In defence of the liberal press

It's been a while since I linked to a Slate article, and considering my addiction to the site I'm pretty proud that I've resisted scratching that itch. No more, though. Jack Shafer, Slate's media critic, posted an excellent piece today that addresses the so-called "liberal bias" in the mainstream media. Shafer doesn't try to argue that journalists, as a group, tilt overwhelmingly to the left. Instead, he explains why this is so, and why, despite the angry bleating of conservatives, the personal politics of reporters and editors probably don't mean that much when it comes to actual coverage. It's worth noting that Shafer is no liberal himself. He's a crusty individualist who's voted Libertarian in every election since 1972. 

That crusty individualism reveals itself in almost every one of his columns - he's usually hilarious and carves through bullshit like a hot knife through butter (only he doesn't use that kind of shopworn cliche). He's the kind of journalist I aspire to be, and in fact one of my more cherished professional memories was a very brief phone and email correspondence with him more than three years ago, when I was researching a story pitch for my final year of J-school. The story never got out of the idea stage, and Shafer was as gruff and crusty as his copy advertised when we spoke, but I'll always appreciate the fact that he bothered to call and write back. He didn't have to.

That's something I keep in mind when I read his often withering media critiques - he hurts us because he cares.

The (non-GOP) elephant in the room

There have been enough assassinations, and thwarted attempts, of United States presidents in the country's history that every candidate for the office is well aware that they're a potential target. That goes for any candidate, regardless of party or policies or race or gender or sexual orientation. Presidents are famous, and there are always kooks out there who would cut them down them simply to get some fame-by-association.

That the risk is higher for Barack Obama is something that hasn't, to my knowledge, been brought up very frequently in the mainstream media - although it has certainly been a topic of conversation among family and friends and, I'm willing to bet, millions of people around the world. I think no one wants to bring it up too publicly for fear that speaking the words too loudly will make them come true. But the fact is, Obama's mixed-race identity makes him a target for lunatics with a particular racist bent, in addition to the garden-variety lunatics that might ordinarily take a shot at any president.

I was reminded of this grim fact when I read this story, outlining an actual plan that was derailed, thankfully, by the authorities. Seems like the two neo-Nazi losers behind this plot had little chance of success (even they acknowledged that they'd probably be the ones eating the bullets), but it's nonetheless chilling to read about the depth of racial hatred they felt, and the violent steps they were hoping to take in order to satisfy it. 

It's disheartening to think of Obama and his family, on the verge of a historic victory, having to keep these terrifying scenarios in the back of their minds. If he becomes president, he'll have no shortage of incredibly complex challenges to face right out of the gate. A real shame that, as long as he is in office, he and his Secret Service team will probably also have to face the stupidest and most basic ones, too.

Joe the Bummer

After 18 months of obsessing, to varying degrees, over the U.S. presidential race, I hit a wall last week. During the last debate between Barack Obama and John McCain, I found myself switching, guiltily, between their conversation and the Red Sox-Rays game. Although the snippets I saw suggested that it might have been the best and most lively of the three debates, I just couldn't take it anymore. I was so sick of both of them - the way they continually refused to answer direct questions, continually used their time to stick forks in each other's eyes (especially McCain) rather than explain what their plans were, the way they competed, ridiculously, to see which one could stick a fork deeper into the eye of the Bush Administration. It just seemed like there was nothing more to say, and certainly nothing more than I could stand to listen to.

So I've stepped back a little bit, perhaps recognizing that for all my interest, I don't get a vote and thus I'm completely powerless to influence the result. It's worth noting, though, that more and more news outlets and pundits are calling it game over for McCain. Obama's taken the lead in polls in key states like Pennsylvania, and the McCain team's desperation is evident in the fact that they've all but completely abandoned policy distinctions in favour of hysterical attempts to link Obama to long-retired terrorists and squabbles over a well-off, barely-literate plumber. 

I don't want to jinx the result, but things certainly seem to be tipping in Obama's direction. Which means the Sarah Palin sideshow - version 2008 at least - will soon be in the rear-view mirror. Too bad, in a way, because she has provided some decent entertainment. Most recently, there's the flap about the Republican Party spending $150,000 in one month to keep her in crisp blouse-and-skirt combos from Neiman Marcus and Sak's. 

Now, I don't particularly care about this - I certainly don't think it's a huge scandal, and I wonder if it speaks to a bit of a double standard that women in political life have to face. But I do enjoy it when Palin, who has made quite a sport out of dodging the press, laments how unfair it is when "all the facts aren't reported." Especially when she puts it in such Britney-esque terms:

"That whole thing is just, bad."

Imagine Palin applying this pearl of wisdom in a conversation with Kim Jong-Il about or Mahmoud Ahmidinejad about nuclear reactors in North Korea or Iran, or when hammering out a solution to the financial crisis with Henry Paulson. It's laugh-so-hard-you-cry kind of stuff.

