What All The Campaigns Are About

While some of the media is still buzzing about a gaffe made by Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker over the weekend, we're actually kind of glad Mayor Booker stepped in the deep end of politics like an amateur.

For one thing, as Ezra Klein noted, Booker's greater point - that America should be having a broad debate about the real issues of leadership, instead of having to watch distracting SuperPAC commercials about non-issues - is one we, and most people who actually care about this country, agree with.

Debates on real issues, between quality candidates that actually display the qualities that prove whether a candidate is truly ready for office, are exactly what we should be having.

In fact, at a press conference yesterday, President Obama echoed that exact sentiment when a reporter asked him about the TV and web ads attacking Mitt Romney's past tenure with vulture capital firm Bain Capital. The reporter attempted to depict the ads discussing Mitt's past as a job destroyer as a distraction - as one of those kinds of distractions like the proposed SuperPAC smear from last week.

The President responded directly, “This is not a distraction. This is what this campaign is going to be about.”

The President continued, "If the main basis for [Romney] suggesting he can do a better job [as President] is his track record as the head of a private equity firm, then both the upsides and the downsides are worth examining."

“When you’re president, as opposed to the head of a private equity firm, your job is not simply to maximize profits. Your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot," said The President. “My job [The job of President] is to take into account everybody, not just some."

That kind of head-on debate of the details that make a good officeholder is exactly what honest voters from every political background desire. We should all demand that kind of debate, and we should definitely teach that kind of critical discussion to the next generation of voters.

In Nebraska, Democratic Senate candidate Bob Kerrey seems to have that will and energy to engage in both honest debate and teaching the next generation how such debates should work.

The Cornhusker Boys and Girls State summertime citizenship conferences for teenagers invited Mr. Kerrey and GOP Senate nominee Deb Fischer to have a debate at their annual convention in Nebraska's capitol city June 5, two weeks from today. Kerrey jumped at the chance, remarking that scheduling the first debate of the general election before an audience of high school aged kids, "sends just the right message" for the campaign.

However, after months of claiming she wanted "as many debates as possible," the inexperienced challenger Fischer, was muzzled by her campaign manager - who attempted to distract the media with an ad hominem swipe at Mr. Kerrey.

The problem is, if Fischer is really the independent-minded Republican she's already claiming she is, strong leadership - the kind that will be needed in the Senate - should come directly from her, at the top of her campaign. It should be part of the platform of who she is.

Now, we're not going to fall to the level of Mr. Romney, or Ms. Fischer's press flack, and make outright negative and spurious claims about why Ms. Fischer chose not to debate. The fact is, Fischer's decision spoke louder than anything she could have said. It says she's not ready yet - and doesn't know when she will be.

As the President noted Monday, what his campaign - what all the campaigns this year - should be about, are real issues that display the qualities that prove whether a candidate is truly ready for office. In the case of President Obama's challenger, Mr. Romney, if Romney is going to ignore his record as Governor of Massachusetts, and focus on his record at vulture capital firm Bain Capital, then Romney's record at Bain is fair game.

If someone is merely hanging on, pointing whatever direction the SuperPACs tell them to point, they're a long way from being ready to rumble - let alone take office. Governing properly isn't for the faint of heart. If a candidate doesn't know that already, once they are in the race is not the time to be learning that lesson.

When The Chickens Come Home...

When you got up this morning, if the most important "news" item you saw or heard was the death of Bee Gees co-founder Robin Gibb, we're sadly not surprised. Massive protests at the NATO meetings were something the "news" folks didn't seem to want to talk about much today. There were still a few individuals in the media talking about the SuperPAC buyout of last week's Nebraska Republican primary race - but we're not too surprised that the story of the SuperPACs and the 'Ricketts Plan' somehow slipped from the headlines already.

If newspapers were still owned by newsmen, and radio stations by radio people, and local TV stations by those who actually understand local TV news, the fact that the wealthiest men and women in America - and indeed from around the world - are buying our elections at all levels, would be the top story today, and every day for weeks on end.

That it is not shows how corrupt, bastardized, and weak our mainstream media has become. Take Wisconsin, for example.

Over the weekend, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel announced their endorsement of embattled Republican Governor Scott Walker, against the Democratic Mayor of Milwaukee, Tom Barrett. This seemed to surprise some in the national media - but it shouldn't.

In a recent story, initially published by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Walker was caught - on video - making it clear that his top priority, from the day he got elected, was to "divide and concquer" unions and working class Wisconsinites, in favor of his corporate buddies. Not surprisingly, in the video, Walker was talking with two incredibly wealthy Wisconsin businesswomen - women who control or influence companies that do measurable business with Journal Communications, the Journal-Sentinal's parent company.

That shouldn't shock anyone. For far too long now, the so-called objectivity of much of the media hasn't originated from the journalists in the newsrooms, as it should, but instead from the pinheads in the boardroom, who cringe at the slightest threat of an advertiser deciding to pull up stakes.

