Frank Rich Nails it Again

Frank Rich's column in this morning's New York Times is an indictment both against the media and the media-whore that is the McCain campaign. He rightly points out the ignorance and false hopes of the McCain campaign's strategy in attempting to garner support from female voters, particularly those who pledged at the altar of the Church of Saint Hillary Rodham Clinton. On the night when the general election campaign came fully into swing, Senator McCain praised his colleague from New York and even went so far as to blame the misogynistic media and the male-dominated DNC establishment for her campaign's demise. This, too, has been the refrain of Hillary apologists, including those in the media. Everyone else is to blame for Hillary's demise, except for Hillary. And don't even dare touch Bill. Or else the pitchforks will come out!

The first general election campaign poll was released this week, by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal. It showed Senator Obama leading Senator McCain by 6 percentage points, which is outside the margin of error and larger than any lead the former has had against the latter this election cycle. However, to judge from the media's reaction, the results were actually in reverse. NBC News' own Chuck Todd went on TV and wrote online that Senator Obama still had two major problems: he was behind by more than 20 points among white men and he was losing white suburban women by single digits. To think that these two groups of voters could swing the election in John McCain's favor is preposterous! As Rich points out in his column, Obama is beating among among white female voters generally by nearly 20 points and holds an even greater lead among Hispanic voters, both of which were keys to George W. Bush's success four years ago.

But the media narrative has been--and probably always will be--throughout this campaign cycle that Barack Obama can't seal the deal, he can't win over the critical Appalachian male vote, he can't beat Senator McCain in the big swing states. Part of the problem of this media narrative isn't necessary the narrative itself but the voices and writers and the dodo heads in TV who are delivering it. The crux of Rich's argument is thus:

"That story is minimized or ignored in part because an unshakable McCain fan
club lingers in some press quarters and in part because it’s an embarrassing
refutation of the Democrats-in-meltdown narrative that so many have invested in.
Understating the splintering of the Republican base also keeps hope alive for a
tight race. As the Clinton-Obama marathon proved conclusively, a photo finish is
essential to the dramatic and Nielsen imperatives of 24/7 television coverage."

And therein lies what we will continue to read and hear and watch until November: the infantile media drinking its mother's milk from John McCain's nipple.