Idiot Overblown Media Sexism Charges
In the aftermath of Barack Obama wrapping up the Democratic Party nomination for president on Tuesday, the media post-mortems of Hillary Clinton's close loss have begun. Among the reasons cited for her loss was that the media were biased in their coverage of her campaign.
There's no doubt there was sexism in the coverage (her dress, her "cackle," her crying). But, there were far more important reasons she lost, such as:
1a) She hired Mark Penn. What a waste of money! If a strategist does not have a Plan B (such as what do do after Super Tuesday), they should be sued for malpractice.
1b) Bad budget management. When the campaign needed funds after Super Tuesday, it didn't have them. They have ended the campaign with up to $30 million in debt.
1c) Blowing off caucus states, particularly in the west. Obama was able to rack up delegates in those states because Clinton lacked organization in those states. Organization is crucial in getting voters to the caucuses.
2) Too much use of Bill Clinton. A selective use of Bill would have been much better. Not only did he become tiresome, but he often overshadowed her. He should have been spending his time working behind the scenes, raising funds, and continuing his foundation efforts.
3) The "gunfire" gaffe. Had she made the mistake about landing under gunfire in Bosnia once, that would have been one thing. But, she did it multiple times, and began first to insist she was correct -- until the video showed her to be wrong. It brought up too many memories about the perceived mendaciousness of the Clintons, and came at a crucial time.
4) Refusing to admit earlier she was wrong about her vote for giving Bush authority to go to war. By the time she did acknowledge her error, she had alienated many of the anti-war folks, the same folks who formed the core of Obama supporters.
There were people who were disgusting in their coverage of Clinton -- Chris Mathews foremost among them. At the same time, Obama had an entire news network -- FOX News and FOX radio -- against him.
I don't think either Clinton or Obama has gotten very favorable news coverage, certainly not the kind of coverage that John McCain has enjoyed. Every gaffe that Clinton and Obama made (or surrogates made for them) was covered for days. McCain has made serious mistakes -- such as confusing Shiites and Sunnis, even to the point where Joe Lieberman had to correct him on camera -- and they are brief media events.
So, yes, Clinton did suffer from sexism in the media coverage. Did it cause her to lose her quest for the candidacy? Not even close.
There's no doubt there was sexism in the coverage (her dress, her "cackle," her crying). But, there were far more important reasons she lost, such as:
1a) She hired Mark Penn. What a waste of money! If a strategist does not have a Plan B (such as what do do after Super Tuesday), they should be sued for malpractice.
1b) Bad budget management. When the campaign needed funds after Super Tuesday, it didn't have them. They have ended the campaign with up to $30 million in debt.
1c) Blowing off caucus states, particularly in the west. Obama was able to rack up delegates in those states because Clinton lacked organization in those states. Organization is crucial in getting voters to the caucuses.
2) Too much use of Bill Clinton. A selective use of Bill would have been much better. Not only did he become tiresome, but he often overshadowed her. He should have been spending his time working behind the scenes, raising funds, and continuing his foundation efforts.
3) The "gunfire" gaffe. Had she made the mistake about landing under gunfire in Bosnia once, that would have been one thing. But, she did it multiple times, and began first to insist she was correct -- until the video showed her to be wrong. It brought up too many memories about the perceived mendaciousness of the Clintons, and came at a crucial time.
4) Refusing to admit earlier she was wrong about her vote for giving Bush authority to go to war. By the time she did acknowledge her error, she had alienated many of the anti-war folks, the same folks who formed the core of Obama supporters.
There were people who were disgusting in their coverage of Clinton -- Chris Mathews foremost among them. At the same time, Obama had an entire news network -- FOX News and FOX radio -- against him.
I don't think either Clinton or Obama has gotten very favorable news coverage, certainly not the kind of coverage that John McCain has enjoyed. Every gaffe that Clinton and Obama made (or surrogates made for them) was covered for days. McCain has made serious mistakes -- such as confusing Shiites and Sunnis, even to the point where Joe Lieberman had to correct him on camera -- and they are brief media events.
So, yes, Clinton did suffer from sexism in the media coverage. Did it cause her to lose her quest for the candidacy? Not even close.
posted by Rod Carveth at 7:39 AM
2 Comments:
More than enough blame to go around -- the biggest factor: the "it's in the bag" attitude. They said that about the New England Patriots, too.
The parallel with the Patriots is more close than you might think. The Giants played the Patriots at the end of the season and nearly beat them. I believe that game made it possible for the Giants to upset the Patriots in the Super Bowl because the Giants realized the Patriots were not invincible.
In the same way, when Hillary could not knock out Obama early, she lost her invincibility (aka inevitability).
Had Hillary campaigned all the way through the way she campaigned from PA onward, she would have the nomination today.
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