I’m feeling left out. None of those political pollsters have called to find out who I plan to vote for in today’s Michigan presidential primary.
Darn.
But even if I’d gotten the call, chances are I couldn’t have answered.
The Detroit Free Press’ pollsters probably would have hung up in exasperation. See, even though U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio is on the Michigan Democratic primary ballot in the Michigan election, his name was not part of the paper’s survey.
Doesn ‘t that seem strange? Why would they do that?
They asked about Hillary Clinton. No beef there — her name’s on the ballot.
But they also asked about Barack Obama and John Edwards. Those guys chose not to take part in Michigan’s primary. I’m not going to bother discussing the why’s and why not’s of the “I’m in, I’m not in” debate or the absurd decision by national Dems to shun Michigan’s primary. What interests me more is the press’ attitude towards “minor” candidates like Dennis Kucinich.
What makes them “minor”?
Well, you can make sure their campaigns go nowhere if you choose not to mention them in your polls. Yes, the media can determine who’s big and who’s “minor.” They have that power.
Or had the power. The game has changed. We have many other choices now. And readers are smart. Circulation keeps going down, down, down. Wonder why.
If the papers keep playing by the old rules, their old rules will kill them.
A couple weeks ago, the New York Times ran an op-ed piece by a pair of Harvard experts on health insurance comparing the candidates, both Republican and Democratic. Forget the GOP: Nixon created the HMO nightmare we have now and the Republicans are pleased to continue anything that makes their chief campaign contributors happy, including private insurance companies that get rich off HMOs. As for the Dems, well, Hillary, the onetime standard bearer for universal health coverage, is now taking big bucks from insurance and pharmaceutical firms that would lose big under a single-payer system. According to the Times, the only Democrat who favors a single-payer system like they have in Canada, Europe and every other rational nation, is — guess who: Dennis Kucinich.
I don’t need newspapers to learn more about this guy. I googled him. Check him out at Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Kucinich#Press_coverage
Even though he can’t seem to break the Page One barrier, I plan to vote for Dennis Kucinich in the Michigan primary.
Even though nobody asked me.
You may contact me at joelthurtell(a)gmail.com
