Andrew Bolt had a classic whinge yesterday.
McCain is behind in the polls. So it must be the media’s fault. Media bias! In fact, McCain’s slide in the polls coincided with three events. One, the appointment of nutcase Sarah Palin as his VP candidate (something that concerns many American conservatives). Two, the global financial crisis and McCain’s response which was reminiscent of the old guy in Dad’s Army who runs around saying “Don’t Panic” everytime something goes wrong. Third, the presidential debates which voters, in a myriad of polls, have given all of them to Obama by about two to one. These three factors kicked in about the same time:
McCain has copped criticism because of his sleazy, racist campaigning tactics and because of the refusal of Palin to do interviews and when she did do them she stuffed up questions like ‘what newspapers do you read?’ and then got thrashed by Joe Biden in the vice-presidential debates.
Add to that, McCain is the republican candidate and he is carrying the burden of Bush, who is now less popular then Nixon at the height of Watergate.
Put all this together and it’s amazing how lightly McCain is getting off. The media should be giving him a much tougher time.
