[quote=Allan from Fallbrook][quote=pri_dk]
Pri: This is just hilarious. So, if I’m reading this correctly, only “qualified” candidates need apply to hold the levers of government and the media should only give airtime to those “serious” enough to merit it…..Pick up a book on US History and read up on the utterly bizarre cast of characters that have made up this country’s elected officials and then come back and talk about Christine O’Donnell. Was she bugshit crazy? Yup. Did she every right to run for office? Yup. Its America, Chico, and if you wore a uniform, that is EXACTLY what you were willing to die for.

I don’t condone the nonsense emanating from the Radical Right, anymore than I condone it from the Loony Left. It is what simultaneously makes this country great, while periodically debilitating us, too. Underneath all the screaming and hysterics right now, the system is actually functioning just the way its supposed to.[/quote]

Allan, I don’t have an issue with people like O’Donnell or Palin or Bachmann running for office, or even with the media affording them exposure. What I do object to is journalists treating them with kid gloves, and the manner in which they present them as serious, qualified candidates who are on the same level as their opponents. As far as I’m concerned, when I see journalists and media outlets justifying a candidate’s refusal to answer legitimate campaign-related questions, or going along with their Twitter-only communication policy, or not calling a candidate out on an obvious falsehood, or smoothing over a candidate’s lack of knowledge in matters relating to foreign policy and the U.S. economy, or explaining away statements that are just plain batshit in nature, they’re acting as the candidate’s public relations representative, not as journalists responsible for reporting the news.

If the potential for disaster wasn’t so significant, it would have been funny to read the articles and reports on the above candidates, and observe the way in which the press/media presented them as qualified and high-functioning individuals. What is even more disgusting is the clearly favorable treatment afforded these ladies. Don’t believe it? Then someone needs to explain to me why Alvin Greene didn’t get the amount and the quality of MSM exposure that O’Donnell and Angle did. Instead, his candidacy was treated as a hilarious joke by the press, who focused on his lack of funds and backing, and his seeming inability to communicate, rather than on his platform, which, IMHO, was no more batshit than those of O’Donnell and Angle (hey, that is not an endorsement….of ANY of them).