That's why they're called "The Editors"

Inspired by Obama's speech on Monday, they take a few moments to stop rubbing the Doughy Pantload's face in the offal that is his own book, to talk about the Senator.

And I don’t recall one of these silly media feeding frenzies handled quite so deftly - using the stupid tabloid attention as an opportunity to raise the tone of debate; score some substantive points against his real political opponents (not HRC); and, oh btw, make one’s self look good in the process. I don’t know if Obama gets advice on how to handle this stuff - and if he does, he gets very good advice. In any case, he’s scary good. He can win this thing.

And he should win this thing. We face challenges in the coming years - nothing unprecedented, nothing which can’t be handled, but challenges of the sort that come around every few decades or so - and I think these are the sort of situations which require more than the capable, technocratic, managerial solutions which worked in the 90’s (and which might have averted the present circumstances had it continued through the ’00’s, but never mind). We face environmental crises which, if unchecked, will be far worse than the Dust Bowl (although we are also much more capable of dealing with these problems than we were 75 years ago.) We’ve got economic problems whose depths have not been sounded, we’ve got a ‘war’ with no particular objective we need to extricate ourselves from, we’ve got structural inadequacies in health care and other areas of domestic policy where we lag behind the rest of the developed world, and we’ve still - two decades on - not adjusted our military/foreign policy stance to the post-Cold War environment. The preferred responses to these problems, judging by various old and new media outlets, is to offer ever more preposterous explanations of why the facts in front of your face are neither facts nor anywhere near your face; or to try to pull the most bershon face this side of Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club and sigh that everything’s been going to hell since Hadrian built that foolish wall or whatever. The better response is not blind obedience to Dear Leader Barack Obama, but it is a situation which requires leadership, leadership of the sort which sets a clear direction and does not merely react to the media feeding frenzy de jour*. I’d prefer if Obama was more willing to take difficult, Doddlike stands as a Congressman, but I’d prefer if I was 6′6″ with a silky fadeaway jumpshot. Obama shows more potential than I in both departments. The bastard.

They then compare and contrast with McCain. Illuminating, especially for those of you new to this sort of thing, otherwise known as wingnuttia.

* Unless, obviously, that media feeding frenzy involves $5500/hr hookers. Inquiring minds want to know.

Or $400 haircuts.