Never heard that one either, and again I see no link, but I can agree that neither party broke much of a sweat to put up a quality candidate in 2008. Then again, when is the last time that happened at all? I'm not sure I've ever even seen it. Given a walk, the DP put up what would effectively be a PR move. That worked to further the aims of a party seeking power; not for the benefit of the country. But then that's all any political party is good for anyway-- acquiring power. Not wielding it.
So again it comes down to: "what were the alternatives". We had damn little choice.
You missed a lot.
If the media had done their job to cut through the PR bull instead of actively facilitating the PR bull, Obama could have been put on the sidelines where he belonged. There was at least Hillary, and who knows who might have given her competition if Obama wasn't sucking all the PR air out of the room.
The fault and the shame of the media in shilling for Obama instead of exposing his lies and his inability to play well with others cannot be underestimated.
Are you kidding??
Media is the whole reason we're in this pickle. I just invoked 1956; let's fast forward to the next election and the Kennedy-Nixon debate. People who listened to that debate on radio, without a picture, thought Nixon prevailed. There's no image on the radio. Nixon in turn, when he came back in '68 having learned the lesson, hired people from advertising.
Media
loves PR. Media loves controversy and anything that has drama in it, because it sells papers. So in 1992 media is really not interested in Paul Tsongas' deadpan ideas; it's only vaguely interested in Jerry Brown as a maverick; but it's
very interested in Bill Clinton and the possibility of a sex scandal. Which again, has nothing to do with Presidenting but everything to do with selling media. Consequently we're stuck with Bill Clinton as the candidate, like it or not.
Media loved Ronald Reagan too. He knew how to frame a statement in an emotional, folksy way that made him come off as a kindly uncle. Much the same as Clinton minus the age.
Images. To this day the media image of hostages being freed from Iran as Reagan takes office has fed the mythology that the Reagan Administration actually freed them. In truth it was Carter's Warren Christopher, but the Reagan image is just so Hollywood; that's what sells.
John McCain and Bob Dole and Al Gore and John Kerry and Walter Mondale and H.W. in '92 --- just didn't sell well enough. None of them had the emotional connection their competition had. Think about it. By contrast the emotional connection of H.W.'s competition in '88 was even worse. Guess what happened.
Emotional heartstrings. That's what sells. Scandals and conspiracy rumblings and suggestions of evil, that's the tactic of the competition. We don't have politics any more; we have advertising. And we don't have candidates; we have PR products.