The short answer is that the media hypes whoever the public is interested in hearing about. Before Obama made such an amazing showing, the media was stuffing Hillary down our throats.
The media is selling a product. They give us what we want, to sell that product. We want Obama, and they’re more than happy to oblige as long as we watch their ads and buy their subscriptions. Sure, you can find some bias among different networks, but that bias is in the same direction as their audience’s bias.
Enthusiasm is not always hype. People are enthusiastic to be able to vote for someone who isn’t just a good politician, but a good human being. Has anyone in the government inspired you in the past 40 years? Why would you want to take that away from those of us who have that feeling now?
That’s the hype we are talking about. What makes you or anyone think he is something more than a politician. Have you personally met the guy? Have you looked into his eyes?(sorry for the cheap sarcasm) I am voting for the him. I hope you’re right. BUT the hype is how many people buy the crap about him being a "Good Human being"so far he is just another politician who talks a good game. I will vote for him and hope for the best but I am not yet ready to declare him the second coming. Maybe I’m too cynical.
I support Obama, but I don’t and won’t engage in breathless cheerleading.
The media driven hype/backlash thing isn’t productive and should be ignored. He’s neither a messiah nor an empty suit.
I’m just not an early adopter as far as media reports on politics go. You can’t be. People are throwing way too much biased, half-assed analysis out there. Polls show Obama up by something like 5 points in Wisconsin, yet he won by 18. The media and pollsters are woefully behind the curve on this, so the “hype” they’re hyping is theirs. That snake eating its tail thing comes to mind.
They’re still showing Clinton ahead by 9 points in Ohio. I’m willing to bet that’s inaccurate beyond the margin of error.
So the hype transcends mere campaign phone calls and volunteers being seen in public. Its actually gotten to the rolling-on-the-floor, speaking-in-tongues level where his fanatical devotees think that he’s somehow a decent human being! It’s worse than I thought!
Seriously, if you want to make a point about the “hype,” you are doing a really poor job of explaining how you came to that conclusion. Your evidence seems to be a list of election-cycle banalities. I fully expect your next post to announce that a neighbor has placed a yard sign proclaiming that “Obama” his his choice for 08 and further shake your head at how over-the-top this Obamania has become.
Not sure if you’re talking to me, but I’m the previous poster… “Cricetus” is the scientific name for hamster… I have a hamster puppet named Cricetus who fancies himself a wise philosopher but is actually an inebriated sophist. I figured it was apt for my own online persona.
My main reason is that I’m a law student, so I know a thing or two about the pressures to go work for a big corporate firm. Those pressures are even higher for the first black Harvard Law Review President. But Obama chose not to do that. He chose to work as a civil rights lawyer. What is the cynical explanation for that? Even if you think he wanted to be a politician all along, corporate law work hardly hurts that. Hillary worked for a corporate firm for more than a decade after law school. The best explanation is that he really believed in civil rights more than he believed in money and power.
His work as a community organizer, the way he has run his campaign, his family life, and the stories in his books all also speak to his being a “good human being.”
Your calling this “crap” and “hype” is pure cynicism, not skepticism.
I agree with that, except I would add (and you probably disagree) that the idea that America is “fucked” is an absurd overreaction by the anti-Bush crowd. Yes, Bush is a terrible president, but America is waaaaaay more than our president.
Well said Rich - Obama will continue to do very well in this campaign, no question. He is invigorating and full of life! I saw a glimpse last night of our new Commander in chief, he looked the part very nicely. Glad to finally hear some CNN pundits mirroring that view as well.
Did you notice Obama doing a very good job conveying the underlined part above last night in the debate. It was one of his key themes under his assertions. Nice comment.
It’s odd, ever since the Obama train really got going, I’ve had a sense of impending doom. Like I’ll wake up one morning and he’ll have been assassinated, or he likes sheep, or it’s a Twilight Zone episode. I dunno, he’s almost too good to be true. Don’t get me wrong, I like him and I’ll vote for him and I’d work for him, but it all just seems too easy and smooth, at least from here.
Your sentiments reflect a sense of impending doom because I believe this nation is used to getting our hopes up and then having them crushed by some outside force. I don’t think he will get assassinated, I don’t think we are in the Twilight Zone [hope not]. I just think he represents a paradigm shift that much of the nation has been wanting for a very long time, and now it appears we are going to get it. It’s all good to me. I can’t wait to watch the state of the union with him in front of the camera, and I can’t wait to hear his inaugural speech and with any luck I’ll be there in person to see it.
I didn’t watch the debate, but will probably go over a transcript sometime later. I voted back in January, so it’s all pretty much academic for me at this point.
I am a supporter of Obama’s. I do think that there is substance to him. I hope that my vote in PA helps to put him over the top here.
I also have been surprised by the zealotry of a contingent of Obama supporters. It has nothing to do with enthusiasm for me. I think enthusiastic support is great. It has everything to do with the swift, over the top, savagery that they have shown against Hillary Clinton. They have nobody to blame but themselves for any type of “backlash” that we are now seeing.
I don’t think any backlash, if there is any, will hurt Obama all that much, however. I think in the general, when all of the discussion turns to Obama versus McCain, Obama is going to look very, very, very good on policy and substance, style and demeanor, and hope and optimism for America.
It’s going to look like a combination of FDR, Kennedy and Bill Clinton versus a combination of Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon and George W. Bush. A little “hype” backlash will be swallowed up in the monsoon.
Just like the end line of that McCain parody video: “John McCain: Like hope, only different.”
It seems like a mix of legitimate and silly stories, but I guess the main thing is that they don’t have anything to do with Obama supporters… unless you want us to click through to the comments (?). I’ve rarely seen any story about either candidate without its ugliness in the comments section.
