Dan

Calabrese

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September 17, 2008

Obama Undermines Own Country, Media Ignores It; Why? They Want What He Wants

Once again, the mainstream media’s behavior is being called into question – and once again, the reasons for it are obvious.

It is now becoming abundantly clear that Barack Obama, in a meeting with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, tried to undermine his own country’s negotiations with Iraq during his July visit to Baghdad. Even the Obama campaign can’t deny it because there were multiple witnesses to the exchange.

So once again, conservatives begin raising the question: Why is the mainstream media ignoring this story? They’re treating it like they treated the John Edwards affair story, which they ignored until they no longer could. But this is much more serious. The Democratic nominee for president of the United States attempted to scuttle a crucial status-of-forces agreement between the U.S. and the government of Iraq. He blatantly urged the Iraqis to stop negotiating with the Bush Administration and wait until the next president – presumably him, at least as far as he’s concerned – takes office.

While the media desperately seeks a relevant angle on the so-called “Troopergate” non-story out of Alaska, or perhaps investigates who paid for Sarah Palin’s tanning bed, a U.S. senator who has not been elected president attempts to undermine legitimate negotiations between the man who has and the government of the nation we would like to stop occupying as soon as possible.

And he does not even deny doing so, not because he wouldn’t like to, but because he can’t.

Why is the mainstream media ignoring the story? Well, first and foremost, because they want Obama to win the election. But it goes deeper than that. They’re ignoring the story because they don’t see anything wrong with what Obama did.

If you’re a conservative and you’re sitting there thinking Obama has no right to undermine our current president when dealing with a foreign government in a time of war, I agree with you, but they don’t. The quaint notion that we support our president as commander in chief, and that he and he alone has the right to make foreign policy, carries no weight with the media. They look at Bush’s poor approval ratings. They look at the unpopularity of the war. They look at the fact that Bush has only four months remaining in office.

And they ask, “Well, why should Bush get to negotiate anything? He’s leaving soon, we don’t like him and neither does anyone else. So what’s the problem?”

The problem, of course, is that Bush is the president, and that undermining him puts both the war effort and the troops at risk – not to mention the potential long-term stability of Iraq. There is also the matter of respecting the office of the president and the electoral process that put Bush in that office. The press doesn’t care about any of that. They only care that they’re tired of Bush and want him gone.

The other reason the press is giving Obama a pass on this is that they agree with what he was trying to do. Undermine Bush and the war effort? They’ve been trying to do that for years. Trumpeting bad news while ignoring the good? Screaming headlines about roadside bombs and troop-death “milestones” while ignoring yet another province we get under control? They’ve been at it since before the 2004 election. Any reporter who was in that room with Obama probably would have asked Zebari much the same question:

“Why are you even talking to Bush? He sucks and we hate him!”

Obama’s actions, while probably not treasonous, are beyond reprehensible in a time of war. The McCain campaign should take Obama to task in the most severe manner possible, but they will have to do it through ads and other forms of persuasion. They will have to take it upon themselves to explain to the voters why Obama’s actions were wrong – and why, even if you don’t like President Bush, you should be horrified at the idea of a U.S. senator undermining his dealings with a foreign government in a time of war.

The mainstream media will continue to ignore this, unless the pressure and the groundswell of public sentiment becomes so great that they can no longer do so. They think Obama is a hero for trying to undermine Bush. And they will continue to cover for him, unless and until they become afraid that protecting him will bring them down as well.

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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