…it doesn’t absolve the voter’s responsibility:
Hello, children, you elected this guy. Take some responsibility!
No, don’t go complaining the people did that. You did it. Obama is your man, your hero. You never vetted, never examined him in any depth at all, even though the candidate had hardly any experience other than running for office. (Oh, yes, he was a “community organizer.” So was I, in a sense. You want to elect me?)
He notes the rats jumping ship after only two months
But what we have instead is an orgy of finger-pointing. The four New York Times columnists referenced in the Politico article above are simultaneously ganging up on the man they thought, only eight weeks ago, was a combination of the cat’s meow and the bee’s knees. Nary a word of self criticism in their attacks. No surprise there – and don’t expect it in the future, any more than you will get an honest apologia from Messrs Frank and Dodd over Fannie and Freddie. Just like the politicians, these columnists are men and women (Dowd) who are concerned first and foremost about their jobs and power. They won’t do anything to jeopardize that. They’ve had that power for a long time, thinking it was permanent; but now that they see it might not be, they are holding on to it for dear life. Their jumping off the Obama bandwagon so early is a sign of what deep trouble he is in. And they desperately don’t want to be blamed for it.
But they will be blamed – by us and by other people. They deserve to be. Their day is over.
I have to disagree at this point. If it was even 10 years ago you might be able to make this argument but today we have the internet, and blogs, and fox news and people online who will not only fact check you but will have loud debates over who is saying what. If somebody barfs in bolivia you can’t hide it from the net.
Yet we the people with a vast amount of information at our fingertips. More info than the most powerful kings of yore or of FDR or even Reagan just 30 years ago, choose to watch youtube videos, play pogo or look for hot chicks online, play fantasy baseball or World of Warcraft. Plenty of vetting information not filtered by the press was out there for the people, they either choose to ignore it, discount it or most likely not bother to view it.
The press didn’t do their job in the last election that much is clear but did regular Americans. I can respect a person who knew this stuff but decided either his positions or their agenda was better served by candidate Obama vs candidate McCain, but I have little respect for those who didn’t even bother to check. They had access to all the stuff Roger is talking about but it just wasn’t important enough to check.
Like I always said we get the government we deserve.
