The Press and Presidential Politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Press and Presidential Politics - Essay Example With an indication of a descriptively "too close to call" presidential election according to a majority of opinion polls, focus shifted on the effect of a tiny fraction of the voters conceivably vital for both camps: the undecided electorates. Evident from the strategic positioning of both candidates in the final stretch, these were indeed the folks with the power to ether re-elect President Barack Obama or to elevate former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney to the highest office on the hill. From the oscillating manner of polls up to the very last minutes, there was no doubt whatsoever that the key to unlock the answer to the United States’ stewardship over the next four years was firmly in the hands of these â€Å"special voters†. The question, however, was how to these groups could possibly be REACHED. This paper analyses the effectiveness of New York Times’ and the Wall Street Journal’s news coverage with regard to how explicit they were in informing the undecided voters about the candidates and what they stood for over the final 10 days of the 2012 presidential campaign. From the beginning, the two camps projected different theories of the race to the public—from Romney, the 2012 election was precisely a referendum on Obama’s unpopular administrative style; to Obama, it was all about comparative choice between slipping back to extreme conservatism, which was rather unpalatable to women and the young elite, and moving forward with the regime’s reform agenda. Surprisingly enough, the 2012 election was about arguments advanced by both sides, and the message appeared to have sunk well on both camps in the final days: a challenger seeking to oust an incumbent making a case for himself and the incumbent seeking to convince voters that the alternative would be much worse. Contrary to the 2008’s message of hope that attracted comparatively much enthusiasm and support, Obama found himself in the traditional p osture of an incumbent under siege—a wiser fighter with experience, not the hitherto conciliator. With the polls oscillating between a possible tie and a negligible win with an error of a striking distance for both candidates, the undecided voters became a fertile ground for both camps to make their final appeals. The "undecided voter" was no longer unavoidable in the final days’ coverage of the campaign preceding the 2012 US presidential election with both candidates fashioning their appeals to woo a winning support on their sides. Avowedly, there were high odds that the undecided women and young elites in general, probably without jobs, will waffle before cameras when confronted with a very simple, but hitherto difficult, straightforward question: Whom will you vote for on the November 6th?  Although the exact number and place of residence of the "uncommitted voter" population were rather unknown, a single type of voter, presented by a diverse number of news outlet s as comprising of young, lightly educated, lower income and white women, was enough representation of the electorates "on the fence" whose influence could not be taken for granted. Noteworthy, the demographics mentioned herein is not inclusive and conceivably overlooks a huge number unsure of which candidate they