Media Notes

by Steve Soto

Some media-related campaign notes for this morning, and then a comment or two before I take care of some family-related health issues later today.

Right wing radio host Hugh Hewitt actually peddled a book entitled How Sarah Palin Won the Election, and Saved the Country, built on his thesis that she saved the GOP and is the future of that party. Not surprisingly, the book has found no takers amongst the reputable publishing houses, which means that Regnery will certainly pick it up for the Kool Aid drinkers.

Sarah Palin will make an appearance on the October 18th “Saturday Night Live”, spoofing one of Tina Fey’s American Express commercial, wherein she plays a flute. The McCain/Palin camp wanted to get her on SNL after the first skit Fey and Amy Poehler did.

Team Obama outspent McCain/Palin by more than 50% for TV air time in the immediate aftermath of the financial meltdown, and by more than 3-1 in battleground states. How did they use that money? McCain used it 100% for negative attacks, while Obama spent only a third of it on negative ads.

Salon notes that daytime television has gotten its teeth into this election, and handled real issues and held candidates accountable, from a progressive point of view. No longer are we seeing the typical, male-programmed empty-headed daytime television.

As for the campaign, it’s clear that McCain/Palin are running a Tier One/Tier Two campaign, wherein Palin and McCain spew the smears to the faithful and stoke up the dangerous anger of the base at rallies with the Stepford fringe, while McCain shrinks from doing the same in national debates to Obama’s face, for fear of looking as a negative, angry old man. McCain is trying to recover from the damage he’s suffered from the Schmidt/Rove red meat approach, by talking up health care and home ownership since the debate. But this gives Team Obama the opening to run their own two-tiered campaign the rest of the way. Have Biden out there on the stump along with surrogates and 527’s to do the Tier Two pushback against the smears and to fact check McCain on Fannie/Freddie and why McCain’s health care proposal is a tax increase on working Americans. Let Obama stay in Tier One to continue what he’s been doing in the debates: talk about real issues with real solutions and a positive tone, while pointing out why McCain would be the wrong way to go.