Chris Matthews makes a good point about Obama today on Hardball by stating:
Speaking of democrats . . . Barack Obama? He's still reluctant to attack frontrunner Hillary Clinton as we've seen. And his campaign seems stuck in the mud. The chicago tribune reports today that Obama isn't happy with his stalled campaign and he's bringing in fresh blood to fix things. Well given his distant second place standing in the polls out there, one thing he needs is more people out there ready to fire away at Hillary since he's not prepared to do it himself. He needs some surrogates out there.
Chris Matthews is bit off base when he says Obama will not confront Hillary, however, Matthews overall conclusion that Obama needs some surrogates should be an eye opener for the Obama campaign.
Barack Obama does not have enough people out in the media speaking positively on his behalf and I suspect John Edwards is in a similar predicament. They both have to rely much more heavily on retail politics and ad spending to get their message out compared to Hillary Clinton. The cable punditry is a huge benefactor to the Clinton campaign and exerts a great deal of influence on undecided and low info voters.
An online news site called the Tyee wrote an interesting article entitled 'Does Mass Media Seduce Voters?' and stated the following:
The media exert a tremendous influence, for example, when they decide which experts to quote on an issue, said Murray, who teaches a course in political communication at SFU. Generally speaking, Murray said, the media have greater influence on undecided voters than on decided ones. They also have a greater influence at times of scandal or crisis . . .
The past heavy focus on Edwards and the haircut incident or Obama and his foreign policy non-gaffe is a clear example of the media's overwhelming influence. None of this bad coverage for Edwards or Obama would be a problem if it was not for the fact that the media and corporate pundits overlook similar missteps by Hillary Clinton. Worst yet, is the fact that missteps by Clinton's competitors can be covered for several news cycles while the few missteps they may cover for Hillary Clinton rarely extends past one news cycle.
Barack Obama really needs to boost the number of surrogates and pundits speaking on his behalf. Disingenuous talking heads like Hillary Rosen who claims to be an objective democratic strategist on Tucker but yet slams all democratic candidates not named Hillary Clinton is the kind of influence that Obama lacks. Hillary Rosen poses as an objective pundits yet she is also the same person who writes an opinionated piece like Obama is No Threat to Hillary well before the primary season got into full gear. I suppose if she would disclose upfront that she is a supporter of the Clinton campaign then her rant on any of the candidates could be tolerable. But she like many of the other Hillary pundits do not tell you that they already support a campaign.
Barack Obama needs more surrogates to counter balance pundits like Julie Mason of the Houston Chronicle in the past came on Hardball and slammed Obama's comments regarding nukes as a "rookie mistake". (Source: Hardball with Chris Matthews for August 3) Yet, a week later when it was discovered that Hillary Clinton made a statement similar to Obama's, this same pundit, instead of offering an apology, only says:
Did he take a serious hit? I don‘t think so.
Hardball with Chris Matthews for August 10
Julie Mason damn well knows that Obama took a serious hit after that fabricated altercation. This disingenuous approach to cable news offers an unpaid disadvantage to the Clinton campaign and Chris Matthews rightly points out that Obama needs more voices out in the media highlighting the other side of the Clinton campaign.
It is not cynicism to point out when your competitor makes conflicting statements regarding foreign policy. It is not cynicism to point out when your competitor has financial backers like Norman Hsu who forces his clients and associates to contribute to the Clinton campaign. It is not cynicism to point out your competitor has wedded herself to special interest as exemplified by her performance at the YKos debate. That is what campaigning is about. Obama just needs more people doing it on his behalf.
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