How Obama Got Elected, or, How Palin Lost the Election

So it's been a couple months. After the election, I tried to let my mind drift away from political topics... it's just too aggravating for the most part. Case in point:HowObamaGotElected.com I stumbled upon this link today after seeing a nine-minute video clip of an interview between John Zeigler and Sarah Palin taken from his forthcoming documentary about "Media Malpractice." I don't think I have to explain why this caught my eye, and why it irritated me enough to create a blog about it.

On the webpage, just below the Palin clip, there's another video clip. This one is a compilation of 12 questions asked to Obama voters outside a polling place after their votes had been cast on Nov. 4th. The point of this video, and I'm paraphrasing here, is to point out how the evil, leftist media focused all their ill will into getting bad press for Republicans, and whisking Obama into office while pulling the veil over "informed" voters' eyes. I encourage you to watch for yourselves, but here's the rundown of the questions. Try to guess for yourself based on the choice of questions what the answers may have been (well, the ones that they show anyway)...

1. "Which party currently controls congress?"
2. "What do you think of Barney Frank/Nancy Pelosi/Harry Reid?"
3. "Which of the four candidates wore clothes that their political party spent $150,000 on?"
4. "Which of the four candidates has a pregnant teenage daughter?"
5. "Which candidate said 'I can see russia from my house'?" - Trick question (sneaky interviewees), that was a tina fey quote - Palin's was "You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska."
6. "Which candidate claimed to have campaigned in 57 states?"
7. "Which candidate won their first campaign by getting all of their opponents kicked off the ballot?"
8. "Which candidate said that Obama would be tested in his first 6 months by international crisis?
9. "Which candidate had to quit a previous campaign because they were found to have plagiarized a speech?"
10. "Which candidate said their policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry?" (funny... even though this is a misquote, they didnt point it out like in #5)
11. "Which said that the government should redistribute the wealth?" (again... misquote, but not pointed out as such...)
12. "What do you think of Bill Ayers?"
13. "Where do you get most of your information?"

Ok. so.

I'm not gonna say that these guys are wrong in suggesting that the media tended to favor Obama over Palin. (also notice the conspicuous lack of any questions referring to McCain, the actual presidential nominee... not palin....) But what pisses me off is that these people put out this video under the assumption that these questions are somehow more fair and balanced than the national news media?

I've been trying to decide what the specific point they are making is. Is it that the media was unfair to Sarah Palin? After all, her two infamous interviews made her a laughing stock and single handedly saved the careers of Lorne Michaels and the cast of SNL. Or are they trying to say that with the abundance of Palin press, where's the negative Obama stuff? I mean come on, hardly anyone knew that Obama gaffed, saying 57 states instead of 47.

After watching the video twice and reading over the questions a couple more times, I've concluded that the specific point they are trying to make is that people were
1) Exposed to a ludicrous amount of bad Palin press,
2) Not exposed to enough bad Obama press, and
3) Democratic voters are shockingly underinformed.

However, what still plagues me is that the questions are certainly not designed to be an unbiased test of voter knowledge based on the media. Palin's "alaska/russia" ordeal did not have the same coverage in the media as obama's first election shenanigans. But you're not proving the evil intentions of the media when you choose to ask questions about obscure Obama/Biden factoids and the top of the headline Palin stuff.

With that in mind, I have a couple suggestions for a poll of McCain voters: (to determine whether the news media altered their minds as horribly as their counterparts)

1.) What is a filibuster-proof majority?
2.) What do you think about Karl Rove/Henry Paulson/John Boehner?
3.) Which of the four candidates was rumored to be a Muslim?
4.) Which of the four candidates was criticized for "palling around with terrorists"?
5) Which candidate said his policies will likely bankrupt the coal industry? (Trick question! Obama actually said that under his plan, businesses would be charged for every unit of greenhouse gas emitted, and if someone wanted to build a plant which was powered by coal, they would be charged such a high amount for the pollution they emit, that it would bankrupt that company)
6.) Which candidate said in reference to progressive taxes "When you... reach a certain level of comfort, there's nothing wrong with paying somewhat more"?
7.) Another trick question - Which candidate supports socialist policies?
8.) What can you tell me about Palin's abuse of power lawsuit?
9) Which candidate supported secession of a state from the Union?
10) Which candidate enrolled in Hawaii Pacific College after high school and dropped out after 1 semester?

etc.

So... which pieces of information broke through the news clutter, and which did not? Well, it all depends on the questions you're asking, doesn't it...

Please read this website. Don't forget to read the staggering statistics at the bottom, like the one that said 90% of people exposed to MSNBC knew the Sarah Palin answers, and MSNBC watchers voted 73/27 for Obama. If there's not enough info on the website for you, just stay tuned to FOX news(70/30 for McCain!). Hannity and Colmes will be sure to keep you up to date on the documentary about all those other nasty media networks.



If you show me unbiased research that yeilds a valid conclusion, I'll sit and listen and think hard about what you have to say. But if you come out to the world with a right wing army claiming that the left side has wronged you, what good is it doing? Obama's not going to get un-voted for. You're not going to convince the media to stop reporting on things that hurt some political figures more than others. Palin attracted the attention. She was a gimmick to attract republican voter interest. They begged for media attention then blamed everyone else when they got too much of it.

If Sarah Palin, or any candidate for political office, won't stop crying about how mean the press is, then they do not have what it takes to run a country. Look at George Bush. A grand majority of the country hates him. Why? Because of what they know from the media. Is he crying? Is he having a documentary made on how the media made him look bad? No. He's doing his job. He's dealing with it. He's getting over it. That's what you do when you have, or when you want to have a public office. Stop crying.

This documentary will do no good. It will only continue to make self important people think that they are constantly being wronged by everyone else. It will further the divide between republican and democrat. While McCain and Obama both preach about bi-partisan cooperation in the years ahead, trash like this holds the country back. My hope is that the people who see this will realize that it's time to grow up, stop bickering, complaining, and pointing fingers, and try to make the future better than the present. But hey, at least it's getting some good press.