Media Bias, etc.

The following is a response to a comment on the response of the media to political gaffes of John McCain and Barack Obama. The original comment will be posted pending the permission of the author.

===Original comment===

Remember when Obama said that he had visited all 57 States during his campaign? Then there was the time that he said "Well let me be absolutely clear. Israel is a strong friend of Israel's." Oh, and what about the time that Obama said "10,000 people died" in the Kansas tornadoes (death toll really 12). Let’s not forget when Obama said that Arkansas was a "nearby" state to Kentucky. Man was that a major flub showing a complete lack of knowledge of simple geography.

I bet you no one knew that he made those mistakes until I just mentioned them. Obama has made his fair share of mistakes. Once again, I’m not a big fan of John McCain AT ALL, and I don't have an issue with Obama making mistakes. It happens. But I’m sick of people attacking McCain for slipping and saying that he is making mistakes because he's too old.

So, McCain is senile and Obama... well, he just needs a nice nap.

The press is doing their level best to gin up McCain's flubs but are correspondingly dismissive of Obama's. Obama's constant gaffes are being called "minor misstatements," and are only made because he is so, so tired. They are all bending over backwards to excuse Obama's gaffes while unbendingly calling McCain's a result of some mental problem!

Well, there are great lists on the Internet of the flubs and gaffes from both candidates, so you decide what those gaffes can be blamed on. As to the left, unsurprisingly they can only see McCain's. Good thing the left is so much more "fair" and "balanced" than the rest of us.

But, there is one lingering question that hangs over this whole business. If McCain's gaffes are a result of his being old and tired, how is it they can use being "tired" as an excuse to paper over the mistakes of Obama? And if Obama's are ascribed to mere exhaustion then why can't we say that McCain is just as tired? After all, McCain is a 71-year-old man. Is Obama so weak that he tires as easily as a man of such advanced years as McCain?

Well, I guess all I can say is that the left's excuse making is weak indeed. Weak and tired.

I want to make it clear though that I have a lot of respect for Obama as a charismatic person, and I understand that campaigns can be long and tiresome. This is exactly why I think it is unfair to attack McCain about this and not Obama. Either attack both or attack neither.

===My Response===

Although many farther left than me have used McCain's gaffes as a sign of his senility, I will not resort to using his age against him. Nor will I completely excuse Obama from his slips. Everyone can be excused for slip-ups at times.

However, not all gaffes are created equal. I specifically brought up McCain's Iraq-Afghanistan border issue because of the nature of the incident. McCain has sold himself to the American people as being a national security expert and a better commander in chief than Obama. I honor his military service and I think he is a true American hero for his experiences as a POW. However you cannot equate his service as a soldier with foreign policy experience. Note that I am not saying Obama has more experience than he, McCain has been extensively involved with foreign policy during his service in the Senate. But the main foreign policy issues of this election are Iraq and Iran. McCain and the Republicans have shoved it down our throats that he was right on the surge and Obama's policies would have created a civil war. And I completely agree with that viewpoint, as I have stated many times on my blog. Obama was wrong about the surge, and I was wrong on the surge too. But remember, who was the one who opposed going to war in the first place? Obama would never have had the opportunity to mess up on the surge, because we would never have invaded Iraq when we were attacked by terrorists from Afghanistan. There have been countless books and nonpartisan investigations into the administration's misconduct of the war so I won't repeat their findings here.

If you take the time to do "a google" (note, that's simply a joke, plenty of people are just as technologically challenged as McCain), you will find many articles about how that traitor *cough* I mean that Senator Joe Lieberman has had to correct McCain when he mixes up Sunni with Shiite. That is not a mistake you make when you are a person who claims to have extensive knowledge of Iraq. That's a mistake you make when you are George W. Bush and you invade a country without planning for a long occupation.

-Last I checked, Arkansas was less than 50 miles from Kentucky. If Obama had said "bordering", it would have been a mistake but I'd definitely say Arkansas is "nearby" Kentucky".

