Saturday, March 03, 2007

The Media And Al Gore

Very interesting Salon piece, which details the media love affair with Al Gore. I thought this relevant, as to why Gore may resist temptation:
Said the Note, in explaining the recent spate of positive coverage of the old press nemesis: ."Basically, the political press wants to tempt Al Gore into the race, and then they will destroy him as a flip-flopping, exaggerating, stiff loser. And Gore knows this."

Sad, small, pitiful and quite probably true.

It would appear all the favorable press is having an impact. This result was taken prior to the Oscars, you could assume Gore is probably a touch higher now:

Feb Jan

36% 41% Hillary Rodham Clinton

24% 17% Barack Obama

14% 10% Al Gore

12% 11% John Edwards

A pretty impressive tally for a guy who consistently says he won't run. I'm not really sure what that says about Edwards chances.

Our media is quite fickle, but the American media is a different animal altogether. They just love to push the underdog, bring them to the main stage and subsequently gut them beyond belief. Maybe the positive coverage now is some admission of guilt for past unfairness, but that doesn't mean it couldn't happen again.

Gore's apprehension may be tested if he continues to rise in the polls. The draft Gore movement is starting to raise money, the Oscar speech allows for more speculation, the momentum may very well continue. Like or not, Al Gore will remain part of the Democratic discussion for some time.

3 comments:

Canadian Tar Heel said...

Our media is quite fickle, but the American media is a different animal altogether. They just love to push the underdog, bring them to the main stage and subsequently gut them beyond belief.

Sad, but true.

However, I might specify it as mostly the pundits and critics.

Steve V said...

Agreed, that was just a generalization, it's more the overall mood.

Karen said...

We suffer from "tall poppy syndrome" here too though.

Gawd I hate that.