Clinton Remains Ahead in Polls Despite Press Pile-On

Immediately after last Tuesday's Democratic candidates debate, I wrote that Hillary Clinton had emerged with a decisive victory:

If there was ever any doubt about which of the Democratic Presidential candidates is best suited to lead America, tonight's debate should go a long way toward eliminating it.

Hillary Clinton, poised, prepared and confident, dramatically outshone all competitors once again, in a debate largely characterized by her opponents' awkward attempts to shake her from her frontrunner's perch.

Literally as I was writing, however, I listened in incredulity as MSNBC's Chris Matthews crowed breathlessly that Mrs. Clinton had so badly fumbled the final question about New York State Governor Elliot Spitzer's pending legislation on "drivers' licenses for illegals," as to lose not only the debate, but presumably, her chances at the Presidential nomination itself.

This is Chris Matthews, from the post-debate coverage transcript:

I am stunned because it took to the last minute; it was the last round knockout perhaps. Hillary Clinton would not answer the question straight. Do you support giving driver‘s licenses in the state of New York that you represent in the U.S. Senate to the illegal aliens? She kept saying over and over again undocumented workers. That‘s the nice way of putting it. Fair enough, but she wouldn‘t answer the question. She said yes, then, she said no. What did she say?

...The first story coming out of this debate, the first run at this by the Associated Press pointed to the issue that the two chief opponents Barack Obama and John Edwards were hitting on, the issue of character and double talk. I didn‘t hear it that well. I kept hearing Iraq and Iran. But the way other reporters heard it was they‘re hitting her on not being reliable, she‘s not genuine, Hillary isn‘t who she‘s saying she is and then Tim Russert, one of the moderators tonight nailed her with that question. She said it was a gotcha question. A gotcha question is a weird question that doesn‘t relate to the central debate of our time. Who‘s the prime minister of Canada, no, just kidding. But the central question of immigration is so hot on the Republican side, it may well drive their nominating fight.

The "Hillary blew it" mantra has filled the cable news airwaves ever since.

Apparently Democratic voters aren't buying it. According to a new Newsweek poll:

....The New York senator gets 44 percent of the overall Democratic vote, compared to 24 percent for Obama (down a point since NEWSWEEK's August poll) and 12 percent for Edwards (down two points). She is the first choice of 45 percent of self-identified Democrats (compared with 39 percent of Democratic "leaners"). She also trounces Obama among Democratic female voters (48 to 19 percent) and enjoys a marginal lead among male Democratic voters (38 to 32 percent). Obama runs better among younger Democratic voters and minorities.

The political spinning and gamesmanship of the mainstream press may well be a large part of what is troubled in America today.

In times such as these, the notion that primary voters would even consider a candidate's views about an issue as marginal as state drivers' licenses in determining who should be President of the United States is more than a bit insulting to the collective American intelligence.

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan must be resolved. War with Iran must be avoided. Nuclear-armed Pakistan has disintegrated into martial law with opposition leaders, judges and lawyers rounded up and arrested overnight.

America's foreign policy - insult, demand, provoke, shock and awe - is widely rebuked, resisted and feared throughout the world. The land of freedom and tolerance has been diminished to the point that current congressional testimony openly dances around the previously unthinkable question, "how badly are we allowed to hurt someone before it's called torture?"

Domestically, borders remain porous. The American dollar is sinking, fast. The economy appears headed for serious turbulence due to unchecked military expenditure, record deficits, credit woes, high energy costs, job exportation and diminished international confidence. Millions of Americans have no health care. New Orleans is still a disaster. Civil liberties are undergoing a subtle and constant squeeze.

These are grave and unavoidable issues. Each must be seriously addressed in a 2008 election that will redefine America in the post-Bush era.

It is becoming thankfully clear that so long as the media's anointed pundits continue to focus on obscurities and to treat the upcoming primaries and election as sporting events where rooting for the home team is nothing short of the American way, voters can and will simply tune out the noise and find their news and information elsewhere.

It was the largely the press fixation on minutia, rather than substance, that led to the disastrous Bush presidency in the first place.

It mattered little in press coverage that candidate Bush was quite clearly unable to string a complete sentence together.

His family credentials were good. "He'd be great to have a beer with. And the other guy flip-flopped.... Not to mention what those Swift-Boaters said. And those values voters sure do hate the other guy ..."

Over the last eight years, America has grown quite a bit wiser, and the stakes are regrettably quite a bit higher.

The media's relentless spinning and dumbing-down of the political discourse no longer will cut it.

It simply is not responsive to the seriousness of the moment.

There are viable information alternatives.

And so...

America has apparently begun its embrace of "the blogosphere" and other online resources.

Click.

.....

(Canada, it should be noted, lags somewhat behind the U.S. in blog engagement and awareness. Query whether this is due to the justified, higher confidence in the national press, north of the border?)

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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