This campaign really has become some kind of caricature of trivinalia. Now we’re getting press releases about the pregnancy of a Vice Presidential candidate’s daughter?
I’m reminded of my favorite line from If you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.
You make a big election about small things. The Democrats have a problem in election season, and it was the same in 2004. If there’s no campaign to cover, then the press has to focus on the actual state of the country and the world. And no campaign can ever do a better job of discrediting the Bush legacy, the Republican Party and the McCain candidacy more than the simple facts of the matter. But as soon as the campaign ramps up, it bumps the actual news of the world and nation from the front page, and we end up talking about the camapaign itself. (People are still dying in Iraq. When’s the last time we heard about it?)
If this election is about the news cycle, John McCain wins and if its an election about the state of the country then Obama does. But focusing everyone on the latter is no easy task.
