You see, one of the problems here, is that no one likes to actually check facts. Just a quick example. On Fark.com, a site where a lot of people get their news (and non-news) they have a Politics tab. Yesterday an article was posted that said:
After weekend sweep that somehow included a Grammy Award for Best Performance in Kicking Hillary’s Ass Coast-to-Coast, Barack Obama leads in national poll for the first time
Wow! Big news, right? Well… here’s the link and here is an image of the poll inside:
Notice how that says “California”? Let’s look at the National poll:
What is this? He’s not overtaking her? Wow! Did the article lie? Let’s check:
A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday finds a Democratic race between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton that remains too close to call…
Democratic voters are delighted with their choices: 12% call Clinton and Obama the best presidential candidate of their lifetimes.
Another 50% say Clinton is “better than most;” 48% say that of Obama.
Odd… I don’t see anything about him leading the polls. In fact, according to that chart and this one below, Hillary is still leading all the National Polls:
You see, this is the problem, people don’t actually read news articles. Usually if people hear something over and over, they will eventually believe that it’s true, even if it’s not. My worry about Obama is that his campaign runs on hype/momentum more than facts, and how will it function if he takes the White House? Only time will tell, I guess. I just wish more people saw this as an issue. Let’s put it in more common terms.
Let’s say you’re competing for a job. You’re well qualified, and been in your career for well over a decade. You know the job well and feel you could do it better than it had been done in the past. You’ve passed your first interview with flying colors and now it turns out they wanted to meet with their top two picks… you, and some young collage kid. This kid has only worked in his field for about 2 years, but he’s very friendly with everyone and quite popular with the younger kids in the office. He talks about all the things he’d do if he got the job and how the company needs someone like him because he has dreams. Would you feel evenly matched against this person? Would you feel okay losing out on the job? Or would you be upset because you had the knowledge and experience and all the other guy had was charm and talk?
I’m not saying this is exactly how this race is going, but it’s similar. It’s not a battle of experience. It’s not even a battle of what people stand for. It’s purely a popularity contest and for whatever reason (as usual) no one is seeing it. Now, I’ll admit, the race for the White House is almost always a popularity contest, but usually people don’t kid themselves about it. They don’t claim to be part of some movement, as if when their candidate steps into office the world will turn from a black and white Kansas to a Technicolor Oz. I guess it just frustrates me because I’d rather see people discuss real issues instead of hopes and good thoughts. I want plans for the future, not dreams… and it seems I’m one of the few.
