Why no obsession over McCain VP slot?
Filed under: 2008 elections, John McCain, Lead Story, Media, Media Criticism — Claudia, Assistant Editor on June 11, 2008 @ 8:57 pm CEST
The media is looking at the horoscopes of Obama’s potential VEEPs, and ignoring McCain’s. What gives?
I look at Google News and memeorandum several times a day. Today I was looking over it and found an article discussing how soon-to-be-Republican Joe Lieberman is an unlikely VP pick because of his pro-choice position. I found myself surprised. Not by the reasoning, it’s not a shocker that being pro-life is a GOP litmus test, but by the fact that someone was discussing McCain picking a VP, instead of Obama.
Why is the press so obsessed with who gets second slot in the Obama campaign and seems totally indifferent to McCain’s pick?
Except a brief flurry when McCain held his little barbecue, there seems to have been very limited interest in the whole matter. Obama on the other hand, has the media using rivers of virtual ink; Will it be a woman? What about Clinton? Look what the Ohio guy said! Webb hasn’t said no. Will he pick a southerner? Older? Younger? Insider? Outsider? I’m an Obama supporter and I’m getting rather sick of it. Dan Quayle made abundantly clear that, as long as nothing happens to the president, the VP slot Does Not Matter in terms of elections. There is no reason to suppose that either Obama or McCain would allow their VP to have the kind of power Cheney has.
Another aspect that makes the lack of scrutiny towards McCain curious is age. Yes, I know it’s terrible of me to actually say that McCain is an older guy, deal with it. It does not change the fact that he’s 72 years old with a medical record that has martyred several trees already. Nine Vice Presidents have become president, mostly because the POTUS died of natural or horribly unnatural causes. When you have a guy who would become the oldest president ever, I think that it’s not at all unreasonable to ask that his Vice President be someone you could trust to be an effective president, not just a trusty side-kick.
The media is ignoring this issue studiously. The McCain campaign already showed that they were perfectly willing to go after anyone who could be construed to discuss his age (even in unlikely scenarios, like when Obama said McCain had “lost his bearings”) and the media may be afraid that if they obsess over the McCain pick the same way they are obsessing (and they are obsessing) over the Obama pick, they will be accused of implying that McCain is “too old” for the presidency.
1 Chris
June 11, 2008 @ 9:05 pm CEST"The McCain campaign already showed that they were perfectly willing to go after anyone who could be construed to discuss his age (even in unlikely scenarios, like when Obama said McCain had “lost his bearings”) and the media may be afraid that if they obsess over the McCain pick the same way they are obsessing"
Oh I see, so this is McCain’s vault! How devious!
2 Kristofer
June 11, 2008 @ 10:32 pm CESTGood morning, I figured you would be interested in viewing this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXfiOSCfY44http://www.PalinforVP.comKristofer
3 Interested
June 11, 2008 @ 10:34 pm CESTI think it is safe to point out that there have not been any pistol duals at dawn on the front lawn of the White House recently too.
4 Tully
June 12, 2008 @ 8:17 pm CESTI think he should name Palin, and then run on his first name and her last.
Hey, I’d vote for Michael Palin!
5 chris
June 12, 2008 @ 10:17 pm CESTThe reason the media is not obsessed over who Mccain’s VP will be is because they have not been obsessed over anything but Obama………why are you so surprise…didn’t we just had 7 months of the media coercing Hillary out of the race cuz they only wanted to safe the ink for Obama? Mccain will get the same cold shoulder from the media as Hillary…..nothing will change.
6 Ted
June 12, 2008 @ 11:44 pm CESTThis is not rocket science.
Palin as McCain’s VP.
7 robocaller
June 13, 2008 @ 7:07 pm CESTI was thinking of who could both appeal to conservatives and to moderates, and I think John Kasich would fit that bill, he has a strong record of backing conservative issues like fiscal restraint but has worked strongly with the other side of the aisle, like in Kasich-Penny. Why isn’t he being considered?
8 Slots
August 4, 2008 @ 3:46 pm CESTI don’t agree with Yully, The media is obsessed over who Mccain’s VP will be, and Obama is enjoying all this show off. Regard the age, the people don’t care about his age or discussing this issue…!!!