As far as I'm concerned, Palin can keep the fancy clothes, just as long as she doesn't become vice president. Because that whole thing would be just bad.

Deja Phew

Bet you thought I couldn't do it. "It" being finding another "deja vu" pun after today's Canadian dailies used most of them up. Never let it be said that I won't venture to the farthest, most cobwebby corners of my mind in search of low comedy.

The various dejas, of course, refer to the fact that Stephen Harper's Conservatives won another minority government in yesterday's federal election. It's a significantly stronger minority at 143 seats, just 12 short of the majority Harper was hoping for - hence the "phew" on behalf of those not predisposed to Mr. Sweater Vest.

For Harper, it's a bit of a disappointment but certainly a strong enough showing to keep him firmly ensconced as Prime Minister and Conservative leader. For the Liberals, a disaster - despite a bit of a resurgence in Quebec - that will more than likely cost Stephane Dion the party leadership. For Jack Layton and the NDP, an exercise in wheel-spinning with just a couple more seats and 1% more of the popular vote - although the party will be buoyed by the election of MPs in Alberta and Quebec. For the Greens, no seats but the hope that Elizabeth May has helped win a seat at the table in Canada's mainstream political discourse. For the Bloc, a rousing reminder that the party still dominates in the only province it cares about.

 A few weeks and a few millions dollars later, however, and we're not in a significantly different position than we were before. Expect a Conservative minority to continue for a fairly long time now, as the Liberals have lots of work to do on everything from leadership to the policy playbook and the other parties didn't do much to advance the idea that they're a credible threat to form a government. 

This gives Harper a lot of leeway to build support for his agenda. But those opposed to said agenda can take heart in the fact that the electoral map suggests the Conservatives may have hit their ceiling of support. Also, Harper's a guy who likes a good scrap, and with his opponents doing a left-wing Three Stooges routine, he may allow himself to drift out of fighting shape.

Hell frozen, ice safe for skating

Sports break!

In this crazy, mixed-up world of ours, it's nice to know you can set your clock by some things. Certain dates that roll around every year and bring warm feelings to your heart. So it was yesterday, as the NHL got the 2008-09 season started. So it was this morning, as I opened up my hockey pool page and saw the first true statistical update of the season (last weekend's Europe games aside). Ahh, sweet hockey. My fellow puckheads and I had better savour this - it's only going to last for another nine months or so.

Living in Toronto, I'm stuck with a Leafs-heavy TV schedule despite the fact that they're going to be one of the more dreary teams in the league again this year. Or maybe not. They beat the champion Red Wings last night, and while the result might be an anomaly in what is still probably going to be a very trying season, they looked quite good. Faster, more aggressive, more organized. Fun to watch.

Maybe it's because so many of them are so young that they don't realize how much they're supposed to stink. Or maybe they know exactly how much they're supposed to stink and they want to prove people wrong. Mostly, I think it's the fact that about half of the guys on the team know they could be sent down to the minors if they don't play hard and follow the coach's script. Competing for your job every night - not exactly a feature of recent veteran-laden Leaf teams - has a way of bringing things into focus.

Canadiana

Okay, I'll admit it. I watched Biden-Palin instead of the Canadian leaders' debate last week. But I did flip channels from time to time. With the strangely dark lighting, the round-table format and the host's constant referencing of Biden-Palin, the sexiness deficiency of Canadian politics was on full display. That, and the fact that Canadian politicians, compared to those in the U.S., have a not very entertaining habit of actually answering questions and talking issues. How's that supposed to get people interested?

I managed to stay focused for a few minutes at a time and gleaned a couple of things. First is that, I must admit, I do understand the appeal of Stephen Harper. The left likes to paint him as a right-wing ideologue, and that he may be, but he comes across as pragmatic, calm and rational, and I get why Canadians have warmed to him in his short time in power. I don't like him, but I get it. 

Stephane Dion, on the other hand, seemed like he was flailing - in part, I think, because of his lack of comfort in English. I have to say that I have trouble understanding him, and whether it's fair or not it's very difficult for him to connect with a national audience if they don't know exactly what he's saying. Especially problematic when you're pushing something like the Green Shift, which demands a lot of explanation. 

Jack Layton might very well be a good enough leader to win. If he was the Liberal Party's leader, that is. From what I saw, he did a good job of playing up the NDP's populism while playing down its big-government socialism - the programs he brought up all had price tags and were paired with cuts in other areas that would pay for them. He also did the best job of attacking Harper. But it's still the NDP, and while the party might be able to peel off a few more Liberal votes, it won't be enough to become the official opposition. And, of course, it'll end up actually strengthening the Conservatives (more on strategic voting in a sec).

Elizabeth May was solid, taking full advantage of being added to the debate. The Green Party's electoral chances are slim, of course, but she helped present a de-radicalized image of the party that could serve it well down the line. 

