In many ways the Obama campaign tour's Middle Eastern leg has all the markings of a victory lap. Foreign Policy brings up an interesting question that goes back to the coverage of Senator's McCain and Obama. The coverage of Senator Obama has the anchors, the networks and the bloggers in a tizzy. Obama's coverage is, to be frank, more newsworthy in that: a) He represents a new form of diplomatic engagement with Europe and the Middle East, breaking with the present American policy, and, b) Obama is the front-runner, and c) Obama has yet to make a highly publicized trip overseas, hence the media curiosity.
Still, the McCain campaign can rightly make the argument that giving the front runner that much coverage tips the scales in his favor. Also -- and this is a frequent conservative argument -- a large number of journos are outright fans of Obama. These questions come at a time when the mainstream media is under fire over their "objectivity."
So -- Is the coverage of Obama excessive? From ForeignPolicy:
"A show of hands: Who remembers anything that happened during John McCain's travels to Colombia and Mexico?
"Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?
"Well, I'd bet you have a good handle on what Barack Obama is up to this week. He just came from Afghanistan, and now he's in Iraq, where he got a big boost when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki basically endorsed his withdrawal plan. After a few more days in the Middle East, he'll head to Europe, where by all accounts he'll be treated like a savior coming to rescue transatlantic relations from George W. Bush.
"His trip is getting major, wall-to-wall coverage -- with much more to come -- but in fact, Obama has gotten the lion's share of media attention since the general election began .."
UPDATE: From Foreign Policy: "Getty Images hasn't posted a photograph of the Arizona senator since Sunday. During that time, Getty has posted roughly 40 photos of Obama, depending on how you count."
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