Take, for example, Gail Collins’ piece at today’s New York Times:
Barack Obama is having the first postprimary crisis, a moment in which the only conceivable response is: what was he thinking?
[...]
Talk about unnecessary disasters. It’s like having your career ruined because you invited the wrong person to host a party in honor of your nephew’s godparents.
Gentle spirits may decide that it’s a good thing that the Obama campaign is getting this sort of thing out of the way early. Crueler ones may note that at least they can’t blame this one on Hillary.
Rather than falling into complete depression at such an early point in the game, let’s work under the assumption that the people involved were so tired that they didn’t know what they were doing.
Dear God! What did Jim Johnson do?
You’d think he’d been arrested for soliciting sex from an undercover police officer.
Or indicted for fraud and extortion! Or was a lobbyist for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, home of Osama Bin Laden and 15 of the 17 9/11 hijackers. Or was a lobbyist for Blackwater USA, and foreign dictators like the presidents of Somalia, Nigeria and Zaire.
Or defended child slavery as a lobbyist for the United Arab Emirates.
I could go on, but what’s the point? Johnson resigned because as former (unpaid) head of Fannie Mae, there were concerns he’d get pulled into the scandal surrounding Countrywide’s sucky loans. The GOP claims he got favorable treatment from Countrywide’s CEO. Heh. I thought that was SOP over at the GOP.
Johnson's wrongdoing is merely alleged, and yet get a load of the McCain campaign’s nervy statement:
"By entrusting this process to a man who has now been forced to step down because of questionable loans, the American people have reason to question the judgment of a candidate who has shown he will only make the right call when under pressure from the news media. America can't afford a president who flip-flops on key questions in the course of 24 hours. That's not change we can believe in." —McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds
Uh, yeah. Let’s see. How many people have resigned from your campaign for questionable behavior? One after being indicted? One after getting arrested?
Yes, please, let’s make this campaign about ethics. This should be really fun.
And as for Gail Collins and the rest of the punditry: I have a steaming cup of STFU for you people. I will not accept another election where the media lets the Republican candidate get away with murder while demanding the Democrats be saints.
