Brokaw: Financial Crisis Helps Obama

     The media have decided the economic distress helps Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, Ill.

     Former ‘Nightly News’ and current “Meet the Press’ anchor Tom Brokaw reinforced this point on CNBC’s Oct. 13 “Power Lunch.” According to Brokaw, Obama is doing well in the midst of this financial crisis thanks to populist sentiment on “Main Street.”

     “Of course it does,” Brokaw said. “I mean you’re seeing that right now in the polls. Look, one of the reasons it helps him win is that this is Main Street versus Wall Street. Main Street’s furious because they think they’ve been hosed by Wall Street and that they’re paying for the excesses of Wall Street.”

      It’s automatically a mark in the “win” column for Democrats, according to Brokaw, when there’s an anti-Wall Street sentiment.

     “And when that happens, that of course, I think, generally accrues to the asset side for a Democratic candidate,” Brokaw said. “Now whether it can be sustained or not, I don’t know.”

     Brokaw didn’t mention how his colleagues in the media have worked hard to pit Main Street against Wall Street in their coverage of financial problems. An April Business & Media Institute report illustrated the media’s tendency to perpetuate the populist struggle.

     According to CNBC’s Charles Gasparino, the threat of an Obama presidency could be behind part of the extended losses in the financial markets. In the Oct. 13 New York Post, Gasparino made a point seldom heard in the mainstream media – that an Obama presidency could have negative consequences for the economy. His column echoing a statement made on CNBC’s Oct. 8 “Squawk Box.”

     “It could be a lot lower - it all depends on the policies of the next president,” Gasparino said. “And, as it looks increasingly likely that Obama will be that man, the markets are casting a vote of ‘no confidence.’”

     Gasparino said in his column that Obama’s proposal of the “most lethal tax increases imaginable, including a jump in the capital-gains rate” has investors some concerned. He also included Obama’s efforts to expand government as a reason the market has sold off.

     “He’d expand government spending massively, with everything from new public-works projects to increases in foreign aid to a surge in Afghanistan - plus hand out a token $500 welfare check that he calls a tax cut to everyone else,” Gasparino said.

     Over the years, Brokaw has done a poor job of veiling his left-of-center bias, as the Media Research Center pointed out prior to Brokaw’s moderation of the Oct. 7 town hall format presidential debates.