| According to a story on CNN's website, Bush and Gore are in a virtual tie. Further, CNN reports that more Americans share Bush's view on the size and role of the federal government. Finally, some media outlet is reporting that Americans agree with Bush on an issue! There has been a relentless drumbeat in the major media's political reporting that Gore has the advantage issues. Time and time again, on the roundtable shows like This Week and Meet the Press and in the opinion columns of the Washington Post, we hear that Americans agree with Gore on all the major issues. Well, if that's true, how does that square with this new poll by CNN? What issue could be more important than the "size and role of the federal government?" After all, we are electing the leader of the federal government! I've been discouraged the last few weeks by Gore's surge. What's most demoralizing is the aiding and abetting of that surge by the media. Sometimes, its seems hopeless. The media, I am afraid, will do everything to squelch any Bush advantage and cover up any Gore mistake. For example, as far as I could see, only the Washington Post covered Georgia Congresswomen Cynthia McKinney's charges that Gore was insensitive to the Black issues in the wake of a lawsuit by African-American secret service agents. Isn't it significant that a member of Congress claims that the Vice President's "Negro tolerance has never been high?" Instead the headlines that got attention were the incredibly trivial story that Dick Cheney didn't bother to vote very often in the last few years. Of course, I have to steel myself against this sort of typical Conservative paranoia and remember that Americans are usually smart enough not to be taken in by this kind of thing. After all, they elected Ronald Reagan twice and George Bush the Elder once and GW is still hanging in there. |