How Obama Got Elected Blames Media for Misinformed Voters

After Barack Obama won the election, people came up with various reasons why he did it. They credited Obama's win to the economy, McCain's ties to Bush, a rejection of Republicans, and a myriad of other reasons. But a new documentary proposes another reason why Obama won, and it is a typical theory from the right. How Obama Got Elected argues that the media tricked a gullible public into voting for Obama.

Media bias on behalf of Obama is a common talking point, and discussions of it may have kept Hillary Clinton alive for as long as she was in the primaries. How Obama Got Elected takes it one step further.

According to the How Obama Got Elected website, "the news media, completely enamored with Obama, simply refused to do their job." As proof, the website displays a video where 12 Obama voters are questioned on Election Day about why they voted for Obama.

The film makers get several of the voters to admit they don't know which party controls Congress. When asked about several gaffs Obama and Joe Biden made on the campaign, most of them thought Sarah Palin said them.

For further proof of their argument, the How Obama Got Elected site displays a Zogby poll where most of the 512 Obama voters questioned couldn't name Obama's controversial comments, but most of them named Palin's.

According to the site, 81.8% of questioned Obama supporters didn't know about Joe Biden's plagiarism scandal in the 80's. 88.4% didn't know of Obama's comments about the coal industry, and 56.1% didn't know of the charge that Obama kicked off his career at Bill Ayers' house. Yet more than 80% knew of Palin's wardrobe costs, her pregnant daughter and those "I can see Russia from my house" comments.

To the film makers, this is evidence that the media covered up or played down Obama's mistakes and shortcomings, while deliberately playing up Palin's and McCain's so they would lose.