PrintFebruary 28, 2008
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Inevitability
Double Candidates Clinton have each complained of the double standard they perceive in the media's kid gloves treatment of the current frontrunner. To hear them tell it -- be it a slip, a gaff, or any other offense, minor or major, Obama invariably gets a pass where Hillary would surely get torpedoed.
And their growing frustration appears to be neither political posturing nor pure paranoia.
After all, while team Clinton's smallest transgression sparks instant news, Obama continues to defy the hitherto immutable laws of frontrunner gravity. Even reports of voting "present" 130 times as an Illinois state senator or engaging in questionable land deals with indicted political huckster Antoin Rezko never gained enough media traction to slow his ascent, much less bring him down.
In fact, so annoying is the media's Obama anointment that at Tuesday's Ohio debate, Hillary responded to questioning by moderator Brian Williams by crying foul:
"Well, could I just point out that in the last several debates, I seem to get the first question all the time? And I don't mind. You know, I'll be happy to field them but I do find it curious. And if anybody saw Saturday Night Live, maybe we should ask Barack if he's comfortable and needs another pillow."
Her SNL reference was to last Saturday's opening sketch (video) -- set at a mock debate in which an imitation Campbell Brown admitted that, like everyone else in the media, all of the moderators were "in the tank" for Obama. And the first tough question put to the Obama character was "Are you comfortable? Is there anything we can get for you?"
While the media-bends-over-for-Obama bit was hilarious, its mention did serve to underscore Clinton's point -- which is, given its source, undeniably funny.
In essence, the Liberal Hillary's objection is that the Liberal Media bias being afforded the more liberal and liberal-guilt inspiring Obama is unfairly more biased than the Liberal Media bias that's been extended to her less liberal self.
And once the Clintons start singing You'll Never Get The Bias By Us, can teary-eyed talk of some vast left-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against Bill's wife since the day Obama announced for president be far behind?
Or -- for that matter -- her resignation to the title of Senator for the next five years?
It's a funny thing about bias -- whether government-mandated affirmative action or herd-mentality media preference, one man's meat is always another man's poison.
Or woman's.
