A year ago this week, the media had a hand in elevating Barack Obama to the presidency, says author Greg Mitchell, who wrote the book “Why Obama Won.” Mitchell is also editor of the newspaper industry journal Editor & Publisher.

In a commentary today on E&P’s web site, Mitchell writes that the turning point occurred during coverage of the Democratic National Convention:

…it boiled down to the media helping to elect him — but not by supporting him, in the way conservatives often charge.

Instead, it involved coverage that very well could have hurt him, but that ended up rebounding in his favor, big time.

Mitchell describes that coverage as:

…the electronic media’s overblown coverage of the allegedly widespread threat by female Hillary delegates, and other Clinton fans, to bolt Obama in favor of McCain.

As you recall, the dissidents, known as “PUMAs,” got massive face time on TV and, it was said, represented just the tip of the iceberg. And it was also said (by commentators, not just by the new, pro-Hillary media stars), that women, particularly older ones and suburban/blue-collar types who had voted for Hillary in the primaries, would likely abandon the Democrats in November.

That prompted McCain to turn to Sarah Palin, Mitchell writes:

Because John McCain and his people bought it, hook, line and sinker, as I explain in my book “Why Obama Won.” This explains the sudden (though often ill-explained) rise of Sarah Palin to the top of their VP list. The McCainites saw an opening, which really wasn’t there, and went completely overboard. Not only did a female VP suddenly look like a great idea, but she would have extra appeal to the particular type of Hillary primary voters so hyped by the media.

That choice, Mitchell says, sealed McCain’s fate:

Recall that after months of trailing, McCain came out of his convention with a bump that led to at least a tie with Obama in the polls — then he plummeted very quickly as the truth about Palin seeped out. A week after the GOP convention ended, polls were already showing (as many of us, if not most MSM pundits, had predicted) that, if anything, women thought less of Palin than did men.