When The Truth Hurts

Joe Klein's piece at Real Clear Politics just goes to show that when the truth hurts, you sling ad hominems and vitriolic claptrap at the source. Let me be precise here: Fox News peddles a fair amount of hateful crap. Some of it borders on sedition. Much of it is flat out untrue. Yet, nowhere does he point to any examples or instances. Though, I can point out several from the likes of Contessa Brewer, Keith Olberman and Chris Matthews, et al. Since when does asking questions or forming an opinion rate as "hateful crap" or sedition? CNN, MSNBC, NBC peddle it on a daily basis, or does this pass as news for Mr. Klein? When I see a news organization fact check an SNL skit, I have to wonder why FoxNews hammers them in the ratings on a daily basis. But I don't understand why the White House would give such poisonous helium balloons as Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity the opportunity for still greater spasms of self-inflation by declaring war on Fox. I wouldn't expect him to when he is just as much in the tank for Obama as the fringe media is. So, I'll explain it for him. Obama has thin skin and can't take criticism and he is deflecting people away from the real issues to slide something under the rug. "Nuff said. If the problem is that stories bloated far beyond their actual importance--ACORN's corruption, Van Jones's radical past--are in danger of leaching out of the Fox hothouse into the general media, then perhaps the Administration should be a bit more diligent about whom it hires and whom it funds. And this is precisely why the MSM is now referred to as the fringe and state run media. When someone, like Joe Klein, considers topics like ACORN and Van Jones's radical past as bloated stories, then I have to question what makes an issue important enough to "bloat". But, he does make one valid point in that Obama's administration should be more diligent about whom they hire. That, however, is not likely to happen when Obama is trying to fundamentally transform this country; you can't do that without radical, Marxist revolutionaries. If the problem is broader--that Fox News spreads seditious lies to its demographic sliver of an audience--the Administration should probably be stoic: the wingnuts will always be with us. The best antidote to their garbage is elegant, intelligent governance. The next-best antidote is occasional engagement: I thought Obama came away from his O'Reilly and Chris Wallace interviews much the better for it. (Though you don't want to sit down with a thug like Hannity or a weirdo like Beck.) And here is where Joe Klein pulls back the curtains. This hate filled paragraph speaks volumes about where the hate and lies come from; maybe Mr. Klein should look at the man in the mirror. The problem with war is that it diverts attention from the actual news. Hey, maybe Mr. Klein does get it! The Administration has tried to pursue a sophisticated, difficult domestic and foreign policy. It doesn't offer the quick-fix irresponsibility of a tax cut or an invasion. It needs space, time and patience to explain. This is an enervating, midstream moment. Whoops. Spoke too soon. Maybe Obama has absolutely no experience, whatsoever, about decision making. Considering that he was in a legislative body before he was anointed, he didn't have to make decisions that has the propensity to affect an entire world. The "I inherited it" rhetoric has been regurgitated ad nauseum and it's no longer working. He didn't inherit anything, rather, he wanted it and exacerbated it by accelerating Bush's idiotic spending. If he hadn't suspended his campaign to sign on to the first ridiculous "stimulus", I may have given Obama a bit more leeway. It's not certain that the President's efforts from health care to Afghanistan will succeed. We'll know a lot more in a month, but I really hope the White House hasn't launched this attack to fill the public space while the other issues are being sorted out. The long-term costs of stooping to Fox's level are not just bad posture; they are a diminution of the office and its primary occupant. Nothing is certain about this administration, other than it's Hell bent on this countries destruction. The long term costs, Mr. Klein, is going to be Obama's demise if he continues down the path he is going. Have you ever heard of the saying that you should never pick a fight with someone who has A LOT of ink?