2008 Election Winners & Losers

One guy's opinion on some winners and losers from the American elections.

Winner: Barack Obama -- From start to finish, probably the best-run presidential campaign in American history. His speech upon winning the Iowa caucus was a transcendent moment in the nation’s politics, and it just kept going from there. A few are surprised that his percentage of the popular vote wasn’t higher, but that’s a non-issue. Many presidential elections are Electoral College blowouts, yet few are in the popular vote. (The most recent exceptions are LBJ in 1964 and Reagan in 1984, when both received 60%.) In all, congratulations to President-Elect Obama on running a superb campaign and winning a great victory. A momentous day for America.

Winner: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- With a greater majority in Congress and a Democratic president inclined to sign legislation coming across his desk, the second most powerful person in Washington just got more so. There’s a natural tension between the branches of government, even when controlled by the same party. So the only question is how much or how little we’ll see.

Winner: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin -- No vice presidential candidate in history has drawn the crowds she has, and everywhere at that. She will be the most sought-after speaker at every Republican/conservative gathering for the foreseeable future, which will be huge in winning support and pocketing favors for a future run. Palin’s at least a top contender if not the top contender for the Republican ticket in 2012. Will she run? The first clue will be whether or not she sets up a Political Action Committee in 2009.

Loser: John McCain -- This is obvious, but it’s a shame calling McCain a loser at anything. Even for those of us finding him at times infuriating during his Senate career. The great question will be the “what if?” about the financial crisis. From the end of his convention until the Lehman debacle two weeks later, McCain-Palin was ahead in most polls. Would they have kept or built on that lead? Or would the natural tendencies of the political cycle have eventually overtaken them anyway? We’ll never know.

Loser: Federal Funding of Presidential Campaigns -- Those of us with libertarian leanings always found the idea of taxpayer money going to political candidates appalling. By going back on his promise to accept federal money, Obama has almost certainly killed such funding forever. No future candidate will shackle himself or herself the way McCain did. And good riddance.

Loser: American Media -- The major print and broadcast press was so in the tank for Obama, they almost hurt him at times. Yet this is a culmination that’s been building for years. In the late 1980s, 8 out of 10 Americans felt the media were believable. A recent Pew Research survey finds that, depending on whether it is CNN, NBC, CBS or other outlet, it’s more like 3 out of 10. A good, healthy trend.

Loser: MSNBC -- I’m not including this cable channel with the American media because that would be an insult to journalists everywhere. The low point was reached during the Democratic convention, when their anchors were getting into fights with each other on air. There is no shortage of reports that hard news types at NBC resent being associated with MSNBC. Indeed, the late Chet Huntley, David Brinkley and John Chancellor must be spinning in their graves.

Loser: Rev. Jeremiah Wright -- When Rev. Wright pulled his antics at the National Press Club in Washington, it was obvious he was trying to hurt Barack Obama. Was it because Obama at the last minute told Wright he wasn’t welcomed at the event announcing Obama’s candidacy? Was it because Wright felt Obama used him and his church to help launch his political career? There’s a story there, but we’ll probably never know it, because the media weren’t interested.

Loser: Joe Biden -- It’s hard saying this about someone on the winning ticket. But only a diehard partisan doesn’t think Biden is something of a joke. He’s long had a reputation as a human gaffe machine (and a blowhard), yet the regularity of his misstatements reached the point of weirdness. Fortunately for the Obama organization, the media and public were so obsessed with Palin that Biden never received the attention he might have otherwise. Of course, he’ll be a heartbeat away, so he’s got the last laugh.

Comments

[Ronald Rutherford]

Excellent summation!
You have to wonder about the Media's Bias and how blatant it was. Keith Oberman is a complete joke and never even realizes it...

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[Alex]

As a social liberal, it's painful to acknowledge that I can't directly attack your judgement of the media. I would argue, however, that for every Keith Olbermann there is a Bill O'Reilly, and that David Gregory is more thorough than Brit Hume. You might also conflate left leaning media agendas with a simply low standard of reporting quality. Example: the media coverage of Georgia-South Ossetia followed the White House depiction of the war by focusing on Russian aggression. Where was the soft-hearted liberal examination of Georgia's history with their weaker neighbor?

[John]

Ronald: Thanks, but the list is just my opinion, reasonable people can disagree (and I hope without being disagreeable).

Alex: My point is that journalism is getting incredibly sloppy, so we probably agree more than you might think. I don't want to get into Olbermann, because I rarely watch. My understanding is that Olbermann doesn't have opposing views on his show, while O'Reilly does regularly. But all the cable channels at night are awful -- it's about personalities and not content. Even CNN, which with its bureaus around the world, should be the hard news provider of record in the US. But they've gone the personality route as well.

[Jay Walker]

Surprised you missed mentioning Fox in the media category - they aren't any more believable than some of those other media outlets.

Thinking for oneself remains as difficult and elusive as ever.

Jay

[John]

Jay: Shouldn't be too surprising. There was only one news organization with anchors getting into fights while on air during a major convention. And that had reporters and one prominent former anchor lobby the parent company's chief executive to drop certain individuals from anchoring future major news events. It was a circus and it wasn't Fox.