Newsweek Article on Obama's Campaign Organization

When you come right down to it, a political campaign, especially one for the presidency of the United States, is a pretty egotistical act. What a candidate is saying is "that out of 300 million Americans, I am the one best able to lead this country." People who are willing to put themselves in that position are not shrinking violets, they are not wallflowers, and they have a very big ego. The real challenge for such candidates is to convince the American public that their campaigns are more than exercises in ego, that their election will bring about good things for their fellow Americans.

The other thing that successful campaigns have in common is that they are usually well-organized. It takes a lot of groundwork to put together a successful presidential campaign. You have to have good people, a winning message, and the courage to stick to your plan even when things aren't going well. Which brings us to the Newsweek article on Obama's campaign.

The article talks about the organization that Obama put together for this run. It also talks about his liabilities as well as his strengths. It is a good article and gives a good portrait of both Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama.

Media Swooning for McCain, But Do Regular GOP Voters?

As this article by Jonathon Alter on Newsweek.com shows, the mainstream media, aka the corporate media, is ready to swoon once again over John McCain. Quotes like this one show how much trouble any Democrat, but especially Hillary Clinton, will have with the media if McCain is the nominee:

Instead he's preparing for a possible sequel to a legendary insurgent campaign in 2000 that for reporters like me was the most fun we ever had in politics.

Political reporters like Alter seem to remember McCain's 2000 campaign the way a middle-aged man remembers the first time he fell in love when he was in college. Sort of rosy-hued with all her good points remembered and none of the bad.

What reporters like Alter are forgetting is that when the primaries in 2000 went from states like New Hampshire and Michigan, where independents could vote, to states like South Carolina and others, where only registered Republicans could vote, McCain started losing. While there is no doubt that Karl Rove's dirty tricks in South Carolina hurt McCain in 2000, what probably hurt him more is the fact that registered Republicans don't much seem to care for him. This is shown this time in Iowa where McCain isn't even competing.

So the question becomes whether the adoration of media writers like Alter will be enough to get McCain nominated. Probably not because the media has effect, but not power, if power is defined as the ability to bring about intended results. Nothing showed this more than the Clinton impeachment of the late 1990s. There is no doubt that most media types, especially those located inside the D.C. Beltway, wanted Clinton gone. Unfortunately for them, the public didn't and in the final analysis, the public got what it wanted, not what the media wanted.

Keep all this in mind when you start reading and hearing about the McCain "comeback" of 2008. Until McCain wins a state where independents can't vote in the GOP primary, such as South Carolina, all this media hype doesn't mean a thing.