It’s much easier than, you know, actually saying things myself.
John Kass, columnist for the Chicago Tribune steps in on the Obama flip-flop parade and decides, like many in the media, to speak for the bloggerati:
They’re at the dance now and he’s the one with the keys and he’s the only ride they’ve got. And they don’t like it.
He has flip-flopped again and again, on campaign finance, on government eavesdropping of overseas phone calls, on gun control and even Iraq. Future President Obama now says he’ll listen to his generals about when to withdraw. He didn’t say he’d listen to the commissars of the blogosphere.
This is one of the great functions of a liberal media whose major liberal members spend most of their time proving how liberal they aren’t. The major reporting and/or commentating on the ideological proclivities of a major section of the American public comes largely from people who have no real connection whatsoever to said ideology except, perhaps, an ironic one. The only time we get to read about ourselves is when someone who bought a Che t-shirt in college on a lark tells me that I’m so blisteringly angry or depressed (about something I shouldn’t be, of course) that I’ve starting spraypainting Hummers and browsing porn on public library computers in indolent protest.
I, for one, am only doing one of those things.
It’s not so much that Kass is simply overextending a thesis in as idiotic a fashion as possible to employ every item he has in his arsenal. It’s that he wrote something that’s the complete fucking opposite of the fucking truth that’s so blatantly obvious it hurts the eternal soul which I’m not even sure most people have but I’m perfectly happy accepting for now in order to prove my point.
One of the central complaints the left, and particularly us pajama’ed bloggers, have about the Bush years is that they never listened to people who knew better. When they had a goal, they didn’t listen to professional advice on the execution or wisdom of it - they just did it, and if you disagreed with them, you were quietly asked to spend some more time with your family until you could finish your years-too-late tell-all. Even keeping in mind that what Obama said on Iraq wasn’t a flip-flop, the ethos that a candidate recognizes the ability of other people to know more and better things about matters of public policy makes us happy. Like, so happy that I may forget to drink a locally brewed beer with organic hops out of a recycled bottle during my celebration.
Didn’t expect that, didja?
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What exactly did you expect from media idiots?
They want this election to be a real horserace. They need this election to be a horserace.
Reporting: “Obama is going to win in a landslide, Americans disgusted with McCain and GOP stupidity, corruption and incompetance. McCain campain impoding as impending doom grows too obvious to ignore”...okay, but what’ll the media do for the NEXT 3.5 months? Twiddle their thumbs? Talk about baseball?
This is why (IMO) they kept acting like Clinton had a shot at the nomination after Super Tuesday. To keep the story alive. Their paychecks depend on it; all it takes is one publisher to realize “hey! It’s OVER! We can lay off lots of these expensive ‘political analysists’ and save a ton of cash!” and their gravy train comes off the rails.