The Media’s Foregone Conclusion

As a Sunday morning talk show junkie, I shouldn’t be surprised. I thought the 2008 presidential election was more than a year away. But when I tuned in, believing that the shows would give the usual updates and opinions, I learned that the pundits have already called the race.

On Meet the Press, while feigning tough questions, Tim Russert actually set the stage with lead ins for John Edwards. It was just more of JE’s “Chicken Little” repartee, “The war in Iraq is much worse than it was in 2003 and 2004, and it’s continued. Our healthcare situation is dysfunctional. It does not work . . . Global warming is now, by anybody’s measure, a crisis . . . And we’re becoming a country made up of just a few rich people and everybody else. “ On what planet has this man been living? Exit Edwards.
Next, Tim invited David Broder, David Brody, Margaret Carlson, and Ted Koppel to a Hillary Giuliani lovefest:

MR. BRODER: “Well, she’s in an interesting position, because if you believe the national polls, this election’s over.”
MR. DAVID BRODY: “That’s right. And I was in California with Giuliani about a week, week and a half ago, and this is pretty much what he said to fundraisers, on the trail. I mean, he is talking about Hillary Clinton and nobody else.”
MS. MARGARET CARLSON: “Well, she’s going right at the heart of what looks like her opponent at the moment, Rudy Giuliani. And Rudy and Senator Clinton are in a dance right now, because the stronger she gets, the stronger he gets. Because Republicans want to unite behind a tough person.”
MR. TED KOPPEL: “She’s playing it safe, and, you know, so far ahead right now, . . . We’re—it’s much too early, but she, she is clearly the one to beat.”

Yeah, there was a few rather dismissive remarks about Republican “money” and two national polls, and Russert did mini hit pieces on Romney and Thompson, but the gist of the entire segment was that the Republican field cannot beat Giuliani for the nomination, and Giuliani cannot beat Hillary for president. It’s over, done.

One could turn to This Week with George Stephanopoulos, but it was pretty much the same thing. Never mind that Romney, while third in the national polls, leads in most of the early primary states and has strong support in such diverse places as FL, MI, NV and CA.

Even on Fox News Sunday Chris Wallace had House Speaker Pelosi stammering over the war in Iraq, the SCHIP legislation veto, and dismal approval ratings for Congress. But when it came to politics, it was all Hillary.

Finally, in the three-ring circus known as The Chris Matthews Show, the distinguished panel included Katty Kay, Clarence Page, Norah O'Donnell, and Howard Fineman. These four represent the BBC, Chicago Tribune, MSNBC and Newsweek respectively. Here is my unofficial tally for candidate names mentioned: Hillary Clinton, 32 times; Rudy Giuliani, 23 times; Barack Obama, 11 times; Fred Thompson, 11 times; John Edwards, 3 times; Mitt Romney, 2 times; McCain and Huckabee, 1 time each.

In the political barnyard of the 2008 presidential election, the liberal media have counted all the chickens - and I have yet to even see an egg.