Has the liberal media started rushing the exits in an effort to escape from Camp Obama? I believe this to be true. But don’t take my word for it — let’s examine the evidence.
It may have all started with James Carville. Last week, Carville was on CNN with Anderson Cooper , flipping out about the administration’s response to the BP spill. Not long after that Carville took his frothy charges of “political stupidity” to ABC, making some strong accusations about the lack of leadership and competence coming from the big office at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Perhaps James Carville?s rabid rants were also a signal to the formerly faithful members of the press that vacation time was over and real reporting and journalism was going to be back in fashion.
On June 1, Maureen Dowd of the financially troubled, yet still venerated New York Times, wrote a op-ed piece that wondered if “Yes we can” has been downgraded to “Will we ever?” She later proclaimed, “The oil won’t stop flowing, but the magic has.”
That same day, in the White House press briefing, CNN’s usually jovial Ed Henry leaned hard on Robert Gibbs regarding the administration’s actions and holding BP’s feet to the fire. Gibbs dodged the issue and shot Mr. Henry a glance usually reserved for Fox News’ Major Garrett.
Over at MSNBC, you can bet that a reprimand is headed for Chris Matthews’ desk after he appeared on the Tonight Show talking about BP and the White House saying: “The President scares me, when is he actually going to do something? And I worry; I know he doesn’t want to take ownership of it. I know politics. He said the minute he says, ‘I’m in charge,’ he takes the blame, but somebody has to. It’s in our interest.”
And then came the coupe de grace, delivered by Alfred E. Neuman.
The new issue of Mad Magazine (#503) arrived today and I felt the same shudder up my spine that I believe LBJ felt when he realized that it had all spiraled out of control. When you’ve lost Alfred E. Newman…
Yes, I am paraphrasing the historical quote often mentioned when describing a turning point in the LBJ Presidency. When CBS anchor Walter Cronkite publically soured on the Vietnam War, LBJ made the decision not to run for re-election, allegedly stating; “When you’ve lost Cronkite, you’ve lost Middle America.”
Oddly enough, when it comes to the BP disaster, this President seems to have adopted the slogan of Mad’s most famous face. “What, me worry?” Oh sweet irony. I just hope Rahmbo cancelled his subscription before this issue was delivered his office in the West Wing.