A Media Love Affair

This video gave me a good laugh this morning. Americans can't stop talking about Obama and his...gray hair??

It goes to show how much scrutiny is involved in this campaign. The fact that on his 47th birthday people are actually speculating whether he is dying his hair gray on purpose to make himself look older and wiser was pretty hilarious to me. What do people expect- after months upon months of fighting in one of the most grueling democratic candidacy races in recent history, and now on to the race for presidency- that's enough to age anybody.

Even when your competitor is a 71-year-old man. John McCain sure has been making an attempt to give Obama a few more grays recently, with his campaign taking a negative turn- although his camp has stated that they do not see the recent ads as negative but rather "entertaining." But I mean, really, comparing him to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton? Personally, I'm not entertained in the least.

McCain's recent statements about the amount of media attention that's been given to Obama honestly sounds like whining. McCain wrote in an e-mail message to campaign supporters: "It's pretty obvious that the media has a bizarre fascination with Barack Obama. Some may even say it's a love affair." Um, sound like a 2-year-old jealousy tantrum to anyone else? I guess somebody's upset about the fact that people are paying more attention to Obama's gray hairs and not his.

Perhaps I'm a bit less sensitive to McCain's feelings about media attention on Obama because in the midst of all this hoopla, he declined invitations to appear at the UNITY Journalism Conference twice because of "scheduling conflicts." An event featured at a conference full of minority journalists that was broadcast live on CNN, a highly respected media outlet. In other words, the perfect opportunity to be in some of the so-called media spotlight he feels he is never granted and only his competitor is receiving, but he couldn't find the time in his schedule between working on the media-loves-Obama-ads to appear. Hmmm.

Beyond my personal political views or who I plan to vote for, this turn in the campaign worries me because it reflects the quality of one of the presidential candidates as a person. I sincerely hope that McCain's campaign doesn't continue down this route because inevitably it will become sleazy- and during a time when this country desperately needs change, a sleazy presidential race is the last thing any American wants to witness.