Time to Get Serious

The Germans are already calling him “President Obama,” while the king of Jordan is driving him around in his Mercedes. Even the senator’s own staff is swallowing the Kool-Aid as fast as they can stir it by invoking “White House protocol” on what are clearly campaign stops.

I realize it’s difficult not to savor the limelight on the other side of the Atlantic, particularly when the current Oval Office occupant is so despised by the Middle East and Europe. At some point, however, Obama needs to honor the office he seeks to hold by respecting the man who currently serves as America’s chief diplomat, and the policies this administration has established. David Gergen — adviser to four presidents, mind you — said it best when he stated, “I cannot remember a campaign in which a rival seeking the presidency has been in a position negotiating a war that’s under way with another party outside the country.” That’s dangerous, on so many levels.

Yet Sen. Obama (D-Ill.) continues to enjoy this sense of empowerment; and he feeds off the media more than any candidate I’ve seen in the past decade. The American people see this for what it is. A Rasmussen poll out today found that 49 percent of Americans think the media is totally biased toward Sen. Obama. Just 14 percent feel that way toward Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and the coverage he’s garnering.

We’ve moved beyond the measured, balanced stories of the Fourth Estate that examine both candidates equally, to a no-holds-barred cage match where the press is chasing stories that are not fit to print, but rather fit to sell. It’s time to get serious in this campaign season and re-calibrate all of our attentions — the attention of the media, the public and the candidates themselves.