Well, I didn’t actually go and look to see if Wednesday has become the traditional day for stories where reporters complain – off the record – about how the White House treats them like not particularly bright children who need regular beatings*, but we dokeep seeing them. I recommend reading it only for its amusement value: after all, if they lack the self-respect to stand up for themselves, why should the rest of us care?
Moe Lane
*If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say that the problem here is probably at the editorial level. Not that it ultimately matters which parts of print/television media are being the greater cowards.
[UPDATE: via Glenn Reynolds I see that Politico has updated the story, and that it was even worse before I noticed it. I’m making corrections.]
Let us start by watching what happened SUNDAY. This is via Gateway Pundit – who, by the way, was there and who was a spokesman:
Got it? Low-key prayer vigil, coffin brought in for staged funeral of Constitution [future victims of abortion. See, this is how you do it, Politico – ML], old people crying, coffin then removed. Now let’s see how Politico referenced it:
A coffin was placed on a Missouri Democrat’s lawn, another in a string of incidents against lawmakers after their vote Sunday on a health care overhaul.
Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.) had a coffin placed “near his home,” a spokesman said Wednesday evening.
The coffin was from a prayer vigil.
…and then they went on to equate this with (alleged) incidents or threats of physical violence. Without bothering to check, of course.
Guys? Unquestionably and uncritically reprinting Democratic party press releases like this is not going to be a viable business model, come January 2011. Russ Carnahan and his people can’t help themselves – in more ways than one – but you over at the Politico can.
Moe Lane
PS: I’ll feel obligated to disavow acts of political violence when credible evidence appears that an organization that I belong to organized, initiated, or willfully incited one. Until then, I recommend that people wanting me to do that just save their screeds to their hard drive, preferably in a subfolder of the folder that they have for all those drawings of Sarah Palin being beaten.
So, Axelrod’s trying his best to convince people that the fact that independent voters in two states won by Obama broke heavily for the Republican gubernatorial candidates is much less important than a three-point win in a district where conservatives made it clear that they’d rather lose than not be listened to by GOP party leadership. His best is actually not all that great, given that he’s suggesting (of all things) that candidates next year embrace the President – just like Bill Owens did! Yes, and just like Jon Corzine did, and just like Creigh Deeds did; so this was sufficiently eyebrow-raising that the Politico was nigh-forced to editorialize:
The cheerful public line from the White House carried an echo of Obama’s immediate predecessor, George W. Bush, another president whose political operation reported sunny skies no matter the weather.
It’s bad when they compare you to Bush. Although it’s also unfair: the previous administration did things. This one just whines about how hard it is to do them.
“For Glenn Beck to devote 45 minutes of his show to ACORN and Van Jones says more about his news judgment than mine,” said Dean Baquet, Washington bureau chief of the New York Times.
Given that it can be safely assumed that Glenn Beck viewers were not surprised at either the Van Jones resignation or the Senate’s defunding of ACORN, and that it can be assumed that many New York Times readers were surprised – which, to be blunt (and cruel) about it, means that the former were better informed than the latter – well, put it any way that you like, Baquet. You’re still suffering from the comparison.
They analyze the President’s performance to date, and conclude that his new life goal should be… mediocrity.
What all this means is, barring some unforeseeable world event, Obama’s will probably not be a historic presidency. He will have some successes and a lot of failures. His opposition won’t roll over, and his party will refuse to go along with his more costly, and thus risky, schemes. He won’t coast to reelection.
So Obama now has the chance to be the sort of president Bush would have been if the World Trade Center towers had not come down. Here’s hoping he makes the best of it.
Via Instapundit. I personally doubt that it will happen; there are far too many Democratic partisans out there who absolutely need this President to be… whatever it is that they are not, and know that they are not. They will not be pleased to see this administration try to revise its hopes and goals so as to be more in line with its abilities, and they will do their level best to stop that change.
You know something? I actually expected better of Anne Schroeder Mullins than this transparent attempt to protect the reputation of both Playboy and Guy Cimbalo by laughing it off as just another top-ten list. If you didn’t get a chance to see what Playboy actually had on the site before they pulled it, RedState’s own Caleb Howe kept a screenshot (NOT. SAFE. FOR. WORK.).
We’re not done with this story yet, by the way. No, sir, we are not.
…as mentioned by Brother Erick Erickson here, about this article here, is that nowhere does the Politico state that they got their information about this particular echo chamber from their own J-List members. The only on-the-record quote from a named Politico J-Lister is, in fact, rather innocuous. Which suggests that either: Politico doesn’t want its own members being accused of dishing out some of the more salacious details; or that they have independent sources willing to forward juicy details to the Politico.
Either way, sounds like they’re breaking Rules #1 & #2 of Fight Club. Always the way, when you get too close to DC…
Moe Lane
PS: Thanks for letting us know that Toobin’s on that list, by the way. Alterman we would have guessed, anyway, but there are people who actually still believe that Toobin’s somewhere close to objective.
. Always the way, when you get too close to DC…