After receiving yet another issue of Time magazine with a picture of Barack Obama on the cover (Special Issue: The Democrats, September 1, 2008), I was curious about how often Time had featured Democrats and/or Republicans on covers related to the current 2008 US Presidential election cycle. I found the results surprising, and thought you might too. Democrats have appeared sixteen times, while the GOP has only been on seven times. Additionally, Barack Obama has appeared ten times, six times by himself, while John McCain has only shown up on three issues, and only once by himself. I realize that McCain became the frontrunner relatively late in the race, and that the Democratic primary campaign was decided a few months after the GOP race had ended, but numbers with that kind of imbalance do suggest some level of favoritism, don't you think?
Ryan Reeder
Logan, Utah
Data:
Time magazine covers pertaining to the 2008 US Presidential election which feature Democrats or Democrat-related symbols:
August 28, 2006--Hillary Clinton
October 23, 2006--Barack Obama
May 28, 2007--Al Gore
July 23, 2007--Donkey
November 19, 2007--Hillary Clinton
December 10, 2007--Barack Obama
February 18, 2008--Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama
March 10, 2008--Barack Obama
March 17, 2008--Hillary Clinton
April 21, 2008--Barack Obama
May 5, 2008--Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton
May 19, 2008--Barack Obama
September 1, 2008--Barack Obama
Time magazine covers pertaining to the 2008 US Presidential election which feature Republicans or Republican symbols:
March 26, 2007--Ronald Reagan
May 21, 2007--Mitt Romney
December 24, 2007--Elephants
February 4, 2008--John McCain
Time magazine covers pertaining to the 2008 US Presidential election which feature both Democrats and Republicans or Democrat and Republican symbols:
February 5, 2007--Four Democratic and four Republican candidates (Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani, John Edwards, Mitt Romney, Joseph Biden, Sam Brownback)
September 24, 2007--Three Democratic and two Republican candidates' spouses (Ann Romney, Elizabeth Edwards, Judith Nathan, Michelle Obama, and Bill Clinton. Notably absent--Cindy McCain)
August 11, 2008--John McCain and Barack Obama
