The MSM (mainstream media) is doing its best to "balance" Obama's trip and speeches in the Middle East and Europe by trying to cover up John McCain's gaffe's and blunders, and make it appear that McCain is catching up to Obama in the polls.
First, the media has followed the lead of John McCain and the Republican Party and make the "surge" the issue instead of the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. The Democrats were duped by the Bush administration into supporting the "surge," and instead of cutting off funds for the Iraq occupation they went along and increased funds and troops in Iraq! Now the McCain campaign, and the media, is trying to make Obama's opposition to the surge THE issue on Iraq rather than the invasion and occupation!
And Obama has failed to respond to these attacks directly. He has failed to call the surge a FAILED policy which diverted attention and resources away from the larger "war on terrorism" and the fundamental problems with the Iraq occupation. He has allowed McCain and the media to convince the public that the surge was a success!
McCain got away with his erroneous claims that the surge was responsible for recent decreases in U.S. deaths and violence in Iraq, which were the result of a cease fire by Iraqi "insurgents" and sunni groups taking on Al Qaeda BEFORE the surge!
While Obama has been giving inspiring, intelligent speeches and meeting with foreign leaders, McCain has been aggressively attacking Obama for not supporting "the surge," and calling his Iraq position the "audacity of hopelessness".
Obama must be more aggressive! He must take on the Bush/McCain LIES about Iraq and "the surge"! Obama cannot play nice, he must FIGHT for the general election!
The media has also been pushing some recent polls (taken BEFORE Obama's trip to Europe and the Middle East) suggesting that McCain is catching up to Obama in a "tight" race. Most of these polls show a 4-6 point lead for Obama (still) while a few swing states which were leaning toward Obama are still swinging. Even these polls show that Obama is still beating John McCain and is WAY ahead in electoral votes still.
Some of the anti-Obama Clintonistas, who have been echoing the right-wing attacks on Obama verbatim, are claiming/hoping that Obama will loose to McCain so Hillary Clinton will run again in 2012. Many of them (PUMA anti-Obama women) are even supporting John McCain (who has a horrible record on women's rights!) They are pathetic!
While it is amazing that Barack Obama (a first term senator) is BEATING a more "experienced" politician like John McCain, it is also amazing because he has been in a political battle not only with McCain and the GOP, but with the Clinton campaign and bitter Clinton supporters who are now supporting McCain. Most of the racist anti-Obama attacks started with the Clinton campaign and her supporters. They continue to fan the anti-Obama racist flames and are behind many of the smears against Obama.
Politics sure makes strange bedfellows!
UPDATE: While the right-wing media have been trying to brow-beat the MSM into being more critical of Obama by accusing them of being biased toward Obama, more evidence that the right-wing meme of a "liberal media bias" is a LIE!
No "Liberal Media Bias": MSM Tougher on Obama!The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, where researchers have tracked network news content for two decades, found that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Obama than on Republican John McCain during the first six weeks of the general-election campaign.
You read it right: tougher on the Democrat.
During the evening news, the majority of statements from reporters and anchors on all three networks are neutral, the center found. And when network news people ventured opinions in recent weeks, 28% of the statements were positive for Obama and 72% negative.
Network reporting also tilted against McCain, but far less dramatically, with 43% of the statements positive and 57% negative, according to the Washington-based media center."
So why does the LA Times article have the title "Study: Evidence of Liberal Bias"????
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