Dr. Alterman notes the common theme emerging, disparaging Obama supporters as being mesmerized by his hypnotic glare, or something.
So is Sen. Obama the next Charles Manson? Or the next John Lennon? Or ... do his supporters just not drink enough water?
Notes one photographer who regularly covers large rallies, "There are always people that faint. Guaranteed. When somebody has to stand at one spot, at a view up front of their candidate, and they wait hours upon hours with no water, no food, it's expected and understandable." This is borne out by numerous fainting episodes at the events of other candidates -- both Hillary Clinton (here and here) and John McCain (here).
Never, during any of this coverage, has any reporter actually found someone who fainted at an Obama rally after being over-come by his message or star power. If you watch the Matthews clip above, the incidents seem to all come during apparently calm moments in the speech -- some of which are given outside, like this speech on a hillside in Southern California, packed with 1,000 supporters, one of whom fainted.
But, as we sadly know about election coverage, the facts can sometimes become incidental to pre-determined themes. Just ask the know-it-all inventor of the Internet, Mr. Gore...
[Click to read more of Dr Alterman's Media Matters - His cheatin' heart ... , which is mostly about the Saintly John McCain, but also other topics]
No doubt. And if that meme doesn't stick, there's a few others in the pike:
there's always the fascist connection according to guess who. Because, along with eating vegetarian, a campaign theme of "unity" is inherently fascist. ... If that doesn't stick, one might try the Communism charge. A former speechwriter for Dan Quayle writing at the Corner assumes that since she knew some interracial couples in the '60s who met at Communist events, and Barack Obama's parents are interracial and met in the '60s, he may be a Communist. (No, really.)I'm sure there are others, and probably entire blogs devoted to disseminating the anti-Obamania vacines to an unsuspecting body politic.
