John McCain may be the benefactor of too much Barack Obama coverage

This has been the longest presidential campaign ever with the longest primary (Democratic) in the history of primaries. And on top of that, the MSM has been obsessing over Barack Obama.

So it can't be too much of a shock that in a poll released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, 48 percent said they're hearing too much about Obama versus 26 percent for John McCain.

When McCain's camp has complained that the press gives more coverage to Obama, the campaign people should probably shut their traps, since it could hurt Obama.

And just because Obama is being talked about doesn't mean it's all good. Sure there has been some fawning here and there from the MSM, but in a way, that has hurt Obama as well. The coverage has been very shallow about his actual policies, and then turning around and criticizing the candidate for not articulating his positions. As well, there is a pattern of obsessing about Obama, and trying to find flaws even when they aren't there.

McCain, who complains about his lack of coverage, should be happy since the MSM undercovers his mistakes, and won't point out elements of McCain that might have been written about in 2000, since "everybody knows that about McCain" and so they don't want to write it up again.

The "logical" coverage of the candidates is that we don't hear too much about who they are and what they've been until after Labor Day, given the attention span of those who casually follow the presidential race. So even if Obama and McCain have been overexposed, it's not like most of the public knows a whole lot about these people.

Perhaps we have been biased for Obama, not so much because he is the Democratic Party nominee for president, but because we have been following this person for awhile in the Illinois State Senate and the U.S. Senate. We do know more details about his life since we live here. As a contrast, I learned about the life of John Kerry as most people did, through information during the campaign, and he had been in the U.S. Senate for some time.

Maybe it's a good idea that Obama is going on vacation next week in Hawai'i. A few days out of the news, while many Americans tune out the news (except to hear about the Olympics) might make Obama seem a little fresher.

But it also means that the Democratic National Convention will be the ideal time to teach Americans about who Barack Obama is. Bill Clinton was a master at selling "the man from Hope" to convey who he is and where he has been. Obama could really use either Clinton himself to teach him how to market who Obama is.

Casual observers to the presidential race think they know who Barack Obama is. But a lot of that perception is misinformation, either directly from FOX "News," the McCain campaign, Internet rumors, or MSM scare tactics about Rev. Wright or something equally irrelevant.

The 2000 race was noteworthy in that we knew very little about Texas Governor George W. Bush (and still don't know a lot even now). And despite what the MSM says, we don't really know that much about John McCain as a person.

Hopefully, when the American public learns new and positive things about Barack Obama, perhaps it won't be as "tired" about hearing about Obama. After all, this person will be the next leader of the free world -- shouldn't we know quite a bit about that person?

Technorati Tags: Be-Elected Chad Rubel 2008 race Barack Obama John McCain press coverage MSM negative coverage