Then things would really get ugly.
Sullivan:
Isn't it a relief, by the way, for the MSM to have a presidential campaign in which no issues are actually discussed? This Wright-stuff is amazing to me. It's all the MSM seems to care about. Even coverage of McCain is now about his attitude toward an unhinged black pastor from Chicago. Hey: it beats discussing war, debt, the economy, torture, and terrorism. Because it enables America to return to the classic boomer racial-cultural wars that are all the MSM truly knows how to cover. There's nothing to be done right now but to duck and cover. And emerge when actual questions of actual salience emerge.
I was thinking about this sort of thing when I started to thumb through Bad Money. In the book's Preface, Philips takes note of the varying economic crises and "bubbles" that have surfaced in the last few years and plaintatively calls for the 2008 candidates to at least address these things. Barring rioting in the streets, and maybe not even then, this isn't likely to happen.
For one, the freak show coverage of campaigns by the television and cable "news" stations necessitates against addressing such substance. Second, the candidates themselves are too risk averse to chance the fall-out inherent in saying anything remotely controversial that could alienate this or that key interest group, or provide campaign fodder for the opposition. Third, I seriously doubt whether any the candidates really understand the basics of the issues at stake, much less what might be reasonable policy solutions to them.
Meanwhile, as Rev. Wright returns to the center of attention today, the price of oil has reached $120/gallon.
No comments:
Post a Comment