Obama Versus the Press

It's official: The media are trying to destroy Barack Obama.

After building up Obama over the winter, the media are starting to tear him down just for the hell of it. They cite his loss in the Pennsylvania primary to Hillary Clinton by ten percentage points, as well as his failure to win over not only working-class whites in the old industrial areas but also Philadelphia suburbanites in Bucks and Montgomery counties.

The real story, if anyone cares to look more closely, is that Obama actually improved his standing among Pennsylvania's blue-collar voters, showing that he was able to cut his gap with Hillary by half. (He had been 22 points behind in the polls at one point.) Also, his remarks about "bitter" working-class voters hadn't changed the dynamic in Pennsylvania that much. True, he should have done better among Philadelphia suburbanites, but he held his own better than anyone should have expected.

Obama can't seem to do anything right these days. If he gives John McCain credit for his leadership abilities and his experience, Hillary Clinton, who did the the same thing, bashes him for it. If he doesn't fight back against Hillary's barbs, he's a wuss; if he does, he risks being seen as a) piling on a woman or b) an angry black man. And white people have an inexplicable tendency to get scared when a black man like Al Sharpton gets angry.

Although, if you're a black man, and you just saw those trigger-happy policemen get off in the Sean Bell case, you have a right to be angry.

Obama can't even challenge his elitist image by citing his background as a resident of Chicago. We Americans take a disparaging attitude toward our own big cities, seeing urban residents as being out of the mainstream (read suburban) fabric of the country. So what's a nice guy from the South Side of Chicago to do?

Largely, he should try to let the attacks run off his back and counterattack only when he absolutely has to. Obama is trying to run a positive, hopeful campaign, but no one will begrudge him when he has to take on Hillary Clinton with the same rough, feisty, scrappy attitude that she's adopted towards him.

Hillary Clinton will do anything to stop Obama, even, it is rumored, helping to let McCain win in the fall should Obama be the Democratic nominee so she can run again in four years. Because, like the Bushes, the Clintons think they own the White House.