Friday, Aug 29, 2008
The Democratic challenger tries to conquer the media's indifference in Washington state.
Feb 28, 2000 | Campaign staffers for former Sen. Bill Bradley grimace when they see the approaching throngs of media. Largely ignored by the press since the Feb. 1 New Hampshire primary, they suspect that we've come to bury Bradley, not to praise him.
It's the Bradley campaign "death watch," as more than one reporter has quipped. Reporters have started to take snapshots of one another, and to speculate as to which campaign they'll be assigned after the former New York Knick heads to the showers.
A few weeks ago, the Associated Press reporter assigned to cover Bradley was taken off the beat. And though ABC's Jackie Judd has been with Bradley since the New Hampshire primary -- when the Republican race became the political story of the year after Arizona Sen. John McCain crushed Texas Gov. George W. Bush -- Judd says she has appeared on "World News Tonight" only once in the entire month.
Bradley's inability to make news has led the campaign to purchase five minutes of air time on national television, at 10:54 p.m. EST Thursday, on CBS. Even this move suggests that, like the slumping Dan Rather newsmagazine he will be interrupting, "48 Hours," Bradley hasn't quite been ready for a battle in prime time. Asked why the campaign didn't purchase a more glamorous slot -- say, the last five minutes of the top-rated "ER," which airs the same night on NBC -- a Bradley spokesman acknowledged that the funds just weren't there.
But long before voters got around to it -- not to mention long before the the candidate would decide this type of media ad buy was necessary -- the media had already written Bradley off.
Much of this is simple story chasing, of course. The McCain vs. Bush fight is hot and heavy and constantly evolving and changing, and Bradley's quest to wrest the Democratic nomination from Vice President Al Gore relatively quiet, with no primary battles until Tuesday's nonbinding "beauty contest" in Washington state.
Still, one can't help wondering if the media's ignoring of Bradley has more to do with its exasperation with the candidate's odd campaign strategy, not to mention resentment of the candidate's clear disdain for journalists, as has been well documented as long ago as his days as a basketball star. After all, Bradley did manage to come within 4 points of defeating a sitting vice president in the New Hampshire primary. And, as Bradley pointed out Monday morning at an event at the Aradia Women's Health Center, he is actually very close to Gore in delegates -- he has 27 delegates to Gore's 41.
But the fault cannot lay entirely at the feet of reporters. Last week, Bradley touched down here in the Evergreen State and declared to the world that he was putting his national campaign on hold in order to vigorously compete in Washington in its Tuesday primary, in which zero delegates are at stake. (Washington's delegates will actually be chosen during the March 7 Washington caucus.) The game plan was that a Bradley win in this state could help return national attention to his campaign and give him momentum toward next week's all-important Super Tuesday contests.
"That's a very important state for us prior to the March 7th primaries," Bradley said Sunday in an interview on ABC's "This Week."
"Bradley: Washington State is 'Important Battleground,'" read a Bradley press release from Feb. 20. "Campaign Increases Staff and Resources Throughout State." So Bradley spent five days here, running around with Seattle's Mayor Paul Schell and gaining the endorsement of the Seattle Times.
Gore buzzed in, too, with the support of the state's Democratic senator, Patty Murray; its governor, Gary Locke; the state's Democratic apparatus; and all the unions. His campaign launched a new TV spot describing last summer's hike up Mount Rainier with his son, Albert III, which he at the time was reluctant to tell anyone about.
A recent Evans/McDonough poll of Washington state Democrats shows that Bradley's trip has been for naught. Gore leads 64 percent to Bradley's 28 percent.
Monday afternoon, Bradley left Washington state and flew to California.
"What happens here tomorrow is not determinative of March 7," he insisted Monday morning. "I said from the beginning that if we did well here, maybe we'd get a little bounce. But I knew it would be difficult. And it has been."
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