Continuing the theme of this election cycle, Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, took a vacation to Hawaii and .... wait for it .... still generated more stories and headlines than his still-campaigning rival, John McCain. According to the Pew Research Center's latest review of the news, "the Democrat registered as a significant or dominant factor in 63% of the campaign stories studied, compared with 50% for McCain."
But the Obama hype-machine that is the MSM may unwittingly help John McCain. At least, that's what Michael Goodwin suggests in his latest column.
While McCain has complained about media favoritism toward Obama, most recently about NBC News' tilted coverage, maybe he ought to encourage it. Resentment over the media love affair with Obama might be McCain's most powerful weapon.
The fawning coverage exaggerates even routine Obama events, and when he fails to meet giddy expectations, the excuse machine warps into overtime. That, in turn, creates another unappealing layer of media-imposed conventional wisdom.
Brits famously complained of American GI's during WWII that they were "overpaid, oversexed, & over here." Might the Obama's latest dip in the polls be in part a public backlash against his over-hype-ed-ness?
There is, however, a silver lining here for Democrats. Pew also found that the campaign and Russia's invasion of Georgia distracted from another story that was just building steam.
One possible beneficiary of all the big news last week was former presidential candidate John Edwards. The still unfolding saga of his extramarital affair was the No. 4 story, filling 4% of the newshole -- a number that might have been higher had attention not been focused elsewhere.
The Obama campaign should be wary of their candidate being over-exposed. In this country, the only thing worse than being a Republican (seemingly), is being overrated.
