Sunday, October 26, 2008
Hardball, Local Style
One of the techniques of modern presidential campaigns to bypass the national filter and reach the citizen unfiltered is to give interviews to local television, which often are so glad to get the attention that the reporters accept the questions ahead of time from the candidates themselves. Apparently this Orlando station did not get the message. And the interview is also instructive to those who bring up the "liberal press" boogymen in general or the McCain-Palin campaign specifically.
The reporter, WFTV's Barbara West is a "health reporter and anchor" during the noon and 5:30 broadcasts. By looking at her bio, it shouldn't be hard to guess her politics, and after listening to her interview, it shouldn't be hard to see that she has a difficult time hiding her politics.
Her bio says: "When Hillary Clinton attempted to reform our health care system, I traveled to Canada to examine the Canadian national health care system as a possible model for the U.S.
In her interview with Senator Biden, she uses language very similar to the McCain-Palin campaign about "redistribution of hte wealth," and for emphasis, she asks Senator Biden: "From each according to his abilities to each according to his needs" which she followed with "that is a quote from Karl Marx. Is Obama's comment to 'Joe the Plumber' about spreading the wealth wasn't being Marxist."
Biden chuckled, thinking that her comments were a joke, and asked if this was some kind of joke. Ms. West sat there stoicly, in fact there wasn't any evidence in her questions that she gave any thought to them, instead simply reading what was put in front of her.
The Obama campaign responded by cutting the station off for any future interview. A spokesperson for Obama told the station they were pulling Mrs. Biden from an interview, and that the "cancellation is non-negotiable, and further opportuniites for your station to interview with this campaign are unlikely, at best for the duration of the remaining days until the election."
One has to wonder if the Obama campaign did their homework ahead of time. Given the comments on this webpage about West's war with national health care, it should have been obvious where her politics rested. And if that wasn't enough, shouldn't the Florida Democratic Party told them which news stations were likely to be sympathetic?
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The reporter, WFTV's Barbara West is a "health reporter and anchor" during the noon and 5:30 broadcasts. By looking at her bio, it shouldn't be hard to guess her politics, and after listening to her interview, it shouldn't be hard to see that she has a difficult time hiding her politics.
Her bio says: "When Hillary Clinton attempted to reform our health care system, I traveled to Canada to examine the Canadian national health care system as a possible model for the U.S.
In her interview with Senator Biden, she uses language very similar to the McCain-Palin campaign about "redistribution of hte wealth," and for emphasis, she asks Senator Biden: "From each according to his abilities to each according to his needs" which she followed with "that is a quote from Karl Marx. Is Obama's comment to 'Joe the Plumber' about spreading the wealth wasn't being Marxist."
Biden chuckled, thinking that her comments were a joke, and asked if this was some kind of joke. Ms. West sat there stoicly, in fact there wasn't any evidence in her questions that she gave any thought to them, instead simply reading what was put in front of her.
The Obama campaign responded by cutting the station off for any future interview. A spokesperson for Obama told the station they were pulling Mrs. Biden from an interview, and that the "cancellation is non-negotiable, and further opportuniites for your station to interview with this campaign are unlikely, at best for the duration of the remaining days until the election."
One has to wonder if the Obama campaign did their homework ahead of time. Given the comments on this webpage about West's war with national health care, it should have been obvious where her politics rested. And if that wasn't enough, shouldn't the Florida Democratic Party told them which news stations were likely to be sympathetic?
