Reply #112: Phantom Blows, Ma'am

[The Magistrate]

This kind of re-write gains no ground whatever. Sen. Kerry did not do enough: had he done enough, he would have succeeded in shaping the debate to his favor. He needed to make himself and his counter-attack the news, and failed to do so.

The Republicans resolved on impeachment of President Clinton as a goal within weeks of the election of their Congress, and would have pressed on to it regardless of media coverage. That the media does love a good scrap, and adores a sexual scandal, certainly worked to their favor. But the episode actually points to the limits of manipulative ability enjoyed by the other side. For all the coverage, all the blovinating and cheerleading, the people remained solidly opposed to impeachemnet of President Clinton, and never wavered in their opposition to this, and in their attachment to him as President, throughout that period. Indeed, the Republicans lost seats in the Congress in the '98 election, something practically unheard of in the lore of late mid-term elections for the party that does not hold the White House.