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Obama, Enjoy the Honeymoon While it Lasts
Steve Adubato, Ph.D.
MSNBC Media Analyst
Adubato: Media loves to build up candidates, loves to tear
them down more
There is a sort of love affair, if not an intense infatuation,
going on between Barack Obama and the mainstream media. This guy
comes right out of central casting for presidential candidates.
He is young, charismatic, dynamic, charming, speaks in sound bytes,
and, according to the photo in People magazine, looks better than
his opponents in a bathing suit.
We in the media love to cover the horse race. Each presidential
campaign starts earlier than the one before it. The 2008 campaign
will be more like an ultra-marathon than a 5K or 10K race. It will
be about endurance and discipline, about conditioning and the ability
to manage the media under the most difficult of circumstances.
In many ways, Barack Obama is the Howard Dean of 2008—only
with a pleasant personality and lacking the volatility that caused
Dean to implode when he came in third in Iowa in 2004. I first realized
how media-savvy Obama is when I saw him on “Oprah.”
He was relaxed and conversational. He was chumming it up with Oprah
and the crowd filled mostly with women loved it. He was self-effacing
and as substantive as he needed to be. No serious policy talk here.
Obama knew his audience. They wanted to know him as a person; as
a husband; as a father; and as a black man running for president
with a very realistic chance of winning.
Obama’s media appeal became even clearer when his wife Michelle
joined him and Oprah on the set. Michelle and Barack Obama appear
to be a media dream couple. She too is classy, looks great on camera
and appears to know just what to say. She too is self-deprecating,
but poked fun at her husband while still being respectful.
The media’s love affair with Barack Obama is also based on
another factor—race. While Obama’s mother was white,
he clearly identifies himself as a black politician. And while it
is still early, it appears that most white reporters are not that
comfortable aggressively challenging Obama. I’m not saying
that Obama won’t be challenged aggressively down the road,
but for now, the media “honeymoon” is in full swing.
(The New York Times February 20th headline, “The ‘Hot’
Ticket in Hollywood: An Evening with Obama,” is a prime example.)
Saturday Night Live’s Darrell Hammond and other white comedians
who poke fun at politicians for a living recently told Newsweek
magazine that Obama is very difficult to rip apart. Hammond said
that Obama was smart and articulate. (Which is not funny.) Many
white comedians said that it was risky to poke fun at a black candidate
for fear it may be seen as racist. Frankly, it is harder for white
comedians to make fun of black politicians than it is for black
comedians, like Chris Rock or Tracy Morgan to make fun of George
Bush, John Kerry or even Hillary Clinton. I’m convinced the
same principle holds true for many white journalists when it comes
to aggressively challenging or criticizing Barack Obama. They have
little or no experience doing it and many are not sure of how it
will play.
There is a double standard when it comes to current media coverage
of Barack Obama. One can only hope that changes soon because to
treat him differently than the other serious presidential candidates
does represent a racist attitude.
Interestingly, Obama was critical of some in the media for coverage
of him focusing on “softer” topics while he wanted to
talk substantive issues. Chill out, Senator, and count your blessings.
If People magazine wants to show you in a bathing suit and talk
about your pecks, consider yourself lucky. And if you are that worried
about the coverage of you as a “rock star” with loads
of personality, stop doing interviews with Oprah or personality
driven magazines. Exactly how did you and your wife Michelle get
on the February cover of Ebony? Was that because of your position
on Iraq or because the two of you are very photogenic and have an
even more interesting personal story to tell?
To his credit, when Obama screwed up recently by saying the 3,000
plus American lives that were lost in Iraq were “wasted,”
he immediately apologized. He minimized the damage and potential
fallout, both in the media and with voters. Apologizing was a very
smart move, something Hillary Clinton still hasn’t figured
out when it comes to her 2002 Iraq vote.
This relationship between Barack Obama and the media is going to
be a fascinating one to watch, because unlike Jessie Jackson and
even Al Sharpton, Barack has huge crossover appeal and could in
fact be our next president. I only hope that we in the media start
treating him like that and pressing him harder on the substantive
issues that matter most to American citizens.
My advice to Barack Obama is to enjoy the honeymoon while it lasts,
because when it does end, history shows that it can get pretty ugly.
The media loves to build national candidates up, but we love even
more to tear them down. Barack Obama’s fascinating story continues.
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