Pre-determined Donkeys

I confess I am not very excited about the next presidential election. It seems as if the election is nothing more than a formality because the outcome in a sense is already pre-determined by big money and the press and at any rate I see little or no change in our situation in Iraq coming from the most prominent donkeys Clinton and Obama. This morning I scanned some of the major newspapers to see how they were reporting on our donkey hopefuls.



The San Francisco Chronicle had a fairly awful article on a recent debate in San Diego and as expected the focus is on Clinton and Obama with only passing mention of Kucinich and Gravel.

The Los Angeles Times article on the same debate seemed a tad better but again the main focus is on Clinton and Obama. Yes I know both are ahead in the polls but it seems to me that readers deserve a better look at the rest of the candidates however the LAT obviously does not agree with my sentiment.

The Washington Post article on the San Diego debate only mentions Obama and Clinton and does not even bother to mention the other candidates, well what do you expect from the Post?

The New York Times did not have an article on San Diego but focused instead on ridiculing Gravel showing him in the worst light possible regarding a previous debate in South Carolina.

According to the Times Gravel provided comic relief describing him as a former Alaskan Senator and New York cab driver though they failed to mention he has a B.S. in economics from Colombia University or the part he played in ending the draft but hey, the New York Times is no doubt concentrating on how it can get us into a war with Iran to be too bothered with details.

Here is a little bit from the Times article and it is interesting how they frame Gravel here.

Mr. Gravel was the first candidate to wander on stage, by himself, a little before 7 p.m. “Who’s that?” an audience member asked aloud. He largely eschewed the postdebate handshake, moped around for a few minutes and then headed off. “I’m not into those little niceties,” he said later.

Nice touch, he wandered onto the stage and who is that. Well who expects fair and balanced from our news media, not me. Frankly none of this probably matters as no doubt Hillary will win the nomination but it is interesting how the news media frames the way we look at candidates primarily focusing on the ones who are the most likely to continue with imperial designs and the most willing to keep us in Iraq and not afraid to nuke Iran while the rest like Kucinich and Gravel will be ridiculed into obscurity.