The New Issue

1. Lindy’s review? Heck yes!
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   Question: Why does the article on Project Vote Smart focus quite a lot on McCain not submitting his information when, as noted in the article, neither Obama nor Clinton chose to fill out this paperwork either? While I understand McCain’s deep involvement with the project abruptly ending is a core angle, it reads upfront like McCain is the bad guy when in fact all three candidates declined to divulge their political information. I’m not a McCain pusher and I’m not trying to dig at Nintzel, but I do feel this article holds an imbalance in where it wags its finger. It takes nine paragraphs before it’s mentioned that Obama and Clinton didn’t fill out the survey either.
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   I suppose I’m being vocal so readers who hit the blog understand that Clinton, Obama and McCain are all to be faulted for not filling this survey out. Indeed, Clinton never has filled it out. Obama filled it out for his run for district senator in Illinois (1998).

2. McCain was on the freakin’ BOARD of Project Vote Smart. The BOARD. Obama and Clinton were not. Also, if you see the story in the print version, the layout makes it very, very clear that all presidental candidates, as well as the two CD8 candidates, are survey-dodgers.

3. I was caught in the middle of all of it. But I have to admit that traffic moved very smoothly considering how quickly it all came down.

   Of course, there were those few individuals out there who do not understand how a four way stop works.I’ll save that rant for the rant issue.

4. oops that one was supposed to go under Karyn’s blog about the Blackout! no i am not getting old…..

5. Let me explain where I’m coming from: I’m not trying to tick anyone off. I picked up a print copy of the Weekly today at the coffee shop I frequent and it is true that a graphic showing these candidates did not participate in Project Vote Smart for ’08 is right there when you open the page.
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   I also recognize that McCain’s deep involvement with the project abruptly ending is a core angle to the story, and most certainly worthy of reporting on.
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   My only quarrel is (or was) that the fact the other two Presidential candidates who did not participate is not reflected earlier in the text that I first saw, the Web copy. This makes McCain look like the really bad guy when in reality all of the candidates are, by this standard, bad guys. McCain’s abrupt about-face against being a part of Project Vote Smart this election year makes him a bigger bad guy, but when I wrote my criticism of imbalance it was that I felt that more heat should have been put on Obama and Clinton by putting their declination to participate more front and center, at least as it appears on the Web. Take, for instance, the lede on this copy from NPR online:
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   “Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has lost his seat on the board of Project Vote Smart, a nonpartisan group whose so-called “Political Courage Test” is intended to measure candidates’ willingness to go on record regarding important issues. McCain joins the other leading presidential candidates, Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY), in declining to complete the test.”
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   Again, not trying to tick people off. I went by what I saw in the Web copy. Tucsonweekly.com is the first place I turn to on Wednesday afternoons when the newest issue first hits the Tucson readership citywide.
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   Indeed, sticking that graphic as seen in the print version of all the candidates who did not participate in Project Vote Smart right there on the Web version would have meant I would not have made a peep on the article.
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   Do you feel this is a fair criticism?

6. You can make as many peeps as you want, IPH. But to not get the point that McCain deserves extra criticism because he was on Vote Smart’s board–and previously lent his signature to letters urging people to fill out the survey–is, frankly, shortsighted.

7. I do not believe we’ll ever quite see eye to eye on this particular issue. However, I do get the point that McCain deserved extra criticism and I believe I said that I understand that multiple times.

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