Our text today comes from the Washington Post, where Karen Tumulty and Philip Rucker have, in the main news section (no, this is not Opinion) written an article titled "Will Obama suffer the 'second-term curse'?" This is an incident of media whoredom, from the comparisons they make to the sources they consult, that seems to me to be well beyond the writers' obligation to report the news. Here, we find that the president the Post appears to think Obama is most like is Jimmy Carter and not for any policy reasons, but because the President's staff doesn't understand life inside the Beltway, and we learn that any obstructionism that the Republican Congress is throwing up is not their fault, as in the fable about the scorpion and the frog. So let us proceed, being mindful of the rules of fair use because so much of this, well . . .
Now, admittedly, the revelation that Internal Revenue Service officials gave special scrutiny to Tea Party groups is a problem. But this article equates it to Benghazi, which isn't, so you can see that Republican talking points are being considered here. These, they conclude, may not become major political liabilities, BUT
At a minimum, they represent diversions working against a president who is keenly aware of how little time he has left to achieve big things. And they are a test of the insular Obama team’s skill at keeping its footing in an environment of hyperpartisan politics and hair-trigger media.
Point 1 is a non sequitur, and Point 2, well, "the insular Obama team?" Inside the beltway memes at work. Next, we have Michael Beschloss talking about the hard time every president of the past 80 years has had in a second term. That would mean FDR and the court-packing scheme that backfired, Truman and Korea, Eisenhower and the U-2 plane, LBJ and Vietnam, Reagan and Iran-Contra, Clinton and Monica, and W and, well, everything. Some of these, you will notice, are not like the others, but when you are a television historian and you speak in generalities, this is what happens.
Then we hear from the insular Obama team who put on a brave face, but, of course, privately know stuff. The people with brave faces are named: Dan Pfeiffer, Jennifer Palmieri. But the private musings, well, "allies":
But even some of Obama’s allies worry privately that his difficulties may be made worse by his lack of deep relationships on Capitol Hill, notwithstanding his round of dinners with members lately. His congressional liaison, Miguel Rodriguez, came to the job virtually unknown by lawmakers. The president himself has a tendency to hunker down with a tight circle of loyalists.
Lack of deep relationships on Capitol Hill. WHOSE FAULT IS THAT???
Then, we have Mike Huckabee predicting Obama won't finish the term, James Imhofe saying that Benghazi is
the most serious and most egregious coverup in American history.
You see, nobody DIED in the Watergate affair. And then the piling on begins. Three State Department officials testified at the Benghazi hearings, and, while
“There is no evidence the White House is hiding the truth about what occurred in Benghazi,” journalist David Corn wrote in left-leaning Mother Jones magazine. “But the White House has indeed been caught not telling the full story.”
They consult David Kennedy, who is emeritus at Stanford, who suggests that these are ankle-biting issues "but if you add up enough ducks they can peck you to death."
We close with two members of presidential staffs: Chris Lehane and Kenneth Duberstein, each of whom says HIS president would have handled things differently. Lehane blames Obama's staff for letting things slip out of their control on Benghazi, and Duberstein says
But when you get in a ditch, you need to stop digging. You need to put down the shovel.
So, let's see. False equivalence, insulting the rubes from out-of-town, insider sniping and whining, the "won't-finish-his-term" meme, and Clinton and Reagan did this better. This is what passes for news reporting at the
Washington Post. Professional, isn't it. Media whores!