Right On

Republican Michigander nails the 2008 Presidential race.

The April Fools joke on us is the attempted coronation by the media and establishments types of our next president about 3 months away from the Iowa Straw Poll, and 10 months before the first primary and caucuses.

If you listen to "conventional wisdom", the establishment, and "big media," the choices are as follows. If you are a Republican, "Maverick" John McCain, "America's Mayor" Rudy Giuliani, and Mitt Romney (more in Michigan) with occasional talk of Newt Gingrich (who hasn't declared). If you are a democrat, "The inevitable nominee" Hillary Clinton and "Rock star" Barack Obama, with occasional talk of John Edwards. As most know, I'm not sold on any of them. The other candidates supposedly "can't win." Ronald Reagan couldn't win either in 1980. For that matter, John Kerry was "the electable" candidate, as was Bob Dole for that matter.

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All those names I mentioned are getting screwed in coverage, especially by Big Media. I don't happen to care for a lot of the candidates I just listed mentioned on both sides, but they are also running, and are on as many ballots currently as the favored candidates. They should receive the same coverage as the favored candidates. One of the lesser known candidates I do like was Duncan Hunter who just came to Michigan. Trade issues are major here and he addressed those issues. Where was this covered? Only on a couple of blogs. His visit did not even get a blurb in the Oakland County area papers. The Howell Schools controversies received more coverage in the Detroit area papers than a visit by a presidential candidate.

The good news on this is that we now have the internet and do not need our news filtered by "Big media" as much as it used to be. The rest of the world is starting to catch up with us gun owners when it comes to internet political sauvy. There is plenty of coverage of Duncan Hunter, Ron Paul, and others on the net. The bad news is that "conventional wisdom", the establishment, and big media is still a major driving force in the pre-primaries. The worst thing a candidate can be tagged with is "can't win.", even if there is nothing (outside current funding) that can be said why the candidate "can't win."

Exactly. I've said much the same myself. The recent rise of Fred Thompson shows that early polls can change drastically over the course of a campaign.