From mediamatters.org:
The Associated Press, the New York Post, and MSNBC's Joe Scarborough advanced the claim that the Massachusetts special U.S. Senate election was, in Scarborough's words, "a rejection of Barack Obama." But election night polling showing that the majority of Massachusetts voters approve of Obama's job performance undermines this claim, and Scott Brown himself has stated that the race was "not a referendum on Obama."
<<br>Serious analysis, introspective thinking, and comprehensive reporting are not money-making ingredients for successful media outlets, be they print, TV, or radio. Nor does putting any strain on the attention span of the reader, or viewer, or listener help either. Thus we should not be surprised that the very same media have run with the morning-after easy-peasy explanation of the stunning political debacle in Massachusetts...It's all Obama's fault. Nice. Makes a great headline or chyron crawl below the talking heads. Unfortunately it's bullshit.
Nothing short of a doctoral dissertation could possibly encompass the myriad factors which have not only combined to give us yesterday's outcome but will most assuredly effect the elections come this November. To tick off just a few of these: the economy, the on-going wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the bank bail-outs, the pig's breakfast known as health care reform, the unemployment rate, a dysfunctional highly polarized and partisan Congress, the lack of strong leadership in the Senate and House, and, yes, the perceived failure of Obama to even begin to produce his promise of change in Washington and the rest of the country.
But if one were forced to choose one word that would encapsulate the atmosphere in America today, I think it would be uncertainty. No one from the minimum hourly-wage worker to the CEO of a major corporation likes uncertainty. The future is always unknowable but to a certain extent when the economy is strong and stable, when America is seen as a strong force for good in the world, when the average family feels secure in their homes and finances, a certain sense of calm and, if you will, hope tends to dominate the mood of the country. We will never have absolute certainty. But we can have a positive outlook for our future.
That's what's been missing since 9/11. We were knocked back on our heels with the realization that we were not Fortress America any longer. We were vulnerable. We were exposed. We were unprepared. Follow this with seven long years of war, American military deaths and casualties, billions of dollars spent fighting wars, an administration that choose expediency over traditional American values, and the constant fear of yet another devastating attack and top it off with the near total collapse of our economy and you wind up with the fearful citizenry that we have today.
Obama's successful campaign for the presidency was not about change which is the common wisdom. But rather it was his corollary theme of hope. That was what we were hungry for. But we are a people who have become over the years imbued with a need for instant gratification whether it be food, drink, clothes, cars, cellphones, Ipods, or the latest fad, that the advertising people have convinced us that we can have now. Why wait. Call today! Want it tomorrow? Just pay an extra shipping charge! We want everything today or at least by tomorrow. But when that need is not fulfilled as quickly as we like then the eagerness turns to resentment. The feeling that we have been duped. That in the end we are left holding the bag. Nothing is going to change. And all because it didn't happen now.
And in response to that letdown, we lash out at those who gave us that false hope (as we now think it is) by striking back at them for having led us down the garden path. We need to teach them a lesson. And how do we do that? By taking away the thing they want most...power. It is so often an irrational and rash response. We always think we can do better. But that too is a product of American consumerism. If something doesn't work or isn't quite what we thought it would be, throw it out and try something else.
The tremendous problems Americans face today were years in the making. Unless and until we realize that it will take years to fix those problems, we will continue to go for the easy solution, the instant fix of self-delusion.