Let's Give McCain What He's Asked For

In recent weeks, it has become increasingly apparent that the McCain campaign has become annoyed at the attention that Barack Obama and his campaign have been receiving from just about every media outlet around this country. Obama’s current tour of Europe and the Middle East has allowed McCain, at least publicly, to cry out with mocking indignance that Barack Obama has become the darling of the media.

In the past weeks, the McCain camp has actually created a website devoted to the supposed bias that the media is showing to favor Barack Obama. They seem to easily dismiss the fact that for months now, their campaign and candidate have been given very soft treatment by the media of this country, a campaign that very rarely is forced to handle a difficult question or deal with anything even approaching a challenging question or query.

I believe it’s time for Barack to come back from his overseas trip and request that the media do just what John McCain and his subordinates have been complaining about. He should ask them to turn their cameras and spotlight right on John McCain, imploring the major networks to make certain that they focus significant attention on what John McCain truly offers this country in the next four years.

What McCain and his cronies neglect to recognize is that tremendous scrutiny comes with more intense media attention. This is the one aspect of running for president that has been missing from the daily activities of the McCain campaign. They instead travel around the country, making unchallenged pronouncements and attacks on Barack Obama with very little backlash or requirement to back up their statements. John McCain even has large news organizations like CBS editing out his gaffes and inserting answers that he has given at other times.

But Barack should go one step further. He should also make it very clear to anyone in the media that will actually devote any additional attention to the McCain campaign to hit John McCain with the same intensity and detail-seeking queries that they seem to have no difficulty going after Obama with. The Obama campaign should lay out plainly and clearly what areas the media should be focusing on, namely the more than five dozen changes in platform and agenda issues that has been a stalwart of the McCain candidacy.

While we’re at it, the media should make certain to see which of the Bush/Cheney edicts that he will either continue with or put an end to, things like the hundreds of presidential signing statements that the president has signed specifically stating that bills passed by Congress and signed into law by him can be ignored should he choose to do so. The list of items that McCain can distance himself on from the Bush/Cheney regime is too numerous to mention, but the media should pick a place to begin and have at it.

I make two predictions. No matter how the media is challenged, they won’t turn their attention away from Barack, for two reasons: Number one, he is significantly more interesting to cover than McCain; and secondly, Obama actually makes news and speaks with substance when he’s speaking. McCain speaks in dull, overly used clichés that are just not interesting to the media, and therefore, not of much interest to the American public.

I also think that Barack needs to come back and hit the issues hard without missing a beat. It’s time to step up to the appropriate words that make it very clear what Barack stands for and how dramatic the difference is between he and McCain. In the process of doing so, he should establish himself as a candidate who will fight hard to make certain that everyone in this country, even people who just listen to sound bites or get the tiniest snippets of news once in a while, has a clear understanding of what he stands for, how his presidency will benefit them, and maybe most importantly, what a continuation of the Bush/Cheney presidency will mean to each and every one of us if McCain does somehow get elected.