Coverage of Campaign 2008

It would appear that the amount of media coverage for Obama and McCain is equaling out. This is not, of course, in terms of content, but of quantity. See this TPM story by Greg Sargent.

It looks like McCain's recent attacks on Obama are working, in the sense that the McCain campaign is now getting as much media coverage as Obama, according to a new study from the Project for Excellence in Journalism:

For the first time since this general election campaign began in early June, Republican John McCain attracted virtually as much media attention as his Democratic rival last week.

Barack Obama was a significant or dominant factor in 81% of the campaign stories compared with 78% for McCain, according to PEJ's Campaign Coverage Index for July 28-Aug. 3. Not only was that a high water mark for McCain in the general election season (his previous best was 62% from June 30-July 6). The virtual dead heat in the race for exposure between the two candidates also marked the first time his weekly coverage had even been within 10 percentage points of Obama's total.

Via Jonathan Martin. There's little doubt that new McCain adviser Steve Schmidt's more aggressive approach is working, at least in the sense that it has resulted in McCain being perceived as the driver of the news.

For weeks and weeks the McCain campaign struggled in vain to be seen as the campaign on offense. With the "celeb" ad and the allegation that Obama played the "race card," it seems like the McCain camp is now gaining some traction in that regard. Indeed, the "race card" charge was the most covered story of the week, according to the study; the second most covered was "campaign ads" -- i.e., the "celeb" spot. Both were McCain-driven stories.

Now, I think that this can cut two ways. First, it can hurt Obama since the McCain campaign will stay negative and negative often works in American politics. (That we managed to elect our current president twice -- not to mention his father once -- proves that nicely.) However, it may also help the Illinois Senator because McCain is a walking time bomb on the campaign trail. More coverage generally means more coverage specifically of his temper, his continuing changes on policy, and his relative lack of knowledge on policy issues both domestic and foreign. If the the press will finaly do its job and tell America just how much of an empty suit McCain really is, this thing is over.

5 August 2008