Sen. Obama & The Press

It has long been clear to anyone who cared to pay any real attention that Sen. Obama had been skating through the campaign, and the only way that is possible is with the compliance and cooperation of the national press corps, who have fawned and swooned at the senator’s feet since his keynote address to the Democratic National Convention in 2004. Incorrigible in their support and adulation, they have largely refused to pass a critical eye towards him and take a look beneath the uplifting veneer the campaign has constructed around itself and its candidate.

This dereliction does a double disservice to the American public. One, it provides a view and understanding of Sen. Obama that is of his own construction. As he has defined himself, he is a trans-partisan agent of change who will revolutionize American politics, provide universal health care to every American, bring our men and women home from Iraq without consequence, and resurrect America’s standing among the international community—among other lofty promises—all by the sheer force of his optimism, enlightenment, and charm.

This has been taken at face value by the fourth estate, without any intervening examination as to whether this self-crafted mystique is reconcilable with his actual real-life record. A basic cursory examination of such would reveal that his talk of trans-partisanship and unity is betrayed by an inveterate, party-line liberalism. National Journal ranked him as the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate, and he has assiduously avoided offending any of the Democratic Party’s constituent special interests in his three plus years in the Senate.

Second, not having had to deal with any semblance of media scrutiny he has gone untested and unchallenged, not providing the electorate with any opportunity to see how a man who would be our nation’s commander-in-chief responds to adversity. After all, if he is the one to raise his right hand on January 20th of next year his presidency will not be all rainbows, lollipops, and unicorns, regardless of what the implication of his messianic campaign has been. We live in a time of war and in a dangerous world, and there will be difficulties and crises that confront the next president, unexpected and unprepared for, and we simply cannot afford to wait until after Sen. Obama is President to witness how responds to and manages these.

That the national press has failed to act in any manner whatsoever to prevent this from occurring is gross malfeasance. Their purpose is to be our agent, examining and scrutinizing what our leaders in government present to us to divine its accuracy and legitimacy. They have not, and it would be to the American voter’s unyielding benefit if they began to, lest we elect a myth to our highest office.