Last night, a conspiracy backfired.
For most of the past year, the mainstream media treated Mitt Romney like an enemy. They ignored his pro-growth message, trumpeted every inconsistency, reveled in his flaws and pounced on his missteps. In their zeal to ensure a second term for President Obama, they created a public image of Mitt Romney as a vacillating, inconsistent, out-of-touch billionaire who was unschooled in politics, unqualified for the presidency and only running to lower taxes for his billionaire buddies.
Meanwhile, the press went easy on the president. They ignored his gaffes, excused his failings and rationalized the dismal economy. They even allowed a sitting president of the United States to go hundreds of days without taking a single question from them. Unintentionally, the press softened and weakened Barack Obama, all the while praising his brilliance. They set him up for failure.
So last night, in the public imagination shaped by the most acquiescent, liberal media in American history, the “smartest man ever to enter the Oval Office” took the stage to face a one-dimensional drone who wanted to rob the poor and give to the rich and who cared for no one but other evil billionaires like himself. In a CNN poll on Monday, 55% of America expected Obama to win, 31% for Romney.
One wonders if liberal reporters actually believe in the fantasies they create.
As always, reality brought liberal ideas to a thunderous, crashing, merciless halt. Mitt Romney was magnificent. Obama was shellacked. The commentators on MSNBC were devastated. On the most watched political event of the year, Mitt Romney rose to the occasion and decimated the straw version of himself that the media created. Barack looked diffident.
Mitt won every exchange. He challenged Obama’s assertions. He exhibited a mastery of policy — both his own and his opponent’s. Mitt was animated. Mitt was passionate. Mitt was presidential. Barack stared at his podium and waited for the debate to be over.
And now it is. Last night, only one man on that stage in Denver looked like a president. It wasn’t Barack Obama.
If the mainstream media had been even-handed throughout the election season, last night would still have been a great victory for an underdog like Romney. But they weren’t. And the contorted reality they created — Obama’s exaggerated genius vs. Mitt as Scrooge McDuck — gave the upset an historic feel. A generation from now, children will ask their parents, “Where were you when Romney walloped Obama?”
Indeed, the game is changed. And, for once, conservatives can thank the mainstream media for their bias.
Yates Walker is a conservative activist and writer. Before becoming involved in politics, he served honorably as a paratrooper and a medic in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. He can be reached at yateswalker@gmail.com.