The position of the overly Wall-Street friendly folks controlling the Republican Party is similarly disconnected from reality. As current Chairman of the Republican National Committee Reince Preibus said this weekend, all these baseless attacks by SuperPACs would just go away if Democrats - including the President - would just give up and let Republicans win.

Priebus' comment is not only ridiculous, it's completely at odds with reality. His comment mirrors almost identically the kind of reaction regularly heard from bullies, after they receive a taste of their own medicine.

That kind of blowback is exactly what happened to Joe Ricketts and his family last week, when his chickens came home to roost. The amazingly rapid backpedaling and denials surrounding the Ricketts Plan were the effect of real news men and women shining journalistic sunlight on the disease of SuperPACs in American democracy.

We wish we could say that metaphorical bird is cooked, that you could stick a fork in the idea that SuperPACs are now going to keep the sleeze to a minimum, after the plan with Joe Ricketts' name on it, blew up in his face - but we'd be as crazy as GOP Chariman Preibus if we believed that.

Fact is, because of the Citizens United ruling, a single average, multi-billion dollar Romney SuperPAC donor is now equal to 181,000 average Obama campaign donors. That gives an overwhelming and unequal advantage in our elections to those in our society who have far more money than sense.

The advantage small dollar donors have, however, is that the media can't and doesn't need to shine its spotlight on them individually, like it can the big dollar donors who are trying to turn this nation into the Corporate-Owned States of America.

No matter what, this year's elections are going to be hard-fought battles, at every level. We just hope that our fellow media members keep the heat on those who are attempting to buy the elections outright.

Friday Funday: Truth In Media

As we've hit the end of the week, and as it's been another week of politics where we often look at the stories that make headlines and think, "What the hell," we've decided that today going to contrast the latest story about how evil the media can be, with some good news about the the media. After all - it's Friday!

First, the bad news. This is what NOT to do, if you're involved with the media.

In case you missed it, the media exploded yesterday in a flurry of massive SuperPac money numbers and political cowardice, when the New York Times announced the latest story of the right-wing corporatists attempting to buy this year's election.

Apparently, notorious conservative political media hack Fred Davis - the same guy who came up with the 'Demon Sheep' ad in California, and the "I'm Not A Witch" ad for Republican Christine O'Donnell in Delaware - tried to cook up a brand new stew of poisonous lies and smears from a leftover four-year old smear campaign against President Obama.

Davis apparently presented his storyboard to Joe Ricketts, the wealthy Republican Omaha-based billionaire, whose money bought Deb Fischer her spot as the GOP nominee in this year's U.S. Senate race in Nebraska. Davis sold the idea to Ricketts, promising Ricketts could "do exactly what John McCain would not let us do." According to legitimate sources, Ricketts was set to spend $10 million on this zombie smear campaign against Obama - that has absolutely nothing to do with the issues most voters care about in this year's Presidential election.

The media firestorm was already brewing Thursday morning as we published the day's edition, and by the time we had lunch, Mitt Romney and his campaign had already distanced themselves - albeit in a stumbling way - from Ricketts and the right-wing PR media group pushing the trash and lies.

Instead of admitting the proposal was not a politically wise move, Davis' so-called public relations firm's first instinct appears to have been to defend their actions, claiming that if Sen. John McCain had ran the same smear ad four years ago, he'd have defeated then Sen. Obama.

That was all an example of what NOT to do. Here's the right thing to do.

After the PR firm mentioned him, Senator John McCain quickly came out and proved the media hacks wrong. McCain said he was proud of his actions in 2008 - for not running the proposed trashy smear ad against Obama - and McCain agreed with Mitt Romney in condemning the proposed ad, and indeed any kind of trashy Super PAC propaganda that uses personal attacks instead of focusing on real issues. Romney's camp also reiterated - a bit more professionally - their desire to stay away from personal attacks during the campaign.

That action - shunning the propaganda and lies, even just a little - is what makes this a good moment in the media today. Because of Mitt's decision -  and the following terrified retreat by other sleazy media hacks from this trashy ad - we all may experience slightly less offensive political propaganda on our TVs and radios, at least in the short term.

There are those who think Romney just decided to lean the way the political wind was already blowing at gale force on Thursday - and looking at some of Mitt's previous comments, that may indeed be the case.

Even if it is, the key fact is that Mitt Romney did choose to push away the disgusting, hate-filled, personal attack plan with Joe Ricketts' name on it, and Joe Ricketts' SuperPAC money behind it. What's more, because of Mr. Romney's choice, the Ricketts' family businesses may actually be suffering some financial repercussions for their attempt to use our media as a platform for Father Joe's hate speech. The hatemongers were spurned so badly, even Ricketts has now repudiated the plan that still carries his name on it.

All of which proves, if more candidates would stand up against the hate ads, the hate ads would likely disappear from our media, at least for a little while.

For us, this little blow up means maybe we can actually watch - and enjoy - some TV this weekend. And that's some good news indeed.