white women, economic woes, West Wing & a bit of FDR

Today I found the RSS feed that sends me all the latest updates about the election according the BBC. I learned that there were many more articles that were hidden from other correspondents in America. Today, for example four articles came out; for the past three weeks, there have only been around 4 main articles a week about the election. It turns out, that it's more about where you look.

But what's important? Well, the first story of the day focused on the fact that football moms at Barrington High in Illinois, and their affection for Sarah Palin. The writer quipped about the fact that none of these women that were excited about the woman on the ballot knew a thing about Palin's policies. They were also quick to say that although some women think she is great, others do not see her as a feminist; she is pro-life.

But this isn't the story of the day. Anyone with a television has heard about the economy; Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae had to be bailed out; Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy; and Bank of America is buying Merrill Lynch. This is an issue that the candidates could not ignore. The entire country is feeling the heat. the BBC reported that this is consistently the number one concern in this election. What are they reporting that McCain & Obama are saying?

It appears that Obama is blaming Bush... again. McCain says that it is the fault of "ineffective regulation and management".

This article was super short; and it wasn't the last article for the day; the BBC went on to publish another story beforehand, as well as leave the two stories before that up. One was a story about how this entire situation was almost identical to one on the fictional show The West Wing. Newsworthy? eh... Interesting-- but what does this say about how interested the rest of the world really is in the American election?

I mean, really? Our entire financial institution is about to crumble. The Lehman Brothers made it through two wars and The Great Depression: we hit what those of us without homes thought of as a 'minor credit crisis,' and suddenly thousands are without jobs; the mayor of New York City is cancelling his trip to Africa, and the writers at the BBC are concerned about how our election is looking like a rerun of The West Wing? We're the leaders of the free world, and this is the article we're reading...

It makes it clear, once again, that although there are tons of issues, we want to focus on the ones that matter least.