In the comments following my recent post “how the tide shifts: the generational cycle at work before our very eyes”, there’s been some discussion of the presidential power of each generational type and of a recent Joe Klein essay in Time magazine about how Barack Obama isn’t not running for the White House in 2008. It’s subtitled “Since baby boomers haven't proved very adept at running the show, it may be time for a new generation of leadership” and it starts out like this:
It was the sort of week that drives serious politicians crazy. Both Al Gore and Hillary Clinton had important things to say about global warming and energy independence—and the chatterati spent most of their time ignoring the messages and gossiping about the messengers. The debut of Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, served as the excuse for a typhoon of speculation about whether he was running for President in 2008. Senator Clinton's sturdy bran muffin of a speech about the environment—it read like a term paper but was filled with smart detail and inconvenient truthfulness—was almost totally ignored because the New York Times decided to print a front-page story revealing the shocking fact that she and Bill were...still married and a lot of people remain perplexed by their relationship.
I disagree with this completely, unless if by “chatterati” Klein means “mainstream media.” Because the blogosphere certain had plenty to say -- pro and con -- about the substance of the stances of Gore and Clinton and plenty critical to say about the idiotic mainstream coverage of it that Klein alludes to.
(Klein goes on to say, about Obama’s chances at the presidency in 2008, with no apparent sense of irony: “he has zero military and national-security experience” and, about his potential Democratic rivals “Gore and Clinton have tons of baggage” as if none of these things were true about GW Bush, who somehow managed to attain the Oval Office. But this isn’t the blog to guffaw about such things...)
If Obama runs, he won't win -- it's too soon for Xers. People don’t trust us yet, as cool as Obama may be. But maybe we're poised to take over the mainstream media real soon. I hope so, anyway.
(Technorati tags: Joe Klein, Barack Obama, mainstream media, White House, 2008 presidential race)
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