Obama: Iraq Has Caused Bad Economy

The mass media is shying away from the substantive story that has developed all week showing McCain's carefully crafted, though completely baseless, "expertise" in foreign policy disnintegrating. He's as much an "expert" and the perpetually angry old man down the street screaming at the kids to stay off his lawn. Instead, the media jokes around about McCain getting a little confused-- mixing up Purim with Halloween and Iran with al-Qaeda. Purim/Halloween... doesn't mean squat. Iran equals al-Qaeda... that kind of boneheaded ignorance on the part of the entire Bush Regime is what got us into the disastrous situation we're in now. It's more than squat. It should be a disqualifier. He should go back to yelling at kids who walk on his grass and let Mitt Romney run in his place.

I just noticed that Glenn Greenwald decided to go in the same direction I was moving in with this post: the tendency of the corporate media to amplify the McCain hype machine, overlook his incredible shortcomings (and assassinate Democrats the way they did with Howard Dean in 2004 and the way they have been attempting to do this week with Barack Obama). I'll leave it for Glenn and go in a different direction. (First a little of what Glenn wrote in his piece:)

Reporters have already decided that John McCain is a Serious, Knowledgeable Foreign Policy Expert-- and an honorable, truth-telling gentleman-- and therefore there is no reason to tell voters about evidence that demonstrates that he's anything but that. Evidence that reflects poorly on McCain's foreign policy seriousness or character is actually suppressed or concealed because they think it can't be newsworthy, because such evidence just can't be true, by definition.

Amazingly, reporters who have long covered McCain themselves constantly admit that they accord McCain special, favorable treatment and don't even realize the deep corruption they're acknowledging... McCain's simple-minded militarism, his ignorance about national security, and his moronic view that the U.S. should run the world through endless wars ought to be one of the most intensely debated issues in the campaign. But it won't be because-- as Marcus said-- the media has already decided that McCain is a Serious Expert in these matters and that national security is his strength, and evidence to the contrary won't be reported.

The corporate media message is what it is and that includes the relentless, distorted and hysterical mania they are using quite effectively to shipwreck Obama's campaign on the shoals of a radical pastor. They fear Obama's ability to go directly to people without their mediation-- the way they feared the Kennedys, Martin Luther King, Paul Wellstone, Howard Dean, all political figures threatening right-wing dominance who were silenced by the right.

This morning Obama moved on from Fox/Limbaugh/Coulter World to part 2 of his critique of Bush's Iraq agenda, policies and failures. I though in some ways it was his best speech yet and at the heart of what a political campaign should actually be about, whether the media wants to give it real consideration or not. (Today they're all excited about and completely preoccupied with finding out how many steps Hillary was from the spot Bill and Monica were doing whatever they were doing. It isn't worth even mentioning they should all lose their broadcast licenses.) Instead, let me excerpt parts of Barack Obama's talk in West Virginia about the economic impact of Bush's war in Iraq.