From Andrew Sullivan’s blog today:

John Heilemann tries to explain the media coverage of Obama and Clinton:
Campaigns are, at bottom, a competition between memes: infectious ideas that gather force through sheer repetition. The most powerful of these memes are what Just refers to as meta-narratives, the backdrops against which everything plays out in the media. Clinton’¬Ä¬ôs meta-narrative,¬Ä she says, ¬Ä¬úis that she’¬Ä¬ôll do anything to win; she can’t be trusted, she’¬Ä¬ôs ethically challenged; she’¬Ä¬ôs manipulative, calculating, and programmed. Obama’¬Ä¬ôs meta-narrative is decidedly otherwise. It’¬Ä¬ôs the same, in a way, as John McCain’¬Ä¬ôs, says Just. ¬Ä¬úHe¬Ä’s authentic, honest, free of taint. Then you add in new, charismatic, and an agent of change.¬Ä¬ù [...]

To continue reading about meta narratives.