Mighty Media

I didn't post yesterday because Time Warner has been trying to figure out how to meld we Adelphia customers into their system. Being offline for days at a crack is disconcerting at best, especially for Blog junkies like me!

So. For the last of my political comments I'd like to address just how the media affects these candidate types. C-Span has been the best and the worst of scenarios for them. Best being, if you have the attention span to watch them, you get what they say in context. Worst being, they speak before an empty chamber but the media picks up the feed and makes it appear to be far more than it actually is. It made Newt Gingrich. And he's b-a-a-a-c-k!

The political persona has become a "personality" if not a "celebrity". Only in America. No. Not anymore. When the Musharraf, President of Pakistan, appears on the Daily Show he has become a celebrity. No wonder we are all confused.

In what other profession could a Denny Hastert become a media "star"? I don't have the time nor the inclination to list all who shouldn't who have. I really believe this is part of what is wrong with our political system today. Politicians, good or bad, are no longer just that. The lines are blurred. You have the Streisands and Baldwins espousing political opinions as gospel and McCains and Liebermans using their "celebrity" to influence. There isn't a purist among them.

It's heady stuff, this media "stardom". George Allen has gotten caught up in it. How many others have gotten too? His Macaca comment was obviously playing to the camera. If we followed every candidate around without a camera I'd be willing to bet comments like Allen's would go unnoticed by his supporters. Same with Conrad Burns in Montana. He has been speaking to his supporters as he has always. But that camera...

So what the heck are we voting for this go round? No. Not a Stewart/Colbert ticket. But what? It isn't even blind ambition anymore. The candidates aren't even real. Advisors have kneaded and massaged the being of the candidates into something beyond comprehension. We get what we deserve? Yes. But we deserve better than what we are offered.