicole smith, sacred cows, hillary clinton
2 Comments Add your own
1. Ben Weyl | February 14th, 2007 at 8:50 am
Yeah, that was a strange column. Stupid at times, too. For example, Yepsen writes: “Obama didn’t disappoint: ‘No Child Left Behind left the money behind,’ he pandered.”
Was that a talking point? A sound bite? Sure. But pandering is when you say things you don’t really mean just for approval. We have no reason to think Obama is being disingenuous with that characterization of NCLB. A little too cute? Maybe, but that’s not what pandering is.
2. Barack2008 | February 15th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Barack on the issues in his own words.
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