Engaged in a continuous PR blitz, presidential campaign strategists always strive to portray their candidate as damn near perfect. Even obvious flaws are apt to be touted as signs of integrity and human depth. Such media spin encourages Americans to confuse being excellent with being preferable.

     Eager to dislodge George W. Bush from the White House, many voters lined up behind John Kerry in late January. It’s true that the junior senator from Massachusetts is probably the best bet to defeat Bush -- and, as president, Kerry would be a very significant improvement over the incumbent. But truth in labeling should impel acknowledgment that Kerry is not a progressive candidate.

     Enthusiasm for a presidential contender often causes people to go overboard with their praise and lose touch with reality. On the left, a classic example came from the wonderful documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, who declared in a mid-September open letter to Gen. Wesley Clark: “And you oppose war.” It was a preposterous statement about a retired four-star general who has never apologized for his commanding role in a war that inflicted more

My fellow American media consumers:

     At a time when news cycles bring us such portentous events as the remarkable wedding of Britney Spears, the advent of Michael Jackson’s actual trial proceedings and the start of the Democratic presidential primaries, it is time to reflect upon the state of the media union.

     The achievements are everywhere to be seen and heard.

     On more than a thousand radio stations owned by the Clear Channel conglomerate, the programming quality is as reliable as a Big Mac.

     In cities and towns across the nation, an array of outspoken radio talk-show hosts can be depended on to run the gamut from the mushy center to the far right.

     Television provides a wide variety of homogenized offerings. With truly impressive (production) values, the major networks embody a consummate multiplicity of sameness, with truncated imagination and consolidated ownership. These days, there’s a captivatingly unadventurous cable channel for virtually every niche market.

     A few naysayers like to disparage our system of mass communications.

    Cast in the Gary Cooper role in this western drama is the American citizen, all of whom just wish to live the simple life. Unfortunately and unforgivingly, that myth is a bust. Yet, we are all living in a time when frontier- justice rules the day.          

    With the first vote cast in the Iowa Caucus, the horserace for the presidency begins in earnest. Honestly, even the most pragmatic citizen realizes that whatever the outcome on Election Day, it will be the result of nothing more than a “Hobson’s” choice, in that we are offered a choice of taking what is offered or nothing at all.          

    Folks, we are not witnessing the re-affirmation of “The Miracle at Philadelphia”. It’s more like being a voyeur to a surreal survival reality American Idol show. I’ve preemptively taken precautions and purchased, and am now donning knee-high boots.          

    Let me give you fair warning my fellow Americans, for this will be the most vile and contentious election to take place in our Constitutional Republic: A no holds-barred-kiss-your-sister-all out brawl.     

    

A note to Harvey Wasserman from North Carolina: You're wrong about the South. For one thing, in many states, white people are not even the majority, never mind white racists. For another thing, Southerners white AND black are deeply populist and traditionally Democratic. They just haven't recently been appealed to on a platform they can identifiy with by Democrats (a platform which would have a lot to do with economic issues and health care and education). No one has won the Presidency without winning the South for a long time. Forget the South is bad advice to Democratic activists. States that elected John Edwards and Max Cleland and Al Gore to Congress can elect a Democrat to the White House. Ya'll just need to get over your rebelphobia.

Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin Cullowhee, NC