Waiting for macaca

This year’s political news coverage, especially on television, seems determined to cover a presidential campaign meltdown in realtime. How far the competitive news channels will go to bring one on remains to be seen. Meanwhile, a breathless coverage of the presidential race has become the norm. Minor meanderings in the long road to the White House […]

February 20, 2008; 11:42 PM • by FTRea

This year’s political news coverage, especially on television, seems determined to cover a presidential campaign meltdown in realtime. How far the competitive news channels will go to bring one on remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, a breathless coverage of the presidential race has become the norm. Minor meanderings in the long road to the White House have been reported as if they were hairpin curves. Story lines on the candidates have grown legs to dance to the 24-hour-cycle drumbeat, or they’ve fallen off the map, mostly according to their sizzle factor.

Obviously, such a willy-nilly process has stretched stories out of proportion, making them seem more significant than they really are. Oh no! Huckabee’s campaign bus ran out of gas! Is it a metaphor? Uh, oh, who knows what metaphor means?

Angles with potential to be worrisome, to cause widespread consternation, seem to have stood a better chance of being aired repeatedly than those without it. Behind the scene, it’s the job of spin doctors from the campaigns to constantly feed what they hope are such angles to the working press. It’s an industry. And, so it goes…

This year, with no incumbent in the race, it looks like every faux pas is auditioned as the new macaca-sized mistake, to mimic George Allen’s 2006 senatorial campaign meltdown, which torpedoed his second term as well as his plans to run for president.

Which candidate will crumble under the pressure to supply the new macaca moment? When will it happen? Stay tuned…

February 20, 2008 11:42 PM 0