21st Century Sheep Herders

One only needs to look at the 2008 Presidential primary race to find the over reaching influence of the U.S. media, and the sheep-like spine of the American electorate. Take for instance the Democrat primaries to date. Despite Senator Clinton’s delegate lead (the actual method for nominating a candidate) the press keeps wielding notions to lead the public to specific conclusions.

Once again the comparison of Barack Obama to President Kennedy arises. It might make a nice sounding story. The attempt is to make everyone feel optimistic, but the truth of the matter was that John Kennedy was very much conservative on issues (especially defense). Senator Obama is much more of a flaming liberal. The electorate is not doing its job by exposing the facts. Check each man’s record, and you get a sense of how each candidate would govern from the Oval Office.

Senator Obama’s primary victory in South Carolina was predictable and Senator Clinton’s team, while bringing race into the campaign, was able to marginalize Obama. You wouldn’t know that from the press reports. The media suggests a revival for the Oprah supported Obama. All of a sudden the press has turned from super cynical to idealistic? What a transparent sham!

Obama won roughly 80% of the African-American vote in the South Carolina primary. Additionally, he won about 25% of the white vote, but if you believe the press you’d still think Obama won a great victory across racial lines. Unfortunately if you do the arithmetic such results applied nationally would leave senator Obama about 10% short of the Democrat nomination.

If 100 million people vote in the general election and Senator Clinton receives 20% of the African American vote she would garner about 4 Million Votes. However, if the nation votes along racial lines using the South Carolina template she will attract 75% of the white vote, 60 million people. Generally speaking, Senator Obama would likely lose the nomination 60% to 40%. That is a 20 point defeat. In politics that is quite a drubbing. Listen to the media though and you’d think that South Carolina results have helped Obama turn some mythical corner. Not so!

The same ridiculous notion is being allowed to play out in the Republican primaries. Senator McCain has won a couple of primaries and trails Governor Romney in delegates substantially. Romney has been consistently near the top in all of the primaries and has won a couple too. However, the media darling status for McCain is driven by political agendas. His positions are closer to the media left stances. He also would likely have a difficult time motivating the core base of Republicans to vote for him. This has been born out by the fact that he has not won a plurality of conservatives in any race to date. He relies on independents. Similarly, the same manipulation could be said for the media attempt to put Mayor Giuliani in the worst possible light. The attacks on the Mayor because of his wait until Florida strategy has been relentless. The likely reason is that they would fear a Clinton vs. Giuliani General Election race the most. However if Giuliani were to win the Florida primary the same “hop on the bandwagon” electorate mentality would drive him to the nomination. That bandwagon by the way is driven by the media elites through slanted news reports and analysis

The reason for the media slants is an attempt to lead the American electorate horse to the media waterhole, to make them drink. Unfortunately for the country, we are a nation of sheep; not bucking-broncos anymore. We just may drink the nonsense that the media is dishing out.

The electorate is making decisions about their candidates based on media hype, misconceptions, and downright manipulation. Instead of being true political consumers, we are political sheep being led by well dressed New York based sheep-herders. To decide on a candidate a true citizen must go beyond the surface dribble that they are fed by the media and actually research candidate positions in detail. Then taking a hard look at the records of what candidates have accomplished in office, a assessment process should begin. Once armed with the true facts people can mull over their appraisal. Making an informed decision this election would be a nice change.