Sunday punditry in the morning.
Frank Rich:
IF you wanted to pick the moment when the American news business went on suicide watch, it was almost exactly three years ago. That’s when Stephen Colbert, appearing at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, delivered a monologue accusing his hosts of being stenographers who had, in essence, let the Bush White House get away with murder (or at least the war in Iraq). To prove the point, the partying journalists in the Washington Hilton ballroom could be seen (courtesy of C-Span) fawning over government potentates — in some cases the very "sources" who had fed all those fictional sightings of Saddam Hussein’s W.M.D.
Colbert’s routine did not kill. The Washington Post reported that it "fell flat." The Times initially did not even mention it. But to the Beltway’s bafflement, Colbert’s riff went viral overnight, ultimately to have a marathon run as the most popular video on iTunes. The cultural disconnect between the journalism establishment and the public it aspires to serve could not have been more vividly dramatized.
See also This Is Why We Need A Blogosphere.
Maureen Dowd:
Just as Spock swoops in to rescue the world from red matter in J. J. Abrams’s dazzling new "Star Trek," imagine Barack Spock rescuing read matter for the world.
NY Times Opinionator:
Does Obama need to appoint a woman? A gay person? Can the Republicans stop him in any case?
James C. Capretta & Yuval Levin: Stop ObamaCare! It represents Change, and Change is Bad!
Ruben Navarette: It's time Democrats get real about immigration reform [fill in the blank] and start compromising with Republicans, because God forbid they should pass their own plan without Republicans.
Kirstin Downey:
Today, the nonprofit National New Deal Preservation Association is proposing that Obama take a page from Roosevelt's playbook and lobby lawmakers and the administration to reauthorize a new version of the Civilian Conservation Corps. The time may be right for a resurrection of the CCC. Unemployment has reached 8.5 percent, the highest in a generation. Many Americans need short-term jobs or must learn new trades. And there is much labor-intensive work to do, whether hauling away the debris that litters the nation's highways and rail corridors, landscaping public spaces or restoring wetlands.
Another successful New Deal era program that smacks of socialism, just like Medicare and social security.
Bob Herbert: On jobs and their importance to society. Yeah, it was yesterday. Read it again.