I Would Have Preferred The Monorail

Rex Murphy turns a phrase pretty well -- I'm not sure I agree with the conclusion, but this is some damn fine prose at the end...

To the degree the press neglected its function as watchdog and turned cupbearer to a styrofoam demigod, it is a partner in the flaws and failures of what is turning out to be one of the most miserable performances in the modern history of the American presidency.

As much as I hate the left-wing media bias that gave Obama a complete pass in 2008, it was predictable from day one, and they're not entirely at fault.  The blame for Obama's margin of victory lies with the press, but the blame for his win needs to be shared with President Bush, Senator McCain, and the GOP in general.  They all screwed up enough that the public was ready to accept just about anyone the Democrats nominated, even if he was a seemingly likeable but ultimately unprepared and overrated guy with an allegedly golden tongue.  And hell, the public chose to buy the monorail from the guy they'd never met...



Yes, I know that's a tenuous link, but you can never link to the monorail song enough.  Actually, the monorail was arguably a greater success than Obama thus far -- Springfield only spent its surplus on the monorail and didn't go into debt for it.

The real irony?  The media so bought into the Obama myth that they set him up for failure by building expectations so high that even a President of real substance would have been hard-pressed to be anything other than a mild disappointment.  Obama's incompetence has made him a spectacular failure thus far, at least insofar as one measures him compared to what was expected.  His campaign gets some blame for that... but the media's decision never to test him meant he came into the job even more woefully unprepared.