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New York, August 15, 2008 While Obama finally gained a clear advantage on economic and taxation issues, the timing might not help him much as the media focus shifts to international policy. “When the crisis in the U.S. economy was center stage, a clear advantage on these issues really could have helped Obama,” says Roland Schatz, President of Media Tenor International, “but because of the Olympics and the Russian-Georgian crisis, the media has abruptly shifted to foreign concerns.” This shift, according to Media Tenor's data, is likely to benefit McCain who has had a consistent advantage on foreign policy issues. “Part of it is his experience in the Senate,” notes Schatz. ”Combine that with his war veteran status and the fact that Republicans are generally viewed as stronger on defense and foreign policy issues, McCain doesn't have to work to dominate this issue. It's up to Obama to step in and turn his own image around.” Unfortunately for Obama, the timing of this crisis poses a problem for him. “This was the worst possible time for Obama to go on vacation,” Schatz says, adding that China-related controversies and the Russian-Georgian crisis upended the campaign's assumption that the election would be out of the news this week. For the third time, International Media analysis company Media Tenor is offering a detailed analysis of the U.S. presidential campaign. TV news coverage of the leading Presidential contenders is scrutinized at a detailed level. “The methodology was developed 15 years ago and has been successfully used not only to analyze the 2000 and 2004 U.S. Presidential campaigns, but also for International politics,” Schatz explains. Media Tenor’s Presidential Campaign Watch focuses not only on candidate standings, but also on topics and sources, while adding an international perspective. Results of Media Tenor studies will be regularly published on MediaChannel.org.

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