Tuesday, January 08, 2008

New Hampshire Primary

So Hillary Clinton shockingly won the New Hampshire Democratic primary after trailing by double digits in the polls yesterday. Everyone on television wrote her off. Do you ever get the feeling that so-called political experts know absolutely nothing?

Sure, polling is an inexact science. After the Iowa win, I fully expected Obama to coast to victory. I was wrong. I'm also not an expert and nobody pays me to be or listens to my political punditry. After thirty years of experience covering political campaigns, you would think an expert would know enough to realize they don't know what will happen. Instead, putting things into context might be a better route. Instead of focusing on a candidate crying, how about considering her nuanced stances on the issues?

Sure message and campaign strategy are relevant, but not more than the issues. The media's role should be to educate a busy country, not buying into hollow buzzwords like change and experience (how and what have you done specifically). I must be honest, I don't care if someone does or doesn't cry. That really doesn't impact who I vote for. I cry all the time. I've cried at the Adam Sandler movie, Big Daddy. I've cried at a Disney commercial. Hell, I've even cried at... well it's hard to top those two. But that's besides the point, this is not a high school election.. oh, I've cried during at least three different Boondocks episodes. Where was I? Oh yeah, the fate of our country, the world is at stak... oh, a Puff Daddy song- I won't tell you which one, but you could guess.

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