A Politician, A Journalist And A Narrative Walk Into A Bar ...
Of course, almost every "narrative" we attach to a candidate or campaign cycle is rooted in some truth. Al Gore did have a way of exaggerating his accomplishments, Ford did stumble over his feet sometimes, Bush does stumble over his words occasionaly and Clinton did have that Monica problem. The realities of these individuals are much more complicated but the echo chamber – the press, late-night comics and water-cooler chatting included – tends to create these caricatures of our public figures. And the roots usually begin developing very early on as we begin to take notice of them.
Perhaps that's part of the reason The Hotline's Chuck Todd finds some of the recent media reports on our political figures so troubling. In his latest "On The Trail" column, Todd (my former colleague) looks at a couple of examples that trouble him -- A New Republic profile of Sen. George Allen that made much of a Confederate flag lapel pin Allen wore in a high school yearbook photo and the New York Times story on the state of the Clintons marriage.
Todd sees these examples, as well as a fund-raising e-mail signed by Sen. Rick Santorum's 13-year old son, as "crossing the line" of what's acceptable in the public practice of politics.
Now, it's easy to write off our rantings as Pollyanna-ish. After all, like baseball records, lines are drawn to be crossed every once in a while. But we're hoping that folks realize that the lines are also there so that we think about what we're about to do, because unfortunately in today's political atmosphere, once a line is crossed by one respected news outlet or respected politician, it becomes open season for everyone else. And it's those unintended consequences from the decision to follow each other across various "lines" that we all should fear the most.Do all or any of these instances "cross the line?" Maybe, but (leaving out the Santorum issue) I would argue that determination is slightly less important than the cumulative impact stories like the one on Allen can have down the road. As I've argued before, the story about the Clintons marriage is already a part of our collective psyche. Allen, however, is just now starting to register on radar screens other than those manned by political junkies. The Allen-Confederate flag connection has popped up before in the context of his Senate campaigns in Virgnia. Does it now become part of his national profile? Should it?
I'll be the first to admit many political figures are just as adept at fostering the images they want as the media is in caricaturing them. But their stagecraft is no excuse for lazy narratives on the part of those covering them.