Like Obama, Media Would Rather Report On Anything Other Than Obama's Record of Failure

The "shiny objects" strategy-- attempt to create distractions two or three times a week so that people don't talk about things like, say, the 11-18% unemployment rate.

What issues are most important to voters this presidential election year? If you said the economy, jobs and the budget deficit, congratulations, you are like the rest of America. But if you said gay marriage, birth control and pranks Mitt Romney pulled in high school in 1965, then you either already are, or may have a future in the liberal media.

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If voters decide the 2012 election based on Obama's economic record, he will lose. And so the liberal media, as in love with him as ever, is helping him parade shiny objects to distract voters from that record. The wall-to-wall coverage of Obama's sudden evolution in his personal position on same-sex marriage follows in the tradition of the Republican War on Women; the Buffett Rule; tax breaks for private jets; Romney's supposed soft-spot for Osama bin Laden; a student loan bill that would save the average borrower all of $7 per month; and endless 30-year-old stories about Romney's dog.

I'm not sure this strategy will work. Yes, they're definitely trying it. But will it work?

Say you've suffered a major loss-- oh, for this example, let's say you lost your job.

Now, your friends and family will try to hearten you by distracting you from it. "You have your health." "Now you have time to finish that deck you've been wanting to build for years." "It was a bad job anyway." "Sometimes it's good to have a pause in life."

And you'll be distracted, a bit.

But your mind will keep coming back to that one thing, won't it?

Distraction is a temporary fix, and it barely lasts a minute or two. And even in that moment of distraction, your mind isn't far from the thing it's trying to be distracted from.

The editorial cautions Romney not to take the bait; but, actually, he seems to already know that, and commendably scolds the press for being interested in every issue except The Issue.

Asked about the issue, repeatedly, he first gives his standard positions, calmly. But when the reporter just won't let up on her idee fixe -- and other social issues like tuition for immigrants and medical marijuana -- he begins challenging her: "Aren't there issues of significance you want to ask me about?"

What's hilarious is that when he finally does get her to ask an economic question, she then asks him... if he's "in the tank" for Big Oil.

That's her one question on the economy.

Post interview, she's proud of it -- she says "See, I did ask about jobs!"

Yes, dear. You sure did.

posted by Ace at 03:51 PM

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