Monday, February 25, 2008

Piling On Poor Hillary



What's with the New York Times in this election cycle? First the paper endorses John McCain for the Republican presidential candidacy then it "breaks" a pretty lame story about a possible affair involving McCain and a lobbyist eight years ago.

Now it's published an Obama story that smacks of boosterism.

I'm no fan of Hillary Clinton but surely fairness ought to have kept today's story on hold until after the Texas and Ohio primaries.

It's a story that ties Barack Obama to Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King - convenient and timely. The story essentially askes whether Obama is risking a bullet in his run for the presidency.

It's not that Barack Obama isn't at real risk of an assassination attempt. I have no doubt that he is and, should he become president, will remain in jeopardy. There are still plenty of racists and ultra right-wingers who would love to see him gone.

What bothers me is that, with everyone furiously piling on Hillary at the moment when she's facing a mortal threat to her campaign, are stories like this one really necessary right now?
By the way, if you don't recognize the picture, there's a grassy knoll in the upper left quarter. Obama's motorcade passed through there last week en route to a rally in Dallas. He said he didn't even notice where he was at the time, worrying instead about a head cold and a runny nose.

3 comments:

LeDaro said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
LeDaro said...

This story, I believe, was in Newsweek as well couple of days ago. Those fears are there but I do NOT think it reflects badly on Hillary though. It is more of the U.S culture/history of assassinations.

Anonymous said...

The media is piling on Hillary because it fits the current narrative. Obama is winning and Clinton is losing. Thus, every story is tailored to fit the narrative. Same thing happened when the media decided Bush was "folksy" while Kerry was "elitist" and in 2000 when Gore was "wooden".