Jeez Louise—another freaking post about Barack Obama? If that’s what you’re thinking, you’re not alone. According to a new survey from Pew Research, 48% of respondents believe they’ve been hearing too much about Obama in the media. In contrast 38% say they’ve heard too little about McCain (compared with 10% who say that about Obama).
[Update: By the way, I don’t know if it goes without saying, but the poll question pertains to the quantity, not the quality of coverage. While about twice as many Republicans say they’re hearing too much about Obama, so do 34% of Democrats—which would, for instance, be the natural reponse of a Dem who wanted closer scrutiny of McCain and less fixation on whether Obama “played the race card,” etc.]
This tends to reinforce a refrain of the McCain campaign, that the press have been obsessed with Obama’s “celebrity” candidacy at the expense of the Arizona senator’s. Or at least it would reinforce that refrain, if not for the fact that McCain’s own campaign seems to talk more about Obama than anything else. See, for instance, its release of its second “Celebrity” ad, and a Boston Globe graphic which finds that “Obama” is the most-used word on McCain’s own campaign blog.
So does the McCain camp want more press focus on its own candidate? Would it simply prefer the Obama obsession to be more critical? Or is talking about Obama the only way McCain can get any ink?