The November 2008 general election is supposed to be a referendum on the tragic eight years of the Bush-Cheney Administration, meaning nothing less than a landslide for the Democrats. Then how come the presumptive Republican nominee, a 71-year-old warmonger, who will bring us a third Bush term, is currently tied in the national polls with the winner of the Democratic primaries?
With all the Democratic talent out there, how did the final two candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination end up being a pro-abortion, radical feminist possessing probably the third highest negative ratings of any national politician (after George W. Bush and Dick Cheney) and a gifted but untested, inexperienced African-American, unknown to most Americans outside the vicinity of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ and the Illinois borders?
What happened to the campaigns of Senators Chris Dodd and Joe Biden and Governor Bill Richardson, all more experienced, possessing better resumes, and potentially more electable in the general election that either Senators Clinton or Obama?
For months, the media have been caught up in the horse race of who has the most delegates. What's been forgotten or gone unanswered is: Who made Senators Clinton and Obama the rock stars of the '08 campaign in the first place? The conventional-wisdom answer to that question is "the Iowa and New Hampshire voters." The reality is much more complicated and opaque. It has to do with the role that the electronic media played in the run-up to the Iowa Caucus. The charge of media bias is nothing new, but the charge here is that the 2008 Democratic nomination was hijacked by a core group in the electronic media.
The hijacker-in-chief, the one who really spearheaded the bias by the electronic media in the 2008 campaign, was MSNBC's Chris Matthews of "Hardball." In the summer of 2006, when Senator Clinton was running for re-election to the US Senate, Mr. Matthews became obsessed with the notion of Mrs. Clinton running for president two years hence. On a daily basis, he mentioned the mantra, in so many words, "Hillary for President." Often, her name was mentioned by the host multiple times on the same program. Why the obsession? Because Mr. Matthews knew that anything connected with the Clintons would be good copy and would improve his cable ratings.
When speculation started that newly elected Illinois Senator Barack Obama was considering running for the '08 Democratic nomination, Mr. Matthews added a new obsession and a new mantra: "Clinton-Obama, Clinton-Obama." Rarely did we hear from Mr. Matthews, the experienced political reporter and former Capitol Hill staffer, the names of Dodd, Biden, and Richardson. The long-time Washington observer and "Hardball" host knew better than most the superior qualifications and electability of Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, and Bill Richardson, among others (such as Indiana Senator Evan Bayh and former Virginia Governor Mark Warner), but he chose to go the ratings route instead of informing the country about the vast array of potential Democratic nominees.
Taking political cover from the influential Mr. Matthews, many feminists and African-Americans in the electronic media, especially in the cable news networks, for historical and agenda reasons, picked up on the Clinton-Obama, Clinton-Obama mantra, and the hijacking of the 2008 Democratic nomination process was underway. By the time the electorate looked up and started to get serious about who they were going to vote for, all they were hearing was the names of the New York and Illinois senators.
If John McCain is elected this November, it will be a win for the most dangerous and most impeachable president in US history. Mr. Bush has been smiling a lot lately. He must be watching the cable news networks.
(Griffin is a Rochester-area freelance writer.)