This Has Got To Stop
by digby
The late selection of vice presidential nominees has led to a gaffe-filled contest in which each campaign is pointing the finger at its rival’s running mate.
Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) has, in recent days, lived up to his reputation as a gaffe machine, breaking with his running mate on a few occasions and, in at least once instance, drawing a soft rebuke from Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Democrats would no doubt like to return fire, but are left to lament the bubble Republican candidate John McCain’s campaign has erected around his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and note her limited record is hard to contrast with McCain’s 26 years in Washington.
On Tuesday, as Washington and much of the world were focused on the proposed financial bailout for Wall Street and the gathering of world leaders at United Nations headquarters in New York City, the influential website Drudge Report was dominated by the back-and-forth between Biden and Obama.
This is really getting ridiculous. The Drudge Report is a right wing oppo laundering site. It always has been. I really cannot believe that it has seriously morphed into an “influential” website that reporters use to gauge the importance of current events.
Of course, the Drudge Report is covering the “back and forth” between Obama and Biden. It’s creating a drumbeat to benefit the Republican ticket. It’s what he does! His raison d’etre. When did the Washington press corps decide he was Walter Cronkite?
Now none of this is to say that Biden shouldn’t shut his trap. He should. But the fact that anyone in the media gives a damn about this stupid, trumped up story at a time like this is mind-boggling, particularly since Sarah Palin is parading around like a beauty contest winner instead of a serious candidate for national office, the world is blowing up and the economy is melting down.
The political media need to spend a little less time reading the Drudge Report and a lot more time doing their job. Drudge is not a source, fellas. He’s a hack. What’s on his web site all day isn’t indicative of anything but what the Republicans want you to think is important.
Instead, why don’t you read this and then go forth and be reporters instead of obsessing over what Drudge is emitting every half hour.
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