Reporters: "Who Cares About Voter Registration, We Want Conflict!"
by DHinMI
Fri Apr 25, 2008 at 11:18:24 AM PDT
A little while ago the Obama campaign emailed reporters and bloggers announcing a press call regarding the campaign's 50 state effort to register new voters. I'm intrigued about the effort, so I did something I almost never do, I hopped on the press call.
Obama deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand spoke, followed by NC Congressman G.K. Butterfield. Hildebrand then opened the call for questions, which led to:
- A question about Reverend Wright (which had nothing to do with voter registration).
- A question about Jim Clyburn's remarks that Bill Clinton was tarnishing the image of the Clintons (which had nothing to do with voter registration).
- A question about TV ads going up in all the remaining states (that the reporter tried to make about voter registration, but really wasn't about voter registration).
- A question about Obama's performance with white voters (which wasn't about voter registration).
Several times Hildebrand reminded the reporters on the call that the subject was voter registration, and clearly implied that questions about other matters should be directed to the press operation, but none of the reporters asked a single question about voter registration.
Growing, shrinking or not trying to change the size and composition of the electorate is one of the fundamental decisions of a campaign. Most campaigns just deal with the electorate as it is, which is why so much attention is paid to the sliver of voters who are persuadable (which is seldom more than 12-14% of the national electorate). Sometimes, by going mercilessly negative, one seeks to shrink the electorate. Or one can try to grow the electorate, as Obama is doing.
Apparently none of that was more interesting to the four reporters who asked questions that had little or nothing to do with voter registration, which reminded me of this essay DavidNYC wrote last month, in which he asserted that most political reporters don't love politics the way sports writers and science writers typically love their subject, but instead hate what we love about politics:
But oh - the political reporters. They are a breed apart. They like politics-as-theater: Hillary's pantsuit, Obama's turban, the Clenis, the flight-suit, America's Mayor, dead-or-alive, he-said, she-said and all the world's a stage.
Most of us care about voter registration, so look for more on this subject in the next day or two...here, at Daily Kos. Maybe you'll see it in the traditional media. Or maybe you'll just see more discussion about flag pins.
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