© 2008 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D.
In 1976 I fell under the spell of presidential candidate Jimmy Carter. His message of “change” seemed a breath of fresh air from the Nixon years. Looking back I realize the media created Carter, sustained him and ignored all conflicting data from the notion he was the best.
As a journalist I could see that the national news departments were not doing a balanced job reporting on Carter. Still, I put aside my journalistic concern to embrace what I saw as the “greater good” that Carter represented.
He had a nice smile and seemed what I wanted in a president. I assumed nothing bad could happen and did not know or care about his policies or history; he just was the anointed one.
The national media pushed Carter as the anti-Nixon. I was very receptive to their messiah who would right wrongs and bring peace and happiness to our land.
Carter was elected and I proudly displayed a Carter bumper sticker on my car for that first year. Then, slowly at first, came the reality that Carter was awful as a president. As things in our nation got worse because of Carter I finally scraped the Carter bumper sticker off my car, despondent and disillusioned. Four years after voting for Carter I eagerly went into the voting booth and helped vote him out of office.
In voting Carter out I was not voting for Reagan; rather, I resolved to not have any more Carter mismanagement. In the 1980 election my bumper sticker said, “Dump Carter.” Four years later I got a Reagan bumper sticker because his actions convinced me he was a good president.
Obama: another media star
What makes me think of my unconditional acceptance of Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election is the pervasive unconditional acceptance of Barack Obama in the 2008 election. From the first day onward into the primaries to now he is embraced by many Americans who know next to nothing about him other than that they feel good about him. He is a media star. It seems that no one really knows him, much like it was with Jimmy Carter.
A year from now, though, we will know the Barack Obama we cannot know now, both the good and bad of him, if he is elected. And, as Carter found out, the unconditional love affair with the media ends quickly upon election to the presidency.
Every time I see an Obama bumper sticker I think back to that day that I scraped off the Carter sticker. No one could tell me the reality of Carter back then. I was not thinking;, I was feeling. Only when the real Jimmy Carter came out was I able to change my opinion of him.
Hence, I spend no time pointing out the discrepancies in the Obama love-fest in the media to people I know. All I say is that if they feel that strongly about Barack Obama they should get a couple of his bumper stickers and put them on with lots of glue.
In the year 2008, I suspect the population as a whole knows less about the presidential candidates than the people did in 1952. This is despite the increased media that we have available.
The more media we citizens have, it seems, the more the spin doctors keep real knowledge from us. Bush 41 was famous for not answering questions, instead, would snarl, “Don’t ask,” as he stomped off. Obama is quite frugal about providing information.
Most campaigns are trying to paint their candidate as the lesser of two evils. They sprout the message, “He is much worse than me.”
Socialist rhetoric
In the long run, what I want is for those elected to make things better for all of us, to not divide us into “giving units” and “receiving units.” Those candidates who campaign with the promise to take from one to buy the vote of another are not making things better for all of us.
And, yes, there is quite a bit of socialist rhetoric making the rounds that counts on the voters not being very savvy with philosophy. Example: When candidates like Obama say to Joe the Plumber that it would be better if some of the people who have gave part of what they have to the people who have not, that is socialist. If we who have decide to do so on our own, it is benevolence. We Americans are already the most benevolent people in the world. But, if government forces the benevolence upon us, it is socialist.
I have already early voted so the election for me is now about the counting and the getting on with the business of
The media is flogging Obama’s candidacy and he is ahead by 3 percentage points today. If he does become our next president, perhaps Obama will grow into the presidency. Since he is president for four years I pray he is able to learn how to be a great president. If not, his bumper stickers will be removed as he will be in the voting booth of 2012.
Regardless, if Barack Obama turns out to be only a media creation, long on style and very short on substance, the question is: Will the electorate finally learn their lesson about media-created presidents? I did.
Swickard is a weekly columnist for this site. You can reach him at michael@swickard.com.