The campaign for John Cox, the Illinois Republican, sent out a plea to supporters in the latest e-newsletter assailing the media as “liberal” in a less than subtle way.

The media is very excited about pushing the candidacy of Barack Obama because he is clearly “one of them” i.e. a liberal. This should come as no surprise to anyone, but it does underline one of the fundamental problems with the media in this country.

“National Communications Director” Stephen Abbott argues that Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois) is the media darling because the they are in cahoots! Nevermind the fact that cable news outlets constantly run smear jobs on him.

CNN, allegedly the “most liberal” of the cable news stations according to conservatives, is the most frequent offender. After conservative operatives began highlighting Senator Obama’s middle name, CNN’s Jeanne Moos filed a story, “What’s In a Name?” comparing the junior senator’s middle name with former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, and his last name with al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden.

Jeff Greenfield, CNN senior political analyst, found it hilarious to run a three-minute story on Obama’s open-collared wardrobe and claim it will invoke images of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with voters.

CNN employs Glenn Beck, who on his nationally syndicated radio show (unaffiliated with CNN) questioned Obama’s race by arguing that he is “colorless” and “might as well be white.” He added, “You don’t notice he’s black.” (As if your race is like a zit that you try to hide.) Top conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh reiterated this bogus, racist line recently as well, and used the racial slur “Halfrican-American” because Obama is biracial.

CNN did, however, debunk a right-wing hit job on Obama when FOX News picked up a story from Washington Times-owned website, Insight. The story claimed Senator Obama attended a madrassa, a terrorist training camp, as a child in Indonesia. (FOX News commentator and radio host, John Gibson, refused to believe the story was not true and made wild claims about the CNN reporter that debunked the claim.)

Despite all that, Cox “national communications director” Stephen Abbott would have you believe that the media is conspiring to elect Barack Obama.

The Cox camp also allege a concerted effort by the media to exclude Cox from the discussion. Now, this is a judgment call on the part of the press but it is hard to say they got it wrong on this one. Our resident “proud leader of the Cox posse” here at The Right’s Field, Colton Henson, feverishly gives us updates in the comments, noting supporters in over two dozen states. There may be a story in how Cox has built his ‘national’ support structure without major donors. (Self-financed?) But to suggest that Cox’s candidacy would be a serious threat even if he did have relatively equal press to second- or third-tier candidates is just foolish.

Read the full e-newsletter below:

Obamamania, and how to counter it
By Stephen Abbott,
Cox2008 National Communications Director

The media is very excited about pushing the candidacy of Barack Obama because he is clearly “one of them” i.e. a liberal. This should come as no surprise to anyone, but it does underline one of the fundamental problems with the media in this country.

I think we all agree that in an ideal world, the media would be open and fair to ALL candidates, giving them all equal access, explaining their policies in detail, and letting the voters make the final choices. But clearly that’s not the case in this election, or, frankly, in past elections.Instead, they play favorites, they focus on the “celebrities,” and the race for money is often more important than the race to seek a statesman for the White House.

This is true not only on the Democrat side, but also on the Republican side. Rudy Giuliani has been portrayed as a “moderate” when his social views are obviously to the left of the party’s conservative base. McCain’s past liberal voting record has been largely covered up by the media, who consistently call him a “conservative.” And the race for money has given Mitt Romney an advantage over others, even as he struggles to convince conservatives that he’s “one of us.”

How do we counteract this trend? By creating a groundswell that even the media cannot ignore.

Most importantly, by building the grassroots. Tell friends, family and co-workers about the “other choice” in the race. Write letters to the editor, call in to your local radio station’s talk shows, and put a bumper sticker on your car. Getting people to events is also crucial to creating “buzz” and making it known that the media are missing out on some BIG news by not covering John.

After the grassroots begins to grow, and John Cox begins to appear in polls - even if it’s at first as a “volunteered” name when pollsters call (because he isn’t normally listed as a candidate by pollsters) - the media will not be able to ignore him, despite their biases.

Campaign launches online petition

The John Cox campaign has launched an online petition calling for Republicans to take back their party from career politicians. Please encourage everyone to go and sign this petition.

The petition, which is on the Cox 2008 Website at http://cox2008.com/cox/petition, seeks signatures and emails from those who support it. The text is below:

A Petition to Take Back the Republican Party from the Career Politicians
We, the undersigned, call for a return of our beloved Republican Party to the people, and away from the reign of career politicians who have:

1. Spent our nation into a mountain of debt, in a vain attempt to out-spend the Democrats or to appear “compassionate” in the face of media pressure,
2. Failed to address our urgent immigration control crisis as our nation’s wages are lowered by those who break the law,
3. Continued to wallow in a corrupt and failed system of taxation, using the sale of tax loopholes to gain campaign contributions
4. Valued celebrity over statesmanship and style over substantive changes that would have actually made our lives better
5. Voted to vastly increase the size and reach of government with Medicare Part D and No Child Left Behind, abandoning conservative, free market principles.

We stand together and call for fundamental tax reform, real immigration control that respects our laws, more competition, and a return to statesmanship in our political system.

National Update

Over 200,000 brochures began hitting the states of Iowa, South Carolina, New Hampshire and Illinois this week. The tri-fold brochure will help raise John’s visibility among strong conservatives, to which it was targeted. The mailing comes at a time when we’re also launching 30- and 60-second radio ads in Iowa to raise John’s visibility.

The campaign is planning for a Formal Announcement of John’s candidacy in Iowa in the next week. The South Carolina crew are also working on stoking the grassroots so John will beat McCain and Romney in a Spartanburg straw poll set for early March.

Posted by Matt Ortega
Thursday, February 15, 2007 at 4:25 pm

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