Rolling Stone's gifted hatchet-man retires his blade, and the result isn't pretty:
All of which adds to the whiff of destiny that lately seems to surround Obama. At the outset of the campaign season, he was treated as a not-ready-for-prime-time sideshow, with media pundits all in one voice bitching about his "rookie mistakes" and "lack of aggressiveness." But now that he's got the numbers and the momentum, even the most hardened political cynic has to ask — why not this guy? Would it be such a terrible thing for America to show that it's big enough to elect a black president? Wouldn't that be something all by itself? The very fact that the public, mostly on its own, has lifted Obama past an arrogant establishment consensus adds to his appeal as a symbol of the idea that not everything in our politics is rigged, that not everything that they tell us is impossible really is.
This is what happens when smashmouth polemicists try to do positive. Were you ever interested in Denis Leary's kids? If Joe Queenan came up to you at Fairway and starting recommending this great new brand of wheat germ, you'd run howling for the exit. Likewise for political reporters who take the piss better than they do the nation's temperature. "Come on, America, he's black. It'll be nice!"
If Condoleeza Rice ran, thus offering the White House two long-shot demographic indices, would we hear from Taibbi about how this is the stuff that dreams are made of?
Obama's got enough credibility and promise as a politician that the last thing he needs is affirmative action.
More of Giuliani the authoritarian and Fred Thompson the non-starter, please.