My, my the nutroots are thin-skinned today. I wonder if it has anything to do with their Chosen One picking a lobbyist-cuddling, gaffe-belching, Iraq War-supporting, Washington insider as a running mate?
Their object of ire today is the AP’s Ron Fournier, who dared to venture into the role of news analyst today to call Obama’s choice of Biden pedestrian. Here’s how the Politico is reporting the leftist outrage:
Today, Fournier inflamed the Netroots yet again, with his (Drudge-worthy) analysis: “Biden pick shows lack of confidence.”:
…
Steven Benen, who just moved to the Washington Monthly this week, wrote that Fournier’s “objectivity covering the presidential race continues to look shaky.” Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas dubbed him “McCain’s mole at the Associated Press,” a sentiment echoed by MyDD’s Jonathan Singer, who wrote that he’s “effectively serving as a McCain surrogate in talking about the Biden choice.”
I don’t quite get the level of outrage here. Fournier wasn’t writing a news story. His article is headlined, “Analysis: Biden pick shows lack of confidence.” It’s silly of someone like Benen, who clearly knows better, to expect down-the-middle objectivity in a piece that says right up front that it’s an analysis piece. When you read how Fournier opened his analysis, it’s tough to reasonably disagree with him. Fournier says, “The candidate of change went with the status quo.”
Well, yeah. The only way Obama’s pick could have been more status quo is if he has taken someone like Ted Kennedy or Robert Byrd. But being that Kennedy is fighting a serious illness and Byrd’s an unrepentant former Grand Kleagle of the KKK, the only true member of the Democratic Boys’ Club left is Biden. As Fournier accurately notes, the Obamessiah had plenty of options who weren’t beltway insiders or old white guys. He didn’t pick them. He picked the guy he knew could be strong where he is incompetent: foreign policy and dirty negative attacks.
That’s basically the entire thrust of Fournier’s piece and as I said, it’s tough to reasonably argue with it. Obama has tried to go negative this week and it’s been about as effective as a declawed kitten trying to scratch through a bank safe door. With Biden, he gets someone who knows how to throw a smear.
From the looks of the lefty bloggers’ reactions, I’d say that Fournier hit a tender nerve. If he hadn’t, they would be attacking the substance of his analysis and not Malkinizing Fournier with such religious fervor.
Tags: Associated Press, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Jonathan Singer, Markos Moulitsas, Ron Fournier, Steven Benen
