Has the "Deaning" of Obama begun?

[nichomachus]

In 2003, Howard Dean was the "unbeatable front runner." Then, the media decided they didn't want him and began a three-week barrage -- NBC, ABC, CBS, cable propaganda channels, NYT, WaPo, LA Times, Time, Newsweek, etc -- that ran 24/7 declaring him "unelectable." At the end of three weeks, I think even Howard believed he was unelectable. The early voters did, because in the exit polls they said they voted for Kerry because Dean was "unelectable," a word many of them never would have used before the anti-Dean media barrage began.

It looks like the barrage has now begun against Obama.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/24/media-jump-ship-from-obam_n_98545.html">Media Jump Ship From Obama To Clinton

In a blink of an eye, the media has jumped ship from the Obama campaign and become a crucial Clinton ally, pressing just the message -- that Obama is a likely loser in the general election -- that Hillary and her allies have been promoting for the past six weeks.

The new tenor of media coverage is visible almost everywhere, from Politico, Time and The New Republic to The Washington Post and The New York Times.

It looks like the word is out from the corporatocracy through its propaganda arm. The corporatists desperately want to run McCain against Hillary.

[my3boyz]

1. That happened to Dean at the very beginning of his campaign

Obama is wrapping this thing up. If he can beat both Clintons in the primary then he definately has a good shot to beat Gramps.

[futureliveshere]

5. Small correction - "He has already beaten both Clintons, they just don't know it yet"

[msongs]

2. sorry, Obama is no howard dean and never can be nt

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. Yeah, but Not This Time!

No, no, no.

[tularetom]

4. They may have waited a bit too long

Obama snuck up on them and gathered a lot of support. Now it's probably too late for them to have any effect. They will of course trash Obama in the general election but they were gonna do that regardless of who the Democratic candidate was.

[JamesA1102]

6. Revisionist History

Dean torpedoed himself with his negative attacks in Iowa. That's why Iowa voters rejected him and Dick Gephardt. He also mismanaged his campaign funds so that he was nearly broke after New Hampshire.

The media did do a job on him with the alleged "Dean scream" but the true fault of the failure of the Dean campaign lies with the candidate himself.

[nichomachus]

7. So you don't think the three-week "unelectable" barrage had any effect?

Every media outlet in the country began declaring him unelectable right after he went on Christ Matthews and talked about breaking up media concentration. That barrage continued right up until Iowa.

[JamesA1102]

14. There was no three week barrage

At least not prior to Iowa. The Dean campaign imploded there. They did pile on after Iowa but that's what the media does. They did it to Bill Clinton in '92 and even to Ronald Reagan after he lost Iowa in 1980. But they were able to come back, Dean wasn't.

Just look at how the media went after Al Gore in 2000, not for a mere 3 weeks, but relentlessly for 18 months. Yet Gore, who started the campaign down by 18 points and then was outspent by almost 2 to 1, was able to win the popular vote.

So many times we make fun of people on the right calling them Bushbots or 29%ers or Kool-Aid drinkers because they are caught up in the 'cult of personality' and can't admit the shortcomings of their political candidates. We should not make the same mistake and admit it when our candidates fall short.

[blm]

12. Dean's Iowa debate performances were pretty bad, too. But media did focus on his

mistakes starting in late December because they already believed Kerry had been taken out. They didn't expect Kerry to recover and he proved them wrong.

Read what Brinkley had to say in April2004 and major media telling him in Dec 2003 in preparation for his Tour of Duty book tour - they said don't bring up John Kerry.
http://www.depauw.edu/news/index.asp?id=13354


Dean didn't have the time to adjust to the media turning on him the way he did. Kerry adjusted and pressed forward.

[JamesA1102]

16. The media will always focus on a candidate's mistakes

It is how the candidate recovers from those mistakes that is the real test. Dean unfortunately failed that test.

[ginnyinWI]

8. Well look at the Gandhi quote:

First they ignored him, then they laughed at him, now they are attacking him---next he wins.

[SoonerPride]

9. NOT THIS TIME

They repeat the meme for ratings and hoping Clinton hangs on for a few more weeks, but they know it is over after N Carolina and Indiana.

[1776Forever]

11. So True - Obama seems to have known this was going to happen when he said "NOT THIS TIME!"

Now will the Super Delegates stand behind the strongest and best candidate and "listen" to the voters!!!!!!!

:headbang: I pray it is the voters!

