The Politics of Puppetry

I spent the last couple of days in North Carolina, the site of both the National Extension Technology Conference (at which I was afforded the privilege of providing the opening keynote), and the next American Presidential Democratic primary. So when the windstorm that struck the Obama campaign, namely the National Press Club speech from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, hit I could not help but pay some attention. My McLuhany-sense tingled, so to speak.

My first thought was, who manipulated this situation, to pull the very predictable puppet strings of the American massmedia, and therefore of the American voters? It didn't take too long for a puppet mistress linked to the Clinton campaign to be found.

I'm hopeful that the principle of reversal comes into play: push anything too far, and it reverses what were its original effects. In this case, pushing the hate-inducing, divisive messages of the attention-seeking Rev. Wright to the extreme, as was seemingly manipulated by Barbara Reynolds, might well favour Obama in the end, as he has been motivated to come out with an unequivocal and forceful denouncement of his former pastor.

[Technorati tags: obama | wright | national press club]