I'm not sure what to make of Bob Herbert's column today in the NYTs. He's clearly been monitoring the blog world, particularly, the Daily Kos, and he uncritically accepts the view that Obama is lurching to the right and pandering to evangelicals and gun nuts. He uncritically accepts the view that Obama has forsaken his base while seeking the embrace of the right by caving on FISA and 'refining' his views on troop withdrawals from Iraq.
He is an example of how the MSM now sees events in the blog world as news - not just opinion. This means that there is a pretty good chance the Daily Kos (in particular) will play a role in this campaign that the Swift Boaters played in the 2004 campaign. Except in 2004 the Swift Boaters were interested in taking down their opponent. The Daily Kos stands to become a key means for taking down the candidate it claims to support.
Herbert is also an example of how the right wins the battle for the hearts and minds of even the most sympathetic MSM essayist. Because Herbert tends to be uncritically accepting when he monitors Obama's harshest critiques from both the left and the right he often produces pretty tasty cocktails (molotov) for the Obama camp to handle. Contrast,for example, how Herbert handles McCain's assertion that Obama flip flopped on troop withdrawals from Iraq with how Rachael Maddow handled this on Keith Olbermann's show tonight. Rachael went back to Obama's statements on Irag during the debates and in Iowa and found his most recent comments to be consistent with what's said all along. Contrast how Herbert handled the Kossack critique of Obama with FISA with the push back we got from Olbermann or other's a few weeks ago.
Kristol and Brooks don't give McCain this kind of treatment. And I would love to see a right-wing MSM commentator summarized the McCain flip flops to date. Have we hit 100 yet? In fact I'd love to see Herbert 'balance' his column with a piece like that.
So here is how I would summariz my mixed feelings on Herbert's column. On the one hand it is a strong signal that the Kossacks get to be this campaign's swift boaters - but I think they were be remembered as the gang that couldn't shoot straight. On the other hand it is so depressing to see a guy like Herbert use his space on the paper to do a particularly brilliant commercial for the right wing.