The MSM Clusters for New Hampshire— As the Coverage Floats Ever-Closer to the Surface

D. Cupples and Damozel over at Buck Naked Politics have both written on the failings of the MSM in covering the presidential contenders. Both the emphasis on “change” without specifics— and the focus on “gotcha moments” are their complaints. The primaries almost always seem to turn on such simple-minded distillations of the candidates’ programs and personal traits.

Almost as a chorus as I write this, the Republican candidates as being clipped, for the morning shows from last night’s Fox Republican debate, with McCain and Romney slugging it out over who is a better “agent of change.” This is hilarious. Even the Republicans are now looking to become change-makers. I feel like sending each of them little quarter, nickel, dime cylinders, so they can become more effective.

Remember “Yeaaaahhhhhhhhh!” ? Yes, Howard Dean’s classic war whoop after being beaten in Iowa. Now it’s being replaced for 2008 with Hillary’s testy moment during the WMUR debate in New Hampshire. These moments often turn out to be meaningless. We now know the manufactured quality of the Dean “yell,” after an ABC report added back in the room noise, which early clips had excluded. Dean appeared to be screaming his head off in a post-loss meltdown, when the reality was that he was speaking just loud enough to be heard in a raucous room full of his supporters.

Hillary now faces a similar, if more low-key response to her understandable pique at being double-teamed during the WMUR debate. I’m not impressed by the examples she chose—she was busy making anecdotes of her own "change-making," but her small display of naked emotion seems to have become the headline of the debate. My own impression was that none of the candidates did much to distinguish themselves programmatically, but that’s not a lead in the MSM. So Hillary took it on the chin.

These moments grow out of the long-festering issues the press come to have with the candidates over time, but try not to report unfairly on. It appears that most of the press covering Hillary are tired of hearing her automaton-like recitation of her qualifications and experience, so when she breaks character and shows some emotion, it grabs their attention (and mine)— more than it might otherwise.

The bandwidth most voters have for the primaries is so small that these “gotcha” stories become popular memes that define a candidacy. ...After all, they are much easier to grasp than the differences between the candidates’ healthcare programs, and more interesting to dicuss over the water-cooler.

So here we go, into New Hampshire tomorrow…making “change” and revealing “character” in tiny spoonfuls.