OPINION:
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Votes haven’t even begun to be counted yet and already the media is denouncing this election as meaningless.
“Where’s the beef in this year’s election?” asks one columnist, lamenting the success of Iowa Republican Joni Ernst’s hilarious campaign ad in which she boasts of her expertise in castrating hogs.
“I’ll know how to cut pork,” Mrs. Ernst vows if sent to Washington. “Let’s make ’em squeal!”
Mrs. Ernst’s message is, apparently, plenty clear to all the stupid voters out there. But it has the smart set in the media in full pearl-clutching gasps.
“If Iowa voters, among the country’s best informed, are falling for gimmicks, there’s no hope for the rest of us,” Bloomberg columnist Margaret Carlson grieves.
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Oh, dear! If only Mrs. Ernst ran on specifics! Like promising us “hope!” Or, maybe “change!”
Two months ago, as the election’s gathering storm began to take shape, The Washington Post reported that unlike previous elections there is no dominant theme here. As evidence, the paper interviewed one voter concerned about drones and another concerned about America’s irreversible decline.
Where, oh, where were all these deeply discerning reporters back in 2008?
Perhaps one big reason the press is so eager to denounce the outcome of next week’s election is that the press — by which I mean liberal Democrats and their slavish scribes in the press — have desperately tried to make this election about all sorts of fake “issues” that have completely failed to gain any traction with actual voters.
Washington Times reporter Valerie Richardson reports this week that hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer has spent some $76 million to make “global warming” the “issue” of this election. Failed.
Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords has spent millions traveling the country struggling to deliver a 64-word speech in hopes of making gun control the “issue” of this election. Again, failure.
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And, of course, there has been the universal effort to make this whole midterm election about some “war on women.” That effort has failed so miserably that even Democratic politicians are now telling one another to shut up about it.
Having failed to manufacture any sort of winning “issue” that might give Democrats some hope in this election, the media has grabbed up all their marbles and run home crying.
Media Research Center last week reported that the three major networks ran just 25 stories about the election from September to mid-October. ABC News, astoundingly, had not run a single story on the election. Not even a mention, according to the MRC analysis.
By comparison, when former President George W. Bush faced a similar wire brush-beating in his second midterms, the three networks giddily ran some 159 stories during the same time period — a stunning 6 times as many stories as this year.
The truth is, this year’s election is about a host of crucially important issues.
Winning candidates are talking about staggering debt that this Democratic regime has heaped upon America’s children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. They talk about the out-of-control illegal immigration straining schools, hospitals and social services. They talk about the epidemic of child slavery sparked by this president’s borderless policies.
Winning candidates are talking about the reckless ineptitude of the CDC and the rest of the administration in its handling of the Ebola virus, which never should have reached our shores in the first place. They are talking about the steep costs and cruel failures of Obamacare.
Winning candidates are talking about the towering arrogance of fickle politicians and blithe disregard for the sacrifices of our soldiers fighting terrorism around the world. They are talking about how this president and Democrats in Congress decided to retreat from so much hard-won territory and now a new, even more evil breed of inhuman Islamofacists are on the march.
Of course, the real reason Democrats and the media have already begun spinning how meaningless this election will be is because deep down they know the real issues that are driving people to the polls. And they are terrified. So, instead of facing those issues and attempting to address them like responsible adults, they would much prefer to simply say, “where is the beef?”
• Charles Hurt can be reached at charleshurt@live.com, or on Twitter at @charleshurt.
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