Barroom politics
by JONATHAN McCLUSKEY
Observer Staff
MANCHESTER, N.H. — It’s 7 p.m. on Saturday and a swarm of cheers and boos rushes out of the doors of Murphy’s Taproom
Just one block away at Mitt Romney’s planned debate watch party at Varick’s Sports Bar, the scene is different. The popular sports bar was revamped, restyled and under populated by the silent families and press watching Mitt Romney on TVs. The complete opposite of Murphy’s loud and overcrowded watch party, there were four cameras capturing every lackluster moment. And Mitt Romney’s decision not to show up at his campaign’s “official party” made the event even less newsworthy.
However, unlike Romney, John McCain did attended his debate-watch event at Jillian’s Restaurant two blocks away, which explains the dozen or more cameras. But most of the “debate watchers” were tuned into an NFL playoff game and completely ignored the debate. Packed into a small room inside the overcrowded and popular establishment and despite the game mood of the crowd, Sen. McCain still managed to squeeze in a few post-debate statements.
This then raises the question: Is the media justly covering the candidates? To be fair, we know why the media fully covers Romney and McCain, but what about Ron Paul? Stations such as Channel 7 News, a popular news station in New Hampshire, attend a lackluster party for Romney, and other new stations will show up for McCain at a Restaurant that cares more about the big game then him, but why is there no media at Ron Paul’s larger, and more exciting watch party?With the NH Primary coming to an end, and the voters watching the news and finally deciding who their nominee is going to be, we must remember to ask ourselves: when we watch the news and pick our candidate, do we choose because of our beliefs, or do we choose our candidate because of the media’s beliefs?
