The critical policy issues, and almost every other element of the campaign, took a back seat to the vice-presidential selection process last week. The only other story to really break through was a flap that arose after John McCain had trouble keeping track of his real estate.
As the historic 2008 presidential primary season came to an end, the presumptive Republican and Democratic nominees faced similar dilemmas. Both Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) decided to sever ties with controversial religious figures who had been backing their campaigns. As the general election campaign got under way, both […]
Last week, for the first time this year, an event other than the race for president was the No. 1 story. The crisis with Russia was the top story and campaign theme in a week when Barack Obama got more coverage, but John McCain may have gotten the better of it.
Despite a big Hillary Clinton win in the West Virginia primary, John Edwards and George Bush helped make Barack Obama the lead campaign newsmaker last week. And they helped reinforce the idea that the Democratic primary fight was just about over.
Some of the nation’s leading journalists gathered in Key West, Fla., in December, 2008, for the Pew Forum’s biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life. Vali Nasr, author of the 2006 book, The Shia Revival, surveyed the geo-political landscape of today’s Middle East, arguing that the 2003 invasion of Iraq has fundamentally […]
Barack Obama’s efforts to heal the wounds of the primary battle and to reconcile with the Clintons were the major story lines in last week’s coverage of the Presidential campaign. And they’re a big reason why the Democratic nominee generated about twice as much coverage as did John McCain.
Barack Obama’s week-long tour of world hotspots and capitals generated more coverage than any campaign event in months. But in the end, the media wondered what he had accomplished and whether they were paying too much attention.
