Could someone explain to me the media's facination with potential 2008 presidential candidates?

Last time I checked we were in 2005 and in the here and now there were up-teen billion issues to be reported upon and/or dealt with by the forces that be....


... so, other than to destract or detract from current issues, why the HELL do I keep seeing so called "news" about this or that 2008 "hopeful"?

And what motivation do any so called "news" agencies have in "reporting" any of this stuff above or beyond actual news worthy events other than they simply all pulling from the AP wire and none of them actually doing any sort of "work" for themselves in any direction that resembles anything journalistic or "press" worthy?

Someone explain this one to me please, because I just don't "get it".

Thanks in advance,

c-

I would like to know the answer to this too. I'm tired of hearing about 2008, I need a break. My guess is due to the proliferation of all of these 24 hour news stations, they report on the real news for about two hours. So that leaves 22 hours of air time they need to fill, so they start looking ahead.

When you think of the amount of media coverage generated by the 2004 election, and realize that America could be even more divided and at each other's throats over the next election, it's coverage can't come early enough for the media giants who care about one thing, and one thing only: ratings.

I haven't seen any news stories specifically about 2008, but I really hate when they refer to Bill Frist and Hilary Clinton as "2008 Presidential hopeful," or whatever it is that they say.

Mama Hillary versus Bad Boy John

Kathleen Parker, Tribune Media Services
Published July 20, 2005


The line is fine between prude and prudent, and he--or she--who would be president should figure it out sooner than later. At this juncture, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) is front of the class, while Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) may be tending blackboards for a while.

With the sort of timing only gods can deliver, Clinton was making a boldly maternal move against sex and violence in video games at the same time bad boy McCain was being freeze-framed in the American psyche with randy boys and goofy girls in this summer's adolescent-male fantasy, "Wedding Crashers."

If we are judged by the company we keep, McCain might have picked a different movie.

Hillary, meanwhile, casting herself as America's Mother Superior, has built a platform opposing video games that feature sex and violence. This time she's gone after something called a "mod"--or modification--to a popular game (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas) that unlocks sexually explicit mini-games buried within the PC version.

Although this particular game is rated "mature" and not intended to be sold to anyone under 17, the mod can be viewed on the Internet. Clinton wants to find out who is responsible.

Thus has Clinton, in a lucky convergence of media moments, become Lucy to McCain's Charlie Brown. Exuding Miss Priss and oozing teacher's-pet smartness, she's managed to chip another chunk of the GOP's moral high ground, while one of her likeliest contenders for the 2008 presidential run is criticized for dubious judgment and questionable company.

For those who may have missed the movie trailers, "Wedding Crashers" is about two rakes who, looking for fresh fields to plow, crash weddings where nubile bridesmaids, primed with romance and lubricated with champagne, offer easy pickins.

It's a cute idea, but the movie also features beaucoup bare breasts, under-the-table fondling and that always reliable icebreaker--a female-on-male rape scene.

However innocuous his appearance, McCain might have resisted the temptation to become a Hollywood celeb and stuck with his image of centrist war hero. Not that his cameo amounted to much. He and Democratic consultant James Carville are shown attending a Washington wedding. That's about it.

But American politics don't require much fodder to wage war in the frame game. McCain has handed a freebie to Democrats (as well as some embittered Republicans), who are delighting in portraying him as a hypocritical flip-flopper. It was McCain, after all, who once held hearings criticizing Hollywood for making R-rated movies aimed at children.

Now, he's in a film that registers high on the raunch-o-meter. And, even though "Wedding Crashers" is rated R, kids want to see anything starring funny guys Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn.

The hypocrisy charge may not hold, as McCain's focus at those hearings was on violence, not sex. Even so, every public relations strategist lives by the caveat "Get outta the frame," when you're about to be photographed and frozen in human memory with the wrong person or circumstance. Think Bill Clinton and the beret-wearing Monica Lewinsky.

McCain might have thought this one through, if he even bothered to read the script. Forevermore--or at least through the 2008 presidential race--he'll be associated with the sleazeball class.

Hillary's image, meanwhile, glistens with virtue. As she edges toward the center, she's landed on a win-win issue. No one beyond the swelling ranks of pedophiles would argue that children should be exposed to sex and violence in video games or anywhere else.

As she said a few days ago, the video industry has had enough time to police itself and has failed. Clinton is speaking the language of parents, most of whom try valiantly to protect their children from age-inappropriate material and have learned that being vigilant in one's home is not enough.

Thus, Clinton is seeking legislative solutions. In addition to her inquiry into mods, she has joined archconservative GOP senators Rick Santorum and Sam Brownback (and Democrat Joseph Lieberman), in seeking $90 million for research into how media violence via TV, videos games and the Internet affects children.

Clinton, in other words, owns this message. She has staked herself out as the grown-up, a mature leader, the adult parent who can be trusted to protect children. And, as Lucy did repeatedly for Charlie Brown, she is demonstrating that when boys will be boys, girls will take charge.