Behind the scenes...

[kjpepper]

Behind The Scenes: Newsweek On McCain In The Dark, Obama Threats, And More. This isn't the actual report itself (that hasn't been released yet) but an article about it in the Huffington Post about the report.

Newsweek has released highlights of its Special Election Project, which allowed reporters to gather behind-the-scenes information on the presidential campaigns with an agreement that none of their reporting would be published until after Election Day.

The contained highlights are mostly funny (Obama's frustration about having to answer poorly worded questions during debates made me LOL). Some of them are sobering (the jump in death threats against Obama in direct response to some of Palin's fear/hate mongering), some of them, especially the ones which show McCain was clearly not in control of his campaign, are sad. All of them, I think greatly humanize all of the people involved in both campaigns. (Well, except Sarah Palin, who remains an ig'nant troll.) One of the things I tend to be frustrated about in terms of politics is that it's all spin. All the things candidates say are carefully scripted, they are told what to say, how to say it, how to present themselves. They are packaged and branded by their staff, and become the message rather than the man/woman. One of the reasons I loved watching The West Wing so much is that it clearly showed this process, and what compromises all of these human beings - President, First Family, and staff - need to make in order to keep the message on track. At the end of the article I found myself really feeling for both sides... the winning one because of the crushingly daunting tasks still ahead with the hopes and expectations of a nation weighing on their shoulders, the losing for having to live with the mistakes they've made. (Again, except for Sarah Palin, who, in direct opposition of the First Law Of Queen Latifah, has only gotten more troll like and quite possibly more ignorant in the time it took me to type this paragraph.)

I may have to pick up this Newsweek, seeing as I'm not due to be in any doctors' offices anytime soon. I'd like to see what else is in the report.

Comments

[prisoner007.livejournal.com]

Actually the first part of the series is out now. It's really interesting article, really chronicling the other campaigns screw-ups as much as what Obama did right.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/167582?tid=relatedcl

[kjpepper.livejournal.com]

Oooh! thanks for the link.

[prisoner007.livejournal.com]

Being the idiot I am I didn't really realize that it's actually the entire report. The top bar has the links to the different chapters.