Thanks to big media, Sen. Barack Obama has become America’s “change” candidate. American youth have embraced this message just as readily as they have embraced Doritos, pharmaceuticals, and UGG boots. Shouldn’t we be a bit more skeptical of big media’s endorsement of the Illinois Senator?

Barack Obama is corporate media’s dream candidate, a GQ candidate. With his handsome exterior and his mellifluous oratory, Senator Obama is easily the most bewitching Democratic contender, but his message is deceivingly empty, not unlike the trash that CNN and other big media news channels have been peddling for years. As the “change” candidate, Obama vows to end “politics as usual” in Washington i.e.: corporate corruption, partisan bickering etc… But it doesn’t require much research to discover that Obama is the status quo candidate with a pretty face and beautifully distracting, hollow rhetoric.

Despite his denunciation of corporate power in Washington, Obama’s New Hampshire co-chair is a lobbyist and his healthcare solutions will bring insurance companies to the table. John Edwards, who is running arguably the most progressive campaign from a policy standpoint, is right to call out Obama’s naivety and hypocrisy. Corporations will not voluntarily cede power to the left’s agenda, and to even suggests this is not only sheer pandering, but idiotic. Luckily for Barack, the target of his pander is the same uninformed, disengaged youth that have apathetically sat the sidelines throughout our electoral history. 20% of those who voted in Iowa were under the age of 21; Obamamania is nothing more than a fad, and while you can argue that it is a huge step for our democracy that he is engaging the young vote, the young vote doesn’t have a clue why they support him. My fear is that if George Clooney were running as a 1 term Republican Senator his candidacy would be equally well received.

However, this would not necessarily be true if Mr. Clooney were running on an anti-establishment, anti-party base campaign the way Mr. Edwards is. I can only imagine the look on the face of Ted Turner, for example, when Edwards starts one of his many anti-corporate diatribes on Mr. Turner’s own channel (and finishes 2^nd in Iowa!). This is exactly why Edwards has not been covered in the media. Yesterday openleft.com featured the story, “Top 5 Least Likely Headlines Coming Out of New Hampshire”; Number 5: “We, The Media, Acknowledge John Edwards’ Existence”.Why is it that the second place Democrat in Iowa got no love? Every pundit and news outlet chose instead to preemptively crown Mr. Obama the winner in New Hampshire. The Washington Post notes, “The coverage had been so out of control there was speculation about when Hillary might have to drop out. Polls giving Barack Obama an 8- or 10-point lead were accepted as fact.”

So while many find inspiration in Sen. Obama’s candidacy, I find it another loss for progressives who want to fight corporate greed and influence in Washington. With Obama as our spokesman, we’ve lost on healthcare, social security, foreign policy (2013?) and leadership (authored no major legislation, and even got called out for his weak lobbying bill by Charles Gibson during Saturdays’ debate!, didn’t vote against, or at all, the Revolutionary Guard bill that gave Bush more authority in dealing with Iran etc…) Corporate Democrats - 1, Progressivism – 0.