Greenwald (see 1st update) today about Joe Klein's post about honeymoon being over for Obama . We'll see if Obama will be more resistant to becoming what the punditocracy says he is no matter what he really is.
Obama's vocal opposition to the rotted cynicism that plagues our political discourse and drives our dysfunctional Beltway system is substantive. It is arguably the most important issue we face. Yet the jaded Beltway media, precisely because it is drowning in the very cynicism that Obama is criticizing, will never see that issue as anything other than empty cosmetics.
This Klein post also underscores the point yesterday regarding how these pundits run around spewing assertions based on absolutely nothing (as James Wolcott notes, NBC News' Brian Williams and Don Imus repeated the same theme as the Chris Matthews panel: namely, that somehow it is Democrats who bear the political risk from investigations into the U.S. attorneys scandal). What happens is that they all begin repeating the same thought, and they then mistake that group dynamic as "proof."
If Richard Stengel, Gloria Borger and Chris Matthews are all saying that "Americans don't want investigations," then it must be true. That's enough "evidence" to warrant repeating it. If Ron Brownstein and Mike Allen are all reporting on petty matters regarding Obama, that proves his campaign lacks substance. Beltway journalists only talk to each other and listen to each other. They constantly echo what they hear and then mistake that echoing process as evidence.Klein is right about one thing: Obama is being increasingly attacked by the Beltway media. It may be that Karen Tumulty and Mike Allen think that Barack Obama is "lightweight," but 10,000 people would never show up to hear from Allen or any Time pundit as they do for Barack Obama's speeches. While Beltway mavens depict Obama as lacking in substance, Americans are finding themselves attracted to Obama with unparalleled intensity in large part because he points out so clearly that the real parties lacking in substance are those shaping and driving our political discussions.