Not a Big Truck

I hope the Obama campaign can convince the public that McCain and Palin are not mavericks.  McCain was, perhaps, a maverick, but has since shown himself to be a conventional Republican (except perhaps more Hawkish than many).  As for Palin, there seems to be little evidence that she stood up against Republicans in her own state until it became politically necessary to do so. 

But, Republicans are skilled at repeating an untruth enough that the public believes it. Sarah Palin is a reformer who stands up against entrenched interests. Oh yeah? When? How?  Doesn’t matter. Republicans repeat the line and people will buy it, unless the media or Obama can expose it as a fantasy.  With the media having been fairly intimidated by the sexism and elitism charges, that leaves the Obama campaign to push back. I am starting to worry that it is not enough.

Since the general election began, Senator Obama has been receiving the lion’s share of media coverage.  McCain has received some more over the last couple weeks, but is still well behind Obama in coverage.

While there are some positives to Obama driving the debate and controlling the storyline through a media monopoly, there is a significant downside. The media focuses on both Obama’s positives and negatives, while ignoring both the mistakes that McCain’s campaign has been making and the shortcomings of McCain’s policies. Focusing on whether Obama is just popular or an arrogant celebrity distracts from the failures of the McCain candidacy thus far.

That is why I am hoping that Obama’s vacation reverses the trend, if even just for a week. With Obama out of the limelight, perhaps his campaign can redirect the media’s attention to McCain’s campaign.  The glaring flaws will be examined and the ignorant gimmicks that have been propped up as policy proposals will be exposed….hopefully.

Some have argued the vacation was a mistake. Some claim he should be campaigning. Others believe he should have gone to Myrtle Beach or the Grand Canyon, not Hawaii (Cokie Robers on This Weekargued that Hawaii is too exotic of a place that Americans can’t relate too, which I think is wrong–even the Brady Bunch went to Hawaii, right?).  I think this vacation has the potential to be a positive as it may start to ever so slightly nudge this election back into a referendum on the failed Republican leadership over the last eight years rather than an examination of Obama’s so called “otherness.”