-Ok the 57 state thing I can't explain. You win on that one. I had heard about it though.

-Come on, the Israel Israel thing is kinda obvious...heard about it and discarded it

-The tornado death toll I haven't heard and can't explain.

Now I am not dismissing Obama's missteps. Plenty of McCain's statements have been similarly easily explained. But I have not heard Obama diagnose the economic crisis as a "mental recession", which McCain has done along with Phil "Banished-to-Belarus" Gramm. Yes that was a gaffe, but how can you say those kinds of things on accident? Make no mistake, it wasn't a simple misquote, McCain has admitted many times his economic incompetence. The GAO (an official government agency) has studied both candidates' tax plans. I will not argue the 5.7 trillion dollar cost of McCain's plan here, but I do know that there is no way to balance the budget with that big of a taxcut. Kill all the pork you want, you just can't do it. And although Obama's plan is less of a cut (and an increase for the richest), it at least doesn't claim to be able to balance the budget and give a massive tax cut at the same time. Look up Obama's enormous economic team. Then look up McCain's. Look up Obama's record of not listening to his advisors. Can't find it? Look up McCain's. McCain has done some wonderful work in fighting corruption in Congress but his tax plan is simply ridiculous. I (as a pro-business liberal) can't support Obama's remarks against free trade, but I trust that he is taking advice from competent people. I mean he has Warren Buffett. A guy worth $62 billion can't be an economic idiot.

Your fair and balanced comment works against you. I have never claimed that the media is fair or balanced. I don't even get my news from cable networks. I use the BBC for news and RealClearPolitics.com for politics. I have read my share of Weekly Standard articles as well as the New York Times. But who claims to be "fair and balanced" anyway? What network came up with the "No Spin Zone"? I grant you there is a huge bias toward Obama in this race (and what are you going to do about it?), but the liberal bias in the media prior to this campaign is a complete invention of the right. Don't take it from me, talk to David Brock, a former member of the vast right-wing conspiracy that impeached Clinton for lying about an affair that affected maybe 3 people, but produced a shrub that lied about the reasons for going to war in Iraq and got 4,000 heroic American soldiers killed. Not to mention enabled 9/11 to happen (again, don't take it from me, go read the 9/11 Commission Report). I don't think it's fair that Obama has 3 anchors following him around the world while McCain stews and home, but the media follows the stories, and there obviously is a reason that they chose Obama. He inspires people more than McCain so obviously the media will follow him to improve ratings. I read somewhere (forgot the source) that John McCain will not get people to pick his speeches over American Idol, but Obama will.

Ok that was way off topic. Let me just say that I never attacked McCain for the things he has said just because he is old or just because he happens to be running against Barack Obama. It's just that you have to look at what the gaffes say about the candidate. Obama has said things that have made me see him as just an ordinary politician, but he has yet to make me think that he will run our country into the ground. John Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran McCain has said many such things. You can't just explain things like that away by saying "oh that's just a little slip-up". Even when Hillary Clinton said things about attacking Iran, I got the same unease. Obama at least made the politically incorrect choice of being honest and saying that we have to talk to hostile leaders to get them to negotiate. Oh look, even the Bush administration agrees, we just sent negotiators to Iran. Regarding Obama's remarks about attacking Pakistan, I have news for you. The right went just as crazy about that. And al-Qaeda is actually hiding in Pakistan. Remember Jeremiah Wright? Louis Farrakhan? Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn? Why does associating with them mean Obama is automatically a radical? Some people on the right prefer to ignore Obama's positions and go straight to the radicals he's been around for ammo. And the media has extensively covered his radical associations.

Oh look, I just got an email from MoveOn.org's John McCain media watch. CBS edited his statements to make him appear more knowledgeable about Iraq. Yes, MoveOn is a left-wing organization but facts are facts. The media is indeed biased but John McCain hasn't given it any reason to adore him like they did back in the 2000 campaign when he ran against the previously mentioned shrub.