NYTime's Bob Herbert shows a lot of conventional DC/mainstream press thinking in his latest column. I usually like him, but in this column he lumps all "Democrats" together, instead of delineating those who are employing Republican/Right-Wing smear tactics against their own party (The Clinton Campaign) vs. those who are fighting against that system (The Obama campaign and most of the progressive blogosphere)
The Democrats are doing everything they can to blow this presidential election. This is a skill that comes naturally to the party. There is no such thing as a can’t-miss year for the Democrats. They are truly gifted at finding ways to lose.
Further, Herbert doesn't pay any mind to the corrupt, toxic, role played by the establishment media/Right-Wing alliance. It's as if this alliance doesn't exist. It was Bill Clinton's and "Democrats" fault that Bill was impeached for a personal affair. The right-wing/media alliance had nothing to do with it.
While some of those predicaments raise legitimate concerns (his former pastor, his comments in San Francisco)
The manufactured controversy over Rev Wright is legitimate? So is taking Obama's discussion of how the right-wing manipulates working-class whites with character assassination and false attacks, i.e. the "bitter" controvery? That was a "legitimate" controversy?
No way. You should retract that statement and apologize for it. Either that, or explain why twisting Obama's words out of context and repeating that as legitimate news? How is the bitter "controversy" legitimate while there is zero campaign questions or reporting related to George Bush and his Principals admission that they authorized and managed the US torture program?
Please. Bob, take a walk over to Glenn Greenwald's place and order a copy of his new book, Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics.
Because the way your column attacks all "Democrats" leaves out a lot of facts. And after leaving out those facts, the narrative of Democrats as incompetent losers has a really familiar ring to it -- it fits right into the false Right-Wing myths that are key to the Democrats' losing streak, and the decline of the US into an economic recession, endless illegal wars, torture programs, and the underlying destruction of our Constitution and the rights that are supposed to prevent these travesties.
Cross-posted at The New Down