I wrote this the night Obama was elected and sent it out to the clients.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

So.. How right was I ? (A year after the election)

Thoughts on a dismal night.

It’s 4 a.m. on election morning as I write this. This country in its infinite wisdom has accomplished two things tonight: we've elected the worst possible choice for president and we've set the tone for decades to come for most all upcoming elections.

And it’s hard to tell which is worse at this point.

“Change” is what was offered. “Change,” to a greater or lesser degree, is what we’re gonna get.

Change to what remains to be seen, but it doesn't look like any positive view that I can see.

I’m not going to replay the many valid arguments against electing Obama. The cult of personality has achieved the impossible in the face of a wide variety of common-sense reasons why he should not have made this happen. Stupidity, ignorance, and hatred on a wide scale have won out. In the words of then local Congresswoman Jolene Unseold upon the stunning Republican tide of 1994 (and her removal from office by a write-in candidate, Linda Smith) “The winds of hate have swept the land,” she told us.

The very real and negative impacts to this country will, ultimately, have to be experienced to be believed.

The primary problem is this: will they be believed, even when they happen; or will a mass media, having set itself up as Obama’s PR arm, continue to violate the public trust by acting to spin, to mitigate, to censor their own information to re-enforce him has “the one?”

The mainstream media colluded to achieve Obama’s election. By any statistical or other summary, any pretense of fairness or objectivity was never present when they reported. Issues that would have destroyed any other candidacy were ignored, belittled, censored or swept under the rug. As a result, this country has elected a man to the most powerful office on the planet when he otherwise would be disqualified from holding high security clearances because of his relationship with at least one known terrorist.

The mainstream media has a vested outcome in Obama’s success. Were he to fail or be anything but an outstanding, at-least-as-good-as-Lincoln president, then the mainstream media’s undeniable culpability in his elevation would be too obvious to be denied. In short, Obama is a creation of the MSM, lacking any other substance, and the people of this country have bought into his packaging… packaging accomplished by a less than fair media. Essentially, they own him. And since they own him, his continued popularity is their number one concern.

None other than Chris Matthews rammed the above observation home:

Journalist Chris Matthews Will Do Everything in His Power to Make Obama's Presidency Successful

Were you still debating whether Chris Matthews is in the tank for Barack Obama? Then find a new hobby, because the writing's on the stall. But then Matthews went overboard this morning, on colleague Joe Scarborough's Morning Joe, and pretty much nominated himself the new president's press secretary. 

"The worst thing you can do in journalism is try to figure out motive. 

There's no way to determine it," Matthews said. 

Not only is this statement patently false — figuring out motive is pretty important, like George Bush's motives for invading Iraq — but Matthews followed it up with this: "I want to do everything I can to make this thing work … this new presidency work." 

Yes, that is Matthews the journalist speaking. 

CM: I want to do everything I can to make this thing work … this new presidency work. 

JS: Is that your job? 

CM: Yeah that's my job. 

JS: Your job as a journalist is to make this presidency work? 

CM: To make this work successfully, because this country needs a successful presidency more than anything right now. 

[...] 

CM: How can you not route[sic] for the success of the new president? 

JS: As Americans, Chris Matthews, we're all rooting for the success of Barack Obama, But you just talked about being a journalist and your job as a journalist is not to question motives, and then two seconds later you said your job is to make this presidency a success … I just think that's curious.

From my perspective, this means that Matthews has a vested interest in positive outcome for Mr. Obama. In addition, that means he’s going to tank his coverage to something much less than journalism… and more like advocacy. This is the final, telling blow for journalism in this country.

This is not to absolve Senator McCain from his own responsibility in this matter. This was arguably one of the least strategic campaigns ever for the presidency… reminiscent of Dole in ’96. Poorly conceived and terribly executed, McCain acted more like he had been bought then someone who actually wanted to be president.

I could write pages on missed opportunities, failures in proper translation of events, failures to engage in strategic messaging, failures to follow the path set up by the later part of the Clinton campaign; failure to use both Clinton and Biden video to drive home the point that Obama is not ready to govern. However, adding to the cacophony of others will not solve any of these issues. 

Essentially, this was a campaign that wrote itself… but McCain never got the script.