US Press attacks on Obama reported in London's Daily Telegraph

July 31, 2008 (LPAC)--In an article entitled US election:" Senator Barack Obama faces backlash in American media" datelined Washington by Alex Spillius, the Daily Telegraph reports on the press attacks in the US on Barack Obama highlighting the Dana Milbank Washington Post article of July 30. The Spillius article, which quotes Milbank's statement that "Obama's biggest challenger may not be Republican John McCain but his own hubris," states that "The first signs of a backlash against Senator Barack Obama have emerged in the American media, which has up until now mostly greeted his candidacy with garlands of praise. The increasingly presidential posture of the first-term Illinois senator and his campaign staff is beginning to stick in the throats of commentators, particularly given the narrowness of his lead over Senator John McCain."

The article concludes: "Frank Luntz, a leading Republican pollster, said: `Americans demand politicians earn their office and Obama in recent weeks seems to communicate that he deserves the position, and that doesn't go down too well.'

"Ron Nessen, formerly press secretary to President Gerald Ford, said the risk for Obama was that with more than three months to go before the election he needed good press now more than ever.

"There will be a backlash partly because some kind of pendulum swing is normal, but partly because the campaign pushed things a little too far," he said.