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Major news from overseas failed to knock Campaign 2008 out of the top spot. Fidel Castro formally resigned as President of Cuba. The opposition to President Pervez Musharraf triumphed in Pakistani parliamentary elections. President George Bush paid tribute to the 800,000 killed in Rwanda's genocide. But another winter Tuesday brought another primary election and so the vote in Wisconsin was Story of the Day. Campaign coverage was the lead on NBC and CBS. ABC chose to kick off with Cuba.

I am off on a week's vacation to the Eternal City. If you see anything interesting on the news while I am gone, leave a note in Comments. I am recording each night and will catch up next week.

As usual when a newscast airs while primary voting is still going on, much of the preview coverage has not been posted online. This time NBC did not offer videostreams. ABC's Kate Snow predicted that the turnout in Wisconsin would be the heaviest in two decades, despite a frigid 6F temperature and "deep snow banks." Barack Obama was expected to win Wisconsin, having spent "a lot of time, a lot of money and a lot of effort" in the state, as NBC's Lee Cowan (no link) put it, including $500,000 on TV ads in the final two days.

Analyzing the exit polls, ABC's George Stephanopoulos told us to keep an eye on how white blue collar workers voted. NBC's Tim Russert (no link) predicted that Wisconsin would function as a laboratory to test whether negative campaigning by Hillary Rodham Clinton against Obama was an effective model for Ohio and Texas. CBS' Jeff Greenfield (no link) reeled off the candidates' attributes on being fair, being a Commander in Chief, bringing unity and being electable. He told substitute anchor Harry Smith that the numbers held no "encouragement" for the senator from New York State.

Rodham Clinton's campaign rolled out a TV ad in Ohio to try to make sure that her base of working class women stays loyal. ABC's Snow showed us a waitress, a hair stylist, a nurse--with the slogan She Has Worked the Night Shift Too. The campaign also continued its attempt "to turn one of her opponent's strengths into a weakness," as NBC's Ron Allen (no link) put it, by pointing out that Obama's acclaimed oratory uses borrowed phrases. Again Deval Patrick, the Governor of Massachusetts, was shown using words--"I am asking you to take a chance on your own aspirations"--before Obama repeated the very same formulation. Again Obama did not offer attribution.

The other words emanating from the Obama campaign were from wife Michelle. CBS' Jim Axelrod suggested that she might have given her husband's critics "an even sharper line of attack" when she declared: "For the first time in my adult lifetime I am really proud of my country." Republican John McCain's campaign responded with wife Cindy, who hit it out of the ballpark, as the saying goes: "I always have been and always will be extremely proud of my country." NBC's Kelly O'Donnell (no link) called it "a subtle but pointed reference." Subtle as a brick.


Andrew Tyndall 2/20/08 7:57:03 pm

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