Showing just how irrelevant The New York Times is determined to make itself, this "Man in the News" piece on Barack Obama by former pop-culture-writer-turned-brilliant-political-analyst Jodi Kantor appeared on today's front page.
Ms. Kantor's early, insightful premise:
the same qualities that have brought him just one election away from the White House — his virtuosity, his seriousness, his ability to inspire, his seeming immunity from the strains that afflict others — may be among his biggest obstacles to getting there.
The article, which takes up a good chunk of page one and all of page 25, continues for another thirty-six lengthy paragraphs, attempting but failing to provide some substantive support for that rather inane premise.
Littered throughout are more penetrating perceptions. George Stephanopoulos and Ralph Reed, for example, will be pleased to learn that they are now "luminaries".
Ms. Kantor informs us that even before running for office, Obama developed mentor-like relationships with people like Abner Mikva, Tom Daschle and Ted Kennedy. She then dazzles us with this impressive psychological insight:
As a man who barely knew his own father, Mr. Obama might have sought many things from these figures: authority, security, even love.
She derides Obama for his "unfailing eloquence", and later for being "too gifted", a statement she then attempts to support but bungles it with this obvious compliment:
"I thought of him much more as a colleague" than a student, said Laurence Tribe, a law professor at Harvard for whom Mr. Obama worked.
By the end of this largely vacuous treatise I was confused. In Ms. Kantor's eyes Barack Obama is too talented, too bright, too serious, too dedicated and too inspiring to be President.
I guess she thinks our Presidents should all be inept communicators who offer no inspiration and don't take their responsibilities seriously.
Oh! Now I get it. She must think all our Presidents should be Republicans.