Richard Cohen writes in the Washington Post “From John Edwards, lessons on celebrity and politics”

“- the lesson to be learned from the John Edwards affair. “We have substituted the camera — fame, celebrity — for both achievement and the studied judgment of colleagues.”

David Brooks warns of the “The Populist Addiction” in The New York Times.  ”

“voters aren’t as stupid as the populists imagine. Voters are capable of holding two ideas in their heads at one time: First, that the rich and the powerful do rig the game in their own favor; and second, that simply bashing the rich and the powerful will still not solve the country’s problems.”

The Supreme Court decision reversing McCain Feingold leaves a lot to consider. Many on the left are as outraged as the right was on Roe vs Wade. Jeff Jacoby tries to calm the storm in “Candidates, campaigns, and New Coke“ in The Boston Globe.

“But even those that do choose to advertise during an election cycle will not make the mistake so many of the court’s detractors are making. They know that Americans are not sheep, easily herded by means of clever commercials. If corporate advertising was irresistible, after all, we’d all be drinking New Coke.”

Finally I have an article at American Thinker:  “Why Elitists Fail.”

“Even the brightest minds cannot escape emotional impediments to a rational conclusion. Combining such emotional rationalism with a focus on theories detached from the verification of practical experience can be downright dangerous. This is why it concerns so many that Obama’s administration has the lowest number of appointees from the private sector in his cabinet of any president in history.”

And yesterday also at American Thinker : “Why Obama’s tax incentives for small business will backfire“

“Such micromanagement of the economy is not surprising from the moral supremacists who are more interested in  imposing their view of social justice than truly enabling the economy to allocate capital and create jobs.”

I greatly appreciate the numerous comments at American Thinker. They are thoughtful and worthy of your reading.

Thanks to all the visitors at Rebelyid.

Richard Cohen Writes in the Washington Post,

From John Edwards, lessons on celebrity and politics

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Excerpt

We have substituted the camera — fame, celebrity — for both achievement and the studied judgment of colleagues. The political machine, the organization, even the parties themselves are gone, severely atrophied or discredited as (ugh) mainstream. They once served as filters, admission committees, but they have been replaced by a sham familiarity — fame at its most beguiling and dangerous. This was John Edwards. He’s not a scandal. He’s a lesson.

When Charlie Gibson with ABC News acted ignorant of the booming ACORN corruption story while it was breaking, the pundits on the right were stunned that a major new anchor could be so insulated that he could miss such a story.

The rumors of John Edward’s notorious affair was buzzing in the alternate media for months before it was broken by….. the National Enquirer.  Yet the New York Times did not seem to hesitate to give front page coverage to a rumor about an affair between John McCain and a colleague that proved untrue.

Critics of those that oppose the health care proposals, fearing death panels and rationing, are deemed liars and paranoid lunatics, yet they are reacting to the actual words spoken and written by the likes of Robert Reich and Ezekial Emmanuel (Rahm’s brother), and others.

The proliferation of media outlets has drowned us in information. While many question the lack of professional credentials on the internet it seems to me that the professional media has much to answer for.  It was Dan Rather who reported lies about Bush that was discovered by an internet amateur, It was the New York Tines printing lies about McCain, It was Gibson at ABC who knew nothing about ACORN and it was all of them ignoring what so many already knew about Edwards.

Even at a professional level , reporters hear and see what they expect to see and hear- what they want to see and hear.  And with a media centered in locations far from the heartland, educated at universities far from the heartland, they tend to surround themselves with like minded professionals whose collective universe is far from the heartland.  Like media consumers the professionals tend to read for confirmation not information.

They are like a school of fish swimming in the same direction, fearing that the errant independent fish will end up on a hook.  Responding to a question as to how a media professional can miss a story in what appears to be an obviously biased fashion, Bernard Goldberg noted, “Does a fish know he is wet?”

It is a perfect metaphor for a media that is oblivious to a world it is centered in but cannot see.