I don't really much care about Gilles Duceppe. He was fine, and I always get the impression that he enjoys being the wrench in these things. He can't become Prime Minister, doesn't want to, and therefore he has the least pressure on him.

Overall, the U.S. economic crisis has hurt Harper a little, but it looks as though he's still going to win a solid minority. Which will rile up the operators websites like these, which offer lessons on strategic voting. Ah, strategic voting - one of the great joys of the Canadian political universe. A lot of NDPers, of course, disdain the practice on principle, and that does make sense. But with five parties out there, four of them on the left, to varying degrees, I think it's become a necessary evil.  

I wonder when the Libs and the NDP (and maybe the Greens, too) will realize that at least two of them need to band together. Taken as a whole, they represent Canadian opinion far more accurately than do the Conservatives. But there's too much vote-splitting. For inspiration, they might want to look at the Conservatives, who've been able to rebound from political obscurity by uniting the former Reform and PC parties. 

Never hurts to steal a page from the enemy playbook.

The Undercard

At their vice-presidential debate last week, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin weren't much better than their running mates in terms of answering direct questions or going beyond vague platitudes. But they did make for a far more entertaining show. And without question, Palin was the star.

After rousing the conservative base with her down-home charm and borderline MILF-iness at the Republican convention, Palin entered a month-long media blackout, stepping out into the light only twice and getting burned both times. Her interviews with Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric exposed her ignorance on a wide range of issues - or at least an inability to think on her feet (how could she not have been able to name even one magazine? Surely she's got a few copies of this one lying around the house). She'd gone from potential saviour of the McCain campaign to national joke in a few short weeks, and the widespread expectation was that Biden would slaughter and field-dress her, Alaskan moose-style, on the debate stage. The prospect of a rhetorical turkey shoot lent some intrigue to the confrontation.

By any rational measure, Biden did crush Palin. He came closer than she did to actually answering the questions, flaunted the breadth and depth of his knowledge and shrewdly avoided the temptation to condescend to his under-qualified opponent. Palin, on the other hand, gave a virtuoso lesson on how to stick to memorized script regardless of the question being posed. I especially liked when she used the fact that she'd only been on the ticket for five weeks to dodge a question about promises that might have to be rescinded.

What she didn't do is cry, or wet her pants, or stare blankly at the screen for minutes at a time. Which, after her Gibson and Couric interviews, seemed to be what people were expecting. The bar for her was set so low that it would have been more difficult to limbo under it than hop over it, and hop over she did. This is, after all, a poised and confident woman with a strong belief in her (misguided) convictions. She was never going to cower. 

In that sense, it was a victory for her. But while she might have avoided personal embarrassment, it's not like she did a lot to re-energize the McCain campaign. She clearly lacked Biden's intellectual heft and curiosity, and her performance reinforced her status as a neophyte on the national political stage. In other words, I don't think she made anyone feel any better about her as America's potential second-in-command.

Where to begin?

Phew. A very busy couple of weeks at the copy-churning factory, so it's been a while since I've been here. Thankfully, nothing much has happened in the world since September 22.  Sigh...let's do this in multiple posts, shall we?

First up, the U.S. presidential race. Neither of the two debates between Barack Obama and John McCain have produced much compelling material. Obama, having recognized after the primaries that his biggest task in the general election was to allay concerns about his vague ideas and inexperience, has dialed down the big-idea rhetoric and become a policy wonk. He no longer sends people's hearts into their throat, but he's been more or less successful at answering the question, what does "change" look like. In this respect, he's outflanked an increasingly bizarre and attack-oriented McCain campaign. At the most recent town hall debate, McCain spent far too much time laying into Obama and not nearly enough talking up his own agenda. At his age and with his POW experience, McCain gives away many physical characteristics to Obama, differences that are exacerbated on television and are even more pronounced when he launches into petty attacks. The body-language deficit and the bitterness make him appear exactly like the out-of-touch old man that Obama's tried to portray him as. Meanwhile, McCain's attempts to smear him as a dangerous novice seem less and less credible the more Obama spits out mind-numbingly boring minutiae about credit card defaults.

These factors, plus the fact that the economic crisis has shifted the election issues onto turf that's more comfortable for Obama than McCain, have created significant momentum for the Democrat. He's leading by five or six points in national polls (a blowout by presidential election standards) and has gone ahead in swing states like Pennsylvania. The narrative is starting to form in the media, too, with even some Republican observers all but conceding that the race is over. 

But there is still one important factor to consider, one thrown out rather bluntly by CNN pundit David Gergen after the town hall debate. After listening to pretty much every member of the "Best Political Team on Television" declare Obama the next president, Gergen pointed out - as if everyone had forgotten - that Obama is black. It's funny, because I had been impressed and relieved at how the emphasis on his racial makeup had diminished. Yet I, like so many people, I think, won't fully believe the Barack Obama story until he's voted into office. We all know that a certain subset of American voters will not vote for him simply because of his mixed racial identity. We won't know until next month how big that group is.