Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

Yesterday, I linked to Elizabeth Drew's essay about the midterm elections. Drew is far from a conservative (I classify her as a progressive), but look at her criticisms of Barack Obama:

• "The President seems to be shrinking and becoming more ineffectual before our eyes. Even his standing in the world seems to be eroding."
• "Once they got to the White House, Obama and his campaign team (virtually all of his top assistants) seemed to live in a hermetically sealed box—cut off from and not interested in what was going on outside, or what experienced people who tried to help them had to say."
• Obama has been "strangely dependent" on TelePrompters, despite having a reputation as a "great orator."
• "In their first two years, the Obamas have seemed a bit tone-deaf: there were too many vacations while people were hurting, especially Michelle's extravagant trip to Spain."
• Obama's "high self-esteem often slides over the thin line to arrogance."
• "One of the oddest aspects of Obama's persona is that someone who seems so confident has insisted thus far in having people around him with whom he is said to be 'comfortable.'"
• "Obama is described as pleased with himself."
• Obama "had no overall message."
• "Obama's biggest failure was not to be the leader that so many expected him to be."
• "Obama was, apparently in his own estimation, so smart and so adored that he seems to have felt no need to explain—and explain again—to the country what he was doing and to take the country along with him."
• Obama is "risk-averse."
• Obama "didn't really understand the role of the president as leader."

Why are we learning these things now? Where were journalists such as Drew during the presidential campaign, when Americans needed to know about the personality, background, aptitudes, values, and beliefs of this smooth-talking man (a con artist, really) who wished to preside over us? The answer, of course, is that they were busy cheering. They were cheerleaders first and journalists second, which is to say not journalists at all.

Addendum: The journalistic malpractice continues.