THE LIBERAL MEDIA WOULD HAVE US REPEAT OUR MISTAKES

A Liberty Dispatch reader reminded us all of how voters in the 2008 Democratic primary were convinced to roll the dice and select a candidate with much less experience and an inflated resume as well as an inflated ego. It is impossible to forget how us conservatives were licking our chops to run against the very youthful looking Illinois lawyer who tilted his head up when he spoke as if he were looking down on his audience.

Boy were we all in for a surprise. With most newspapers and radio stations and TV networks acting as some kind of campaign assistants, Barack Obama beat one of this country’s most well known Vietnam POW’s and a four term Senator. The media Obama had on his side, discounted and even ridiculed any effort to point out all of his “voting present” in the Illinois state senate. They ignored the ridiculous argument that he was a United States Senator when he was running. They convinced enough voters that the two years he spent mostly campaigning for President was also two incredible years of experience in the U.S. Senate. Then, in response to those who pointed to his inflated record, they glossed over his inexperience and took every opportunity to put his name in the paper and on the air waves for free. They used his race and his inexperience to try and create a rock star status with young people and they used the idea of making history to appeal to all others.

The results are in on that election. Obama won and the country lost. The media proved how they can influence voters by packaging a candidate and by demonizing any media that challenges them. The irony of it all is that there is a good chance Obama will have to turn to Hillary Clinton as his Vice President to have a decent chance of re-election.

Liberty Dispatch is not, and never has been a Hillary Clinton fan. But her race against Obama may be the classic case for many many years to come of how the media use everything in their bag of tricks to get enough voters to cast their vote in a way they wouldn’t cast it in a million years if simply presented with the facts. They exploited and magnified his opponent’s negatives in that primary and then did the same thing to John McCain and we woke up the day after the election to a nightmare that has lasted for nearly four years.

That is history. The question is what voters have learned from all of this. Will we take what we have learned and actively deter our friends and neighbors from drinking the kool-aid again? Time will tell.