Media hero worship

Can we stop the hero-worship?

Nobody doubts he's a hero, as the many tributes throughout the convention were meant to highlight...

John McCain hasn't done anything heroic in the last thirty-five years. What he did in North Vietnam to resist the despicable war criminals who tortured him was tremendous. Yes, the communists broke him, but everyone breaks in time, and the way he broke was honorable.

I have no desire to swiftboat John McCain, although Duhbya showed in 2000 that it would be possible. But I'm not even close to that slimy.

Many other men suffered the same fate in hellish North Vietnamese prisons, and they're not entitled by it to the Presidency either. To our thanks and our respect and our honor and even our amazement, but not to the highest office in the land.

The grievous error of letting the media suck us into a Republican narrative centered on a manufactured image of personality has caused tremendous problems for the past three decades. Even the media and the Republican Party acknowledge that they have no plans other than more of the same, that they can only run on personal traits. Haven't we had enough of that fraud?

Bill Schneider hits many apt points, including this:

His answers seemed very much part of the past: cut spending, cut taxes.

Yet he is still summing up this way:

If voters are choosing between two men, they will probably choose McCain. If they're choosing between two policies, I think Obama has the edge: His are newer, smarter and fresher.

The only explanation I can venture as a guess: Schneider doesn't want to ruin his friendship with McCain. That would be journalistic malpractice if true. If not true, it's far too often true in our media.

Clift notes

Eleanor Clift ladles on the bullshit:

• Repetition is the key, and we journalists can't be bothered to repeat the truth. The lies are so much more interesting.
  
• Obama's lead has "melted away". Check the polls - pretty damn steady.
  
• Please, Democrats, puh-leeze, run a Republican-style dirty campaign. We miss middle school backbiting.
  
• Democrats shy away from sleaze, not because they're better, but because they're non-confrontational and rationalize that as high-mindedness.
• Tsk-tsk, the election has become a referendum on Obama's personality (thanks, RNC, good talking point!), so Obama better show that McCain waffles and reverses and that he'd be another four years of Bushism.
  

Could we please have a real liberal somewhere instead of concern trolls like this?

WWF rules

No, not rulz.

John McCain promises four more years of all the same policies that have made Duhbya look so much like the boorish, disconnected, uncaring idiot that he obviously was as early as 2000.

• Iraq? Let's stay indefinitely.
• Iran and Syria? Nothing a few more invasions couldn't cure. Sunni, Shi'a - who cares? Wahhabi? Don't they serve that in Japanese restaurants?
• Health care? The "free" market, which has never provided before will magically provide during a McCain administration - if we just take care of the insurance companies.
• Environment? More toothless, voluntary, worthless industry proposals.
• Progressive taxation? Used to be for it just a little, but now signed up for the orthodox Bushist position that taxes are for Leona Helmsley's little people (us).
• Katrina? Tut tut, I'll come visit on the ground instead of flying over, but there's no actual money to help recovery.
  
• Deficits? All the fat cats still get their contractual stipends, but cut all the programs that actually help people in need.

Yet, McCain is running even (sorry, no permalink) with either Democrat. Why, after 7 1/2 disastrous years of Bushist misrule would Americans choose four more?

First order, the only thing that matters in politics today is personality. McCain is a straight-shooter. Heh. Hillary is a power-besotted bitch, and Obama is a condescending elitist who can't even bowl a hundred. Oh, and he's not a loyal American.

These are the only "issues" that our thoroughly stupid (on average, only on average) press corps is capable of writing about. We pick our favorite wrestlers on their personalities, not to mention our favorite soap characters, our favorite NASCAR drivers, our favorite American idols.

Until we become less stupid, less easily led by the nose, we Americans will continue to choose thoughtless leaders whose promises, not just their hidden desires, run against our own interests and vision of America. Really, it's just pathetic.

Look in the mirror. Is it your fault?

Cult of personality

Originally two comments here on Eschaton.

It is unfortunate that a key part of modern mass media politics is the cult of personality. You don't think Duhbya "won" in 2000 on policy, do you? More voters make their decision on likability than on ideology, at least more of the persuadable middle.

The Texans have spun Duhbya into a nice guy that everyone would like to have an alcohol-free beer with, but the truth is much different. He's a spoiled, self-entitled, self-righteous, willfully ignorant, mean, cavalier bastard. This story and stories like it dent that likability and are important, sad to say, to whipping his no account butt back to Crawford - for at least as long as it takes for him to sell his vanity ranch.

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I want a reason to vote for Kerry but i just can't...

Bring honor and respect back to the White House. It didn't work the first try, but we owe it to ourselves as patriotic Americans to try again.