Long ago this got called the media campaign, where the basic means for connecting with voters are thirty-second ads, the news on television, the debates, a candidate's life story (in its mythic version), and a "message"--controlled at the top, refined by polling data--that is to be endlessly gotten out. There are big historical reasons why this system is in charge, which Trippi did not bother with, except to give broadcast politics a symbolic birthdate-- 1960, and the Kennedy-Nixon debates.
Today this politics, in Trippi's telling, is interdependent with the finance system that supports it in both parties, the lobbying culture that overtakes Washington once the elections are run, the political establishment in the two parties, the commercial media's tollgate system through which the ads and images are run, and the national press, which both reports on the political game and becomes a player in it.
"We were hot in January" of 2003, Trippi said, meaning: Dean was picking up support far in excess of his national profile. But the press did not notice this until the fundraising figures came in from later quarters. Even then journalists didn't understand how Dean had done it. It was not until Al Gore's endorsement on December 9th that the system was shocked into recognition-- "this guy's going to be the nominee."
From here the pace quickened.
The press turned up the scrutiny and put Dean in its sights. Meanwhile, rival candidates began to contemplate their attacks, and started swiping some of Dean's message, using it as their market research. The Washington establishment grew alarmed-- and with reason. On December 14, former Clinton administration official Everett Erlich wrote this in the Washington Post:
Other candidates — John Kerry, John Edwards, Wesley Clark — are competing to take control of the party's fundraising, organizational and media operations. But Dean is not interested in taking control of those depreciating assets. He is creating his own party, his own lists, his own money, his own organization. What he wants are the Democratic brand name and legacy, the party's last remaining assets of value.
This is what the Net had wrought, and it seemed to be working. The press realized that a "front loaded" primary schedule, designed by party insiders to produce an early winner, might make Dean unbeatable after Iowa and New Hampshire. Journalists are often accused by journalists of sharing one bias: love of a good story. (A forgivable sin.) An easy triumph by Dean and a list of meaningless primaries to play out is not where the love is for political reporters.
Article comments