Posted by
m0t0r1zed on Wednesday, June 04, 2008 12:53:42 AM
Just some comments.
Fox called it quick for Obama based on AP's tally. CNN and MSNBC wanted to continue the "fairytale" and drag it out as part of the narrative they were trying to achieve. The MSM wanted voters, and not the supers, to put him over the top. When South Dakota (surprise!!!) put him over the top, then the two pro-Obama networks delayed calling S. Dakota immediately to give Obama his moment of glory free of any dissonant messages. Fox had no qualms and immediately called S. Dakota and was already fully into attack mode on Obama.
McCain messed up by not ending the speech before the hour so that it wouldn't get interrupted. It was an awkward, unwieldy speech. The highlight was the part where he said that he hated war. McCain did a good job in angering Bush-supporters by making sure to attack Bush at every opportunity ... a calculated risk that may or may not pay off in the fall.
Clinton's non-decision was the best decision for her. If she had wanted to be exceptionally annoying, she could have hinted that she would reveal her decision at the end of the speech and then pushed the speech past the hour. This would have forced news coverage and made Obama wait. If Obama decided to give his speech while Clinton was still speaking, it would have created an awkward, but amusing, situation.
My guess is that she will lie in the grass until August in semi-Limbo. Obama will probably get a big jump in the polls at first, but should Obama fall behind McCain or show weakness, Clinton will seek to usurp his throne. I may be wrong, but it's hard for me to see the Clintons conceding fully. I just keep seeing Bill angrily whispering in her ear to not let those SOBs win.
Obama's speech was good - good because it had very specific objectives that were well disguised. Obama reached out to Hillary's voters by praising her. This gave the appearance of magnaminity when it was really a calculated stratagem to pull them back into the fold. He then emphasized his patriotism and love of country to offset the Rev. Wright fiasco. He even co-opted right wing phraseology into his speech. The Obama camp has probably been listening to Hannity and Limbaugh to anticipate future lines of attack against them. They know what they're doing.
Obama's speaking ability is far superior to McCain's. The MSM gushed endlessly over his speech. However, his ability to debate McCain one-on-one will probably be more important. Obama has looked shaky when asked tough questions, but it may not matter since the media is in the bag for Obama. I can just imagine the type of questions that will be asked by Obamagrrls, Olbermann and Matthews.
It was amusing hearing a CNN pundit (Gloria Borgia, I think) commenting about how Bill Clinton was off his game because he had lost the experienced, "protective shell" of people around him. Protective shell? I believe it was called "the media." And sorry, they were too busy shielding Obama to protect Bubba.
Anyhoo, despite my cynicism, it was pretty exciting to watch this singular point in American history. The media was quite giddy, although I suppose that's not a good thing. Unfortunately, I believe this giddiness presages what will be an all out attempt to push Obama into office - to create a historical narrative and to assuage the collective guilt over slavery and segregation.
But such is the age of infotainment ... where n00s isn't just reported, it's manufactured. The word "narrative" is particularly annoying - especially when n00s people seem to be using it to replace "reporting." The n00s has morphed into storytelling.