That draws on a very old set of conventions of depicting the country as small-town America. It follows Reagan's theme directly. Put that together with the image of Clinton as a young teen shaking Kennedy's hand and the image of a lineage, a transmission of power comes to mind. Then remember Dukakis in a tank looking silly - that has everything to do with war movies. From those movies we know what a person in a tank should look like - and Dukakis wasn't it.
Some critics charge that the media are biased in a liberal direction.
I never bought into the notion that the press is biased in a liberal direction. Everything about how journalism works is about conveying the interests and views of people in power. They talk to people with power, money and influence - both Democrats and Republicans can fall into that category. If the media are biased, they are biased toward capitalism. In terms of anti-capitalist positions, you can look at TV for many, many years and not hear any.