Sen. John McCain, R-AZ, has won 17 state caucuses and primaries, 9 more than Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-AR. That margin is enough for pundits and 24-hour news outlets to declare him the victor for the GOP nomination for president. Never mind that there are still big states out there that have yet to be decided, never mind that Mr. McCain's famous temper could still get him into trouble, never mind that the right-wing of the party hates him: Mr. McCain is the nominee these voices bombard voters in the as-yet-to-be-decided states.
While it might not be fair for them to make this declaration, they can argue that with all these victories and delegates piled up, momentum is on Mr. McCain's side.
The problem is that none of these same folks would argue that Sen. Barack Obama, D-IL, is the presumptive Democratic nominee. In fact, even though he has won 23 of the 36 contests so far, many news outlets have him trailing or only slightly ahead of Sen. Hilary Clinton, D-NY, in delegates. Nary a mention of the resounding wins that are falling into Mr. Obama's tally. The media doesn't seem impressed with the 25- and 30-percent margins of victory. They instead focus on the demographics of the voters who support Mr. Obama or Mrs. Clinton. Add to this the pundits propensity of referring to the two Democratic candidates by their gender and race.
One would suspect that the long discussed liberal media is well and truly dead. Liberals everywhere are supposedly celebrating this turn of events: That the next Democratic presidential nominee will make history.
This notion—and indeed this storyline—infantalizes the American voter. The serious issues that are being discussed by both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama don't make us vote. The desire to replace the politics of the Bush Administration isn't the factor. According to the mainstream media, Americans are voting for Mr. Obama for the same reason that they vote for American Idol: the chance to make history.
The media isn't liberal or conservative, it's juvenile.
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