Enough already!

Am I the only one who has reached her saturation point with the 2004 presidential campaign? Granted, I am a member of the White House press corps and by virtue of this affiliation, I am forced to spend about 80 percent of my professional life in the spin zone. But I have found that the few moments I’m not in the spin zone, I’m still being spun with endless campaign bites sent to me via e-mail, billboards, TV and radio ads, DVDs and direct mail. Presidential politics has infiltrated every inch of media space (and my life) in this country.

You may be thinking: “So what?” This is a campaign year, what do you expect? Granted, I make my living covering events like the 2004 presidential campaign. It’s good business for me. But I’m not so mercenary that I think for one minute that the endless barrage of spin is healthy for this nation. In fact, America is paying a heavy price for the preoccupation with presidential politics.

There are several “opportunity costs” associated with a campaign like this one which has devoured the national agenda for an entire year. Start with the actual cash outlay for this event. According to the election watchdog website, OpenSecrets, President Bush and Sen. John Kerry have already received about 28 percent more money than the entire presidential field in all of Campaign 2000. The total to date is a staggering $680,307,618. This doesn’t include the independent contributions.

The Federal Election Commission reports that, “During the first 18 days of October, party committees, PACs, and others reported making nearly $87.2 million in independent expenditures on behalf of, or against federal candidates. Most of this spending was reported by the two major parties, whose national, senatorial and congressional campaign committees reported $73.2 million in independent spending.” Imagine if even a fraction of this money had been invested in pre-natal care, after-school programs, veterans returning from Iraq or job training instead of political attack ads and spinmeisters.

Every decision is passed through a political litmus test in an election year. Unfortunately, there is often an inverse relationship between the quality of a decision and its political viability. Iraq is one shining example. By admission of our own intelligence institutions, Iraq is getting less and less secure by the day. U.S. and Iraqi casualties are mounting. Yet the administration was determined to give Iraq’s governance back to the Iraqis. This made perfect political sense because the administration can deflect the deteriorating situation toward the Iraqis, not the U.S. government.

The problem with this logic is that we still have over 120,000 Americans on the ground and at risk. They are still viewed as occupiers, yet they need Iraqi approval for their actions. Either our troops are under the control of a foreign entity or this foreign entity has no control. Neither situation is good for Iraq nor for our men and women in uniform. But the civilian leadership in the Bush administration can say that we are “working with the Iraqis” to secure their nation. Meanwhile, the boots on the ground say they are fighting with one hand tied behind their back. Sound familiar? Think Southeast Asia vs. Southwest Asia.

Congress is not immune to election flu. In fact, it started way back in 2002 when they voted to authorize President Bush to send our troops into a blind alley. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together knew that President Bush and all his men and women had Iraqi fever. There was no doubt that voting for the authorization to use force meant that force was going to be used. So why did only 23 senators and 133 representatives oppose it? I have two words, “Max Cleland.”

They saw what happened to former Sen. Max Cleland when he voted against a homeland security bill. This wheelchair-using Vietnam hero was branded a traitor for his vote and he lost his seat in the Senate. Today, Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards are caught in a pickle for having voted for a war they now oppose. This makes the job of Republican speech writers and spinmeisters easy.

Thankfully Nov. 2, 2004 is just around the corner. Perhaps our government can then get back to doing the real work this nation needs. And it is my hope that the 2004 presidential campaign with the millions of dollars spent and endless list of 527s will have been a fad, an aberration in our political psyche. This campaign will have been the mood ring, or pet rock of our political history.

Unfortunately, my gut tells me otherwise. I fear this is only the beginning of a media-obsessed political spin machine that will continue to disorient our nation as we stumble into an uncertain future. I lament that I am part of this machine as well.