| If you're like me you've watched the last week or so of the presidential campaign with some degree of anxiety. We're definitely getting an early preview of the kind of things Obama will face in the general election, which definitely boils down to greatest hits from the Karl Rove book: - Questioning his patriotism, through cultural markers (lapel pin)
- Questioning his status as a "real American" (the "elitist")
- Questioning his status as a Christian (The "Muslim" lie)
... and so forth. Now, I would reckon that most of us here would vastly prefer that the campaign focus on issues, since we know that Obama (or Hillary) is vastly preferable on Iraq, health care, the economy, global warming, and so on and so forth. We know we can win a fair fight. But we are kidding ourselves if we imagine that the media will pay adequate attention to real issues, as opposed to all the stupid stuff that basically writes itself.
Well, that's where we come in. Many media players will not act honorably or well of their own accord. There will be several times over the course of the campaign which will genuinely require all hands on deck, to email, call, and write media outlets and their sponsors, to ensure fair coverage. It will not be enough to simply be outraged, to have the right opinions, in case someone asks; it will be our duty to actively shepherd the public debate to things that matter, towards a fair debate, towards a discussion that looks beyond November 2008 to January 2009, i.e. actual governance. Again, if the debate focuses on governance -- as it must, I think we win. But we've got to insist on it. We may have had a small victory in affecting the aftermath of Wednesday's ABC debate disaster; we should continue to set the tone and expectations for the public discussion. At Saturday's blog-event, our host Chris (Mr. Lynne) made the point that much of our activism can be accomplished without new tools. Email is tremendously valuable; our contacts and relationships are valuable. Think about how far and wide the Obama-Muslim lie traveled; and think about how far the truth can go if bother to send it. It's not just about the candidate -- maybe not even primarily about the candidate. It's about what's a fair fight. |
