Quote:
Originally posted by Sasha.
I didn't watch the debate, so I can't give an opinion on who did or did not win it. However, focus groups and online polls showed a surge of support for Sanders (with him winning a lot of them), yet most (all?) headlines are about how Clinton walked it and how she had no competition. The minute Hillary decided to run for president is the minute she won the debate according to MSM; they're part of her donators, part of the rich elite that she's gonna make sure get richer and more powerful (and that's not exclusive to her either, most of the candidates have the rich corporations best interest in mind), so of course they already made up their mind, and they're gonna keep reporting everything in her favor as long as they can get away with it without looking like idiots to the average American.
Do you really think that that's okay? Like, maybe she was the best - I don't know! - but the fact that they won't give the other candidates the time of day even when they do put up a fight against her (like Sanders with the focus groups and polls) is just plain wrong.
I really hope that you Clinton supporters can acknowledge that politics shouldn't be bought. We're all entitled to our own opinions and views on matters, and I respect that you find Clinton's views to best reflect your own ideas for the future of your country (I'm not even American so my opinion doesn't matter), but I sincerely hope that you can see how MSM's coverage of this debate, and the race to the primaries in general, is skewed and completely unacceptable, and I also hope you understand why media essentially buying a candidate through Super PACs and PACs is problematic.
Money and media has no place in politics. It's gross.
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I don't like this reaction, and that's for two reasons.
Bernie's lack of support in the mainstream media is an issue, and one I decried as a supporter of him myself for many months, but his lack of support after the debate in the media is due entirely to the fact that he did not provide a strong showing; you
will recognize this if you watch. His online poll numbers are understandably ahead because the type of person that will participate in polls about the Democratic debate online will be younger, more liberal, and far more likely to support him. His supporters are zealous and passionate, and will seize the opportunity to make him look good. In focus groups, he actually didn't outpace Hillary - they like her just about as much and overwhelmingly agree that she is more likely to get the nomination. Bernie is ideologically an amazing conceptual candidate, but much of his popularity is a projection of a very loud, very passionate, college-educated youthful base that is unlikely to extend to other types of voters.
The other reason I don't like this is because I'm not a typical unwavering Clinton supporter and I do, in fact, see many of Bernie's ideological stances aligning more with my own than Clinton's do, and I do take issue to some extent with media coverage of him. I'm hardcore Clinton tonight because she gave me a candidate who knows her stance and place, who knows she can beat the Republican opposition, and who has a fundamental understanding of how my party needs to act in the coming months and years. I was originally a Hillary supporter, and then Bernie surged in poll numbers and I was inspired to take a look at him; for several months I was ride-or-die Bernie, and that came into question literally in the lead up to the debate and its opening moments.
That Hillary won me back as an enthusiastic and excited supporter does not mean that I don't see the issues with her as a candidate, with media's inclination to hand her the "crown" (as Fox puts it) prematurely, and with the general attitude toward the primaries.
Those are issues that need to be addressed, and there needs to be a serious overhaul in how our country views politics as a whole, as evidenced by reluctance to give Bernie credence in the media and by the low Democratic turnout in November. However, with regard to the debate itself and how things actually went from a viewer's (and, a day ago, an on-the-edge Bernie supporter's) perspective, the only thing to be said is that Hillary indeed crushed it.