Associated Press Suggests Obama Lacks "Substance," Doesn't Mention The Books He Wrote
March 27, 2007 -- 12:10 PM EST // // Post a Comment
Glenn Greenwald takes The Washington Post's Richard Cohen to task today for blasting Obama over the most trivial of memory lapses possible -- the fact that he got the name of a magazine wrong that he'd read when he was nine years old. No, Obama didn't remember the name of a magazine he read roughly in 1970, the year the Beatles broke up and Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin died.
That was pretty dismal of Cohen, no question. Nonetheless, today's Award for Superficial Sliming -- or ASS -- goes hands down to...the Associated Press' Nedra Pickler!
The news org and Pickler win it for this piece on Obama:
It says:
Is Obama all style and little substance?The voices are growing louder asking the question: Is Barack Obama all style and little substance?
The freshman Illinois senator began his campaign facing the perception that he lacks the experience to be president, especially compared to rivals with decades of work on foreign and domestic policy. So far, he's done little to challenge it. He's delivered no policy speeches and provided few details about how he would lead the country.
There's much more like that. But wait -- no policy speeches since the campaign started? What about this speech on March 21? What about this one on March 2? Those are both foreign policy speeches -- or doesn't that count?
Here's a speech calling for universal health care on January 25. Obama announced his exploratory committee on January 16. Perhaps the AP is suggesting that the campaign didn't "start" until his official announcement on Feb. 10. If so, laying down this marker is artificial and silly, and indeed is quite transparently designed to elicit the conclusion it did. Amusingly enough, the AP does mention Obama's health care and Iraq positions way down in the story -- without noting that Obama has indeed spoken about them at some length during the campaign. If you want to say these speeches are too short on specifics, go ahead, but that doesn't mean they're not policy speeches -- just thin ones.
Would it behoove Obama to go into more detail about his plans and policy prescriptions, and would it behoove him to do better on health care than he did over the weekend? Sure it would -- and his lack of experience is undoubtedly a valid topic. But taking things to the point where you're suggesting that the guy may have "little substance" on the strength of this stuff alone seems pretty damn thin. It's deeply superficial and stinks of the worst sort of slavishness to predetermined narratives -- today's being that Obama is a closet lightweight. Your Hack Pack at work, ladies and gentlemen.
One other point: The piece didn't mention that Obama has written several books. If you're going to question whether a guy has substance, that seems like it might have deserved a mention.
Update: It gets better. Now the Republican National Committee is aggressively pushing this AP piece to reporters. Wonder why?
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