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Kicking off the final full week on the stump of Campaign 2008, the nightly newscasts offered a clear contrast between the mindsets of the two candidates as each traveled to Pennsylvania. Democrat Barack Obama, who was assigned the lead item on ABC and NBC, was portrayed as disciplined, unadventurous, predictable. Republican John McCain, who was also covered on all three newscasts, was portrayed as mercurial, improvisational, multifaceted. Obama, narrowly, qualified as Story of the Day. For its lead, CBS chose the day's other major political news, the graft conviction of Sen Ted Stevens, the longtime Republican legislator from Alaska.

Consider these depictions of Obama as he spoke of hope and unity and the failed economic policies of the Bush Administration: ABC's Jake Tapper (no link) heard him "sounding out some of same themes he has been voicing for the last four years"…NBC's Lee Cowan called them "oldies but goodies" and "very familiar things"…CBS' Dean Reynolds concluded that he "emphasized the time-tested themes that polls say have propelled him to the threshold of the White House."

Contrast that with the varied impressions created by McCain after his day on the stump. ABC's Ron Claiborne (no link) found him "fighting on two fronts, attacked Obama as a tax raiser while distancing himself from President Bush." CBS' Chip Reid then noted that McCain's "focus on the economy soon became blurred as Republicans launched a series of new attacks on Obama." McCain turned to a seven-year-old radio interview in which Obama engaged in historical criticism of the civil rights movement for relying too little on "political and community organizing" and too much on securing legal rights by filing lawsuits. Obama concluded with the generalization that "redistributive change" relies on "actual coalitions of power" rather than court rulings.

It was that "redistributive" word that got under McCain's skin. He interpreted it as referring not to racial realignment but to "wealth in our society."

NBC's Kelly O'Donnell covered McCain's dual attempts to differentiate himself from George Bush and Barack Obama and the 2001 civil rights interview too before turning to McCain's running mate. "That is not who I am," Sarah Palin insisted, referring to the type of candidate who has a national political party "spending $100,000 or $50,000 on her wardrobe."


Andrew Tyndall 11/3/08 11:34:46 pm

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