Is Icarus Falling?

The Election. It is hard to make any sense out of polls or where the candidates stand with the public. But one thing is clear: the Media is in love with the polls, indeed, this is not a Democracy it is Pollocracy. They base programs on the polls; it is their lead-in to the news about the election; it provides the warp and woof of their thinking, especially the warp. But with so many different polls the situation is confusing. Yesterday one national poll said Obama was up by 8 points; another said McCain was up by 4 points. The comedians are getting in the act too. Mo Dowd and Jon Steward are making fun of Obama as a politician with a big head. Steward said while Obama was in the Middle East he decided to visit his birth site “in the manger.” He told Dowd, I would bet in a jocular vein, that he has learned he mustn’t “fly too close to the sun.” She made it into proof of his high-flying egotism and arrogance. Other Media are asking, “Where is the Bounce” from the European trip? USA Today even suggested that his big tour would have a reverse effect; it would energize the Republican base more than it helped Obama. Meanwhile, on MSNBC, Keith Olberman and Andrea Mitchell have taken on the job of closely dissecting the McCain ads about Obama, which are tending very negative, even outrageous. They see Obama as the leading candidate and, as Frank Rich wrote last weekend in the New York Times, “a president-in-waiting,” and the attack ads are acknowledgement of that fact. They are designed to knock him off this pedestal and muddy him up a bit. On Wednesday Olberman and Mitchell diagnosed the falsehoods and half-truths in two ads. The one that the most egregious was the one where Obama is related to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, you know, just one more shallow celebrity taking up airtime to enlarge their egos. Its guilt by association, the oldest of dirty tricks. Mitchell asked question of some female McCain spokesperson, saying isn’t that comparing apples with oranges, as what does Obama have to do with Paris Hilton and Spears? The response: No, not at all, all three are celebrities, and therefore, it is comparing apples with apples. The game is one of changing perceptions not accuracy or pushing your own programs and ideas. They are endeavoring to belittle Obama who supposedly lacks the stature of McCain who is a genuine American Hero. On the other side, the Obama campaign has a tendency to stress the word “old” with McCain and his sympathizers in the press are emphasizing all his gaffes which come in bunches every week. For more details check The Huffington Post or cursor.org, which will give you access to media around the world and to a number of relevant blogs, left, right, and center.