Getting the Message Out There

I am an ardent observer and follower of the political scene in this country and -- who am I kidding? I'm an addict. I was traveling this past weekend, and my wife and I were experiecing withdrawal after only three days. We even ducked into a hotel lounge to see if we could catch a few moments of news from CNN or MSNBC, but at that moment they were all covering non-news items. Too bad.

I watch just about every kind of political coverage, and the one consistent thread through every broadcast is that the issues are almost completely ignored while the banter back and forth between the presidential campaigns, no matter how insignficant and irrelevant, is covered with a gusto that we may have never seen.

I think there are larger issues at play here. One, it is becoming increasingly apparent that Barack Obama wishes to stick to the issues that are on the minds of the people of this country and that the McCain campaign would rather cover anything but the isssues, specifically focusing the media's attention on Obama's supposed negatives, things like his being a celebrity, whether he plays the race card, whether he is "ready to lead" and whatever the talking point is of the day, as long as it is hurtful to Obama and taking the attention away from McCain's shortcomings when it comes to the issues.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/01/AR2008080103032.html?wpisrc=newsletter

I feel that articles like this should be explored. They let us know what McCain is truly about and how he arrives at his positions. Reading this will leave you with one thought...there is a stark difference between John McCain and Barack Obama, on so many levels.

Additionally, the Obama campaign is putting out important policy statements that are almost if not completely ignored by the mainstream media, and this article certainly tells us why McCain can't keep up. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/12215.html

The question is how do we change this? How do we get the media to focus its attention on important and vital issues, what Obama has been talking about every day, and away from the McCain talking points that, while provocative, will not get us anywhere except into a divisive and distracting discussion that will just continue to confuse that forty percent of the country that is affected by this coverage.

I'd love to hear some suggestions, because I know the Obama campaign reads this, and they will see what's being said out here in Obama support blogland.