Clark Misfires

"As public financing is not a principle dear to me, I am hardly dismayed by Obama's abandonment of it. Nor am I disappointed in the least by his other calculated and cynical repositionings. I have never had any illusions about Obama. I merely note with amazement that his media swooners seem to accept his every policy reversal with an equanimity unseen since the Daily Worker would change the party line overnight -- switching sides in World War II, for example -- whenever the wind from Moscow changed direction."

Liberals have a very different view of Obama's, ah, shifts of position. Let's give Arianna the floor:

"The Obama campaign is making a very serious mistake. Tacking to the center is a losing strategy. And don't let the latest head-to-head poll numbers lull you the way they lulled Hillary Clinton in December.

"Running to the middle in an attempt to attract undecided swing voters didn't work for Al Gore in 2000. It didn't work for John Kerry in 2004. And it didn't work when Mark Penn (obsessed with his 'microtrends' and missing the megatrend) convinced Hillary Clinton to do it in 2008.

"Fixating on -- and pandering to -- this fickle crowd is all about messaging tailored to avoid offending rather than to inspire and galvanize. And isn't galvanizing the electorate to demand fundamental change the raison d'etre of the Obama campaign in the first place?"

Bloggasm questions why a bunch of anti-Obama blogs, powered by Google, have mysteriously been blocked, and Google raises the possibility it got scammed.

Tom Brokaw's debut on "Meet the Press" draws a less than rave review from Alessandra Stanley:

"Mr. Brokaw, the former 'Nightly News' anchor who will host the program until NBC finds a more permanent replacement for Mr. Russert, made a point of breaking with the past; the first segments were not even taped in Mr. Russert's studio in Washington but at a meeting of the Western Governors' Association in Wyoming. