The only question is why are you surprised?
It’s not as if there was a lack of voices during the Presidential campaign saying stuff like “hey, we really don’t know who this Obama fellow is. He’s kind of an empty vessel and we seem to be projecting onto him what we like best. Anyone else concerned about that?” But unfortunately, whenever some of us brought this more-than-disconcerting point to light, people like you would either try to shout us down or–when you were feeling in a subtle mood–try to change the subject to discuss the identity of Trig Palin’s birth mother.
I suppose I should feel bad for you now that your chosen Healer of All Psychic Wounds has decided to reveal just how little he thinks of “advancing gay equality.” And in truth, I do. I have no problem with same-sex monogamous marriage. Nor do I have a problem with gays and lesbians serving in the military. Rick Warren and I find ourselves on opposite ends when it comes to these issues.
But I’m afraid you set yourself up to be disappointed. You were functionally uncritical in your praise of Obama. Oh sure, there were the momentary lapses but the words “neocon,” “Palin,” “Trig” and “patience and steel” were always more than enough to cause you to lapse back into your common state of intellectual submission before The One. For all of your pretensions about being a fearless, relentless journalist, you were played for a patsy by Team Obama. And you were happy to act out your part with all of the dramatic vigor at your command.
There are plenty of other people who watched and commented on this election who didn’t allow themselves to be taken for a ride the way you did. That the President-elect is now going back on the promises, winks and nods that he issued throughout the campaign doesn’t surprise them. It may disappoint at times, but it doesn’t surprise them.
It surprises you. And that’s because when it came to covering Barack Obama, you abandoned all pretense of critical thinking. Maybe you should have tried to spend more time figuring out what this blank slate President-elect really is like instead of having spent so much time trying to figure out the mystery of Trig Palin’s birth.
If you did, you might have been able to call yourself a journalist. Now? Well . . . not so much.

Dear Pejman
stazec Thursday, December 18th at 2:08AM EST (link)That letter could have been addressed to 85% of the media and still been relevant. Replace a Trig here with a wardrobe or a creationist theory there, and BAM there you have it. Blind devotion to the unknown (BO) by the so-called “fact finders” of our time is a mark of a corrupt society.
Sullivan supported Obama ...
kneejerklefty2 Thursday, December 18th at 3:45AM EST (link)… because McCain selected Sarah Palin as his running mate, correct? I don’t think he was ever under any illusion that Obama would overtly support gay marriage.
The President-Elect has always stated his opposition to gay marriage, while out of the other side of his mouth arguing for equal rights for gay couples, etc.
Separate but equal, I guess. Whatever.
Sad as it is to both Liberals like me and many true Conservatives (the likes of whom I read here), supporting gay marriage would have been political death for any candidate. Politics trumps ideals. It sucks, but it is true.
I don't care if Obama turns out as crooked as Tricky Dick Nixon
kyle8 Thursday, December 18th at 6:20AM EST (link)I am glad he won. We would have got all the same stupid liberalism, maybe even more, under McCain, only Republicans and conservatives would continue to get the blame.
Time to ignore the McCains and Sullivans, and move forward with a new agenda of Fiscal sanity, conservatism, and a return to real liberty.
It will be a long march but we will get much further without the vipers in our midst.
“Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty”
Kyle
Sullivan
Warner Todd Huston Thursday, December 18th at 6:44AM EST (link)Sullivan is not in anyway whatever a journalist. In fact, I think he has deep mental problems. He is the most inconsistent writers in opining today. One day he’s on one side of an issue, the next day he turns on a dime. He is so overly emotional that any measured view of his work makes one fear for his mental stability. Lastly, he is so historically illiterate that his “opinion” simply cannot be taken as based on any logical assessment. Reading his work is as useless an activity as one can imagine.
———-
Be sure and Visit my Home blog Publius’ Forum. It’s what’s happening NOW!
Could be the drug regimen speaking...
Naqamel Thursday, December 18th at 9:47AM EST (link)In fact, I think he has deep mental problems.
Not saying that this is definitively the case, but AIDS drugs have been known to cause psychosis.
Source: Psychiatric Aspects of HIV/AIDS
By Francisco Fernandez, Pedro Ruiz
Published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2006
ISBN 1582557136, 9781582557137
440 pages
What's the big deal?
Justin_Case Thursday, December 18th at 6:51AM EST (link)An invocation is a couple of minutes of petitioning God for wisdom and guidance and perhaps giving thanks for blessings received.
It’s not like he’s going to give a long sermon.
If there’s an image problem, then Obama’s detractors on this issue should recall him stating that he was going to represent all Americans-not just those with special interests.
One more thing (Pardon my Kowalski)
Justin_Case Thursday, December 18th at 7:34AM EST (link)Inauguration Day should be seen as a day when there is a peaceful transfer of power that is somewhat unusual given the amount of the human race that lives under totalitarian regimes and corrupt dictatorships.
While I am not an Obama supporter by any stretch, the Day is special for all Americans who are able to see past their own self interests and recognize the special gift that was paid for in blood by every generation of Americans.
Symbolism [nt]
bs Thursday, December 18th at 7:37AM EST (link).
Decorum is fo’ suckas
Look, there's an Upside to Obama Winning
Section9 Thursday, December 18th at 8:34AM EST (link)For the most part, Democrats have had to practice an almost destructive, mindless, corrossive opposition to the war in Iraq and, let’s be clear, much of the War on Terror itself precisely because it is not they who are pushing the buttons. I will bet dimes, dollars, to doughnuts that much of the garbage that was produced by the 9/11 Commission was produced by the impulses felt by people who were out of power. Being out of power when you feel entitled to power affects the mind and the emotions.
Thus, Jamie Gorelick and Richard Ben Veniste. Thus, the Kos Kids.
Thus, happiness among liberals that the President of the United States gets shoes thrown at him by a restorationist Sunni who probably dreams of bringing back Saddam.
Look, the Democrats were quite willing in 2006 to throw in the towel in Iraq, including Obama, because Iraq was “Bush’s War”. The result would have been a catastrophic genocide in the center of the Islamic World. All that mattered to activist Democrats in 2006 was that Bush be blamed for it. Fortunately, Bush’s nerve held and history took a different course.
The Upside to Obama winning? They have responsibility for victory or defeat in war. Sun Tzu said that war is the most serious business of the State. They cannot escape this, no matter how hard they try, and they will be held to account for this by the voters.
Just as Bush was held to account.
For the first time since Indochina, Democrats will be forced to think seriously about the waging of War since Indochina. And you know how they screwed up Indochina, so none of us can be too confident about the “Team of Rivals”. This is profoundly important, and it’s the greatest upside to Obama’s victory.
Meanwhile, we get to rebuild our party. Let’s get serious about that.
“History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it”-Winston Churchill
Oh, by the Way
Section9 Thursday, December 18th at 8:36AM EST (link)Watch how Quickly Andrew starts complaining about Afghanistan. I give it six months.
“History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it”-Winston Churchill
Dear Andrew,
hunter Thursday, December 18th at 8:35AM EST (link)ROTF&LMFAO@U,
Sucker.
hunter
Mr. Sullivan
Magic2171 Thursday, December 18th at 11:35AM EST (link)Mr. Sullivan has no creditability as a journalist, he lost that with his blind unwavering defense of “The One” over the last couple of years. He knew that many of the questions being asked were honest but he did not want to hear or know the answers. A earlier commenter suggested a mental breakdown, I agree a delutional illness is entirely posiible. His commentary has been poor, weak and without logic for some time, he ask no hard questions, does no serious research on any real topics. Spends a great deal of time and effort on at best minor questions.
He has come to the fact that he (and many others) were conned by “The One” and now realizes that the questions that he refused to consider because he would rather believe is biting him in the butt. Well his and many other special interest groups tears will flow but it is too late. Sit and watch how your lies and propaganda will now cost you.
The good point is that during the 2010 and 2012 elections maybe the sheeple will listen and hear and realize how corrupt and power mad the democratic party is, noe what kind of drugs am I on?
Lacking a better forum for this comment,
Flagstaff Thursday, December 18th at 6:54PM EST (link)I’ll make it here.
I heard an interview with The One a couple of days ago. In response to some questions, he said he “would like to be able to shut down Guantanamo within two years,” and he’d “like to stop torture.”
Disregarding his apparent belief that we are torturing prisoners somewhere, I found it interesting that he didn’t say he WOULD do those things, just that he’d like to be able to. Wouldn’t we all? And doesn’t his answer imply that he’s perfectly willing to authorize torture, whether we are currently doing so or not?
Isn’t that the ultimate in floating one right over the questioner’s head? Or, maybe Obama isn’t The One THEY were waiting for, after all.
Pluto, the Ninth Planet - Forever!