OPINION
0
Obama Eludes Not Only Clinton, but Media
Pandering populism didn't play—except with pundits, Klein admits
By Kevin Spak
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Posted May 8, 08 10:07 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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After a career of sober-minded policy politics, Hillary Clinton let loose her inner populist pol in Indiana and North Carolina, Joe Klein writes, and, like much of the media, he thought the showmanship-over-substance (along with Obama's pastor problem) might pull it out for her. But that "shameless populism" proved not to be a game-changer after all. She lost the contest—and the race, he concludes in a Time cover story anointing Obama as the nominee.
Barack Obama instead bet voters were sick of the “same-old,” and believed they’d see through the gas tax and Rev. Wright—and they did, Klein writes. Now he’s headed for a general election campaign that “doesn’t need hype.” It needs the press, and the politicians, to respect it.