[NorthCarolina]

10. Obama will not only win the White House, but he will also have HUGE coattails

and this scares the Republicans more than anything else, the prospect of being whisked to the dust-bin of irrelevancy. The Corporate owned Republican media (often intentionally-inappropriately labeled the "liberal media" for public consumption) will pull out all the stops in a desperate attempt at a Clinton win and ultimate a Democratic defeat in the GE. This is so blatantly obvious that I find it hard to comprehend that so many Democrats fail to see what is afoot here.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. Yup. The "Too liberal!", label is being applied vigorously by the rightwing of the party.

Which is ironic because he is only perceived to be slightly more left than Hillary.

[scheming daemons]

15. It's too late to "Dean-ify" him... They did it to Dean before he had won any delegates.....

Obama is our nominee. It is past the point of no return now.


And that's a GOOD thing.

[caledesi]

18. Excellent post! nt

[karynnj]

17. I disagree in both cases

There is a huge difference in that Obama has a probably unsurmountable lead in pledged delegates, while Dean imploded before Iowa. In its quiet competence, Obama's campaign resembles Kerry's more closely than Dean's. Dean's Trippi led campaign resembled Edwards' Trippi led campaign.


I. This year;
This year the media pushed HRC since 2004. Her campaign was declared flawless - at points where WE clearly saw flaws. It was even "almost flawless" when Bill Clinton went ballistic that anyone commented on HRC's changing her answer within minutes in the Philly debate. that Clinton used words like "swiftboating" was eye opening - especially as HRC had basically handled that debate reasonably well. It was the intense defensiveness that stunned many.

In addition, you could map the "story line developing -when the NYT about one month into HRC's term had article on how she modestly took the rank of a freshman Senator, just like all the others. Then in 2007, the story was that by virtue of working so well with others, HRC had become a Senate power (nothing to do with her last name). In 2004, the media wouldn't give Kerry credit for things that he actually did write if his name was not the first sponsor listed. This time around, they fact checked nothing from HRC's list, which clearly over stated her roles.

The Media actually now, is for the first time, in the midst of the articles you cite, putting out stories of the chaos and anger within the HRC camp and are speaking of the arm twisting and the threats used - even against prominent Democrats, if they did not get on the Clinton bus. That is NOT a sign that they think she is winning. They are reporting the PA victory - and even overstating it - but they also are reporting Obama's progress to getting the numbers needed. At this point, it may be they like the fact that there is a powerful story.

II. 2004
Dean was the frontrunner in the last half of 2004. He was on the cover of three magazines at teh same time in August. He was hurt by attacks from primarily Gephardt in late 2003, because Gephardt hit him on distorting both their records. Dean was losing ground in NH to Clark who then imploded himself. The amount of media pressure on Dean was nothing like what either Obama or HRC have had. It was the typical examination of the front runner and he proved extremely thin skinned.

Meanwhile the media that had written off Kerry in mid year 2003 and was betting - even in Jan 2004 on when he would drop out. He clearly had lost the support of the powers in DC as his money nearly completely dried up. But, Kerry spent time talking face to face with people in Iowa and was winning them over. He did get one bit of national coverage when he reunited with the guy he saved in Vietnam - that likely did help him and it should have. The media ignored that Kerry was steadily moving up in Iowa. His win should not have been a surprise as he moving up quickly in the rolling average tracking polls and was actually ahead for a few days before the caucuses. Meanwhile, his campaign was getting support in NH where many people knew and liked him but thought the race was between Clark, Gephardt and Dean. Many who were with Clark abandoned him when Kerry won Iowa. Dean lost some support in Iowa himself, but Kerry who was only about 10 points behind got most of the undecided and a lot of Clark's.

Because Dean had strong passionate supporters in the blogosphere and in some of the media, there has been an attempt to blame the media, the party and everybody for him not getting votes. It was not the scream, Dean already lost by 20 points 18 to 38 in Iowa. Kerry earned the victory that he got in Iowa through the hard work he did there, his eloquence, and his life story. Read the accounts in the books written by people who followed all the campaigns. (esp Walt Shapiro's) Since November 2004, there has been an attempt by the Clinton and Edwards people to rewrite the general election to suit their needs and an attempt to rewrite the primaries by the Dean people. Kerry's win has been attributed to the media - though google looking through what was said and written in 2003/2004 will disprove that, and to party support - though it was Dean who had far more superdelegates, including Harkin and Gore.

Dean, if anything, was a media creation. He had been a moderate Centrist Governor of Vermont, who might have been more successful running as completely who he was - rather than listening to Trippi. By the time of the debate where he complained of being a pin cushion - it was clear that he was imploding. Even at that point, he had attacked Gephardt and Kerry at least as hard as they hit him, so his complaining seemed off to me.

[kid a]

19. Too late - Not his time!