I got rather depressed last night as I watched the PBS weekly show that I used to watch when I was young -- "Washington Week in Review," or something like that. It seemed from watching that at least one of the pundits seemed so obscessed with pointing out President Obama's campaign weaknesses that she forgot to mention the proven weaknesses of his opponent.
The pundit cited unnamed Democrats and claimed that they felt a deepening gloom about the president's campaign chances. I would have like to know WHO were the Democrats the pundit spoke with in drawing her conclusion.
The pundit (and the other panelists in the clip I saw), while claiming that the Obama campaign was hurt by recent economic news and what she called "off-message" gaffes by surrogates, failed to mention the continued problems of Mitt Romney when it comes to his mendacity and his extremist positions.
Her failure to mention Romney weakesses clearly illustrated one thing to me-- the mainstream media is far more interesting in creating a so-called "horse race" that really isn't. These pundits aren't interested in asking the probing questions needed about positions both the President and Romney have taken but are trying (I think falsely) to portray a "doom and gloom" feeling among Democrats.
More below.
I'm not saying that President Obama's re-election is assured (I do think it's going to be a close fight, and we're going to need everything we can find to win), but I find it rather curious that this pundit (whose name I don't recall) failed to mention the even more significant lies of Romney.
Is this pundit (and others) really THAT afraid of what would happen if they really delved into Romney's ideas and record? Is this pundit (and others) so anxious to offend their sources within the Romney campaign that they're not willing to (among other things) call Romney's lies what they really are-- lies?
And is this pundit (and others) so afraid of having their sources within the Romney campaign dry up if they said one true word about what Romney says and the impact of the proposals he has advocated (example: the Ryan bill)?
O.K., the election's result could depend largely on the state of the economy. Having said that, I feel those who view PBS' "Washington Week" and similar shows deserve far better than hearing from pundits who seem more interested in not offending Romney handlers and creating a "horse race" instead of providing thoughtful analysis of both candidate's records and stands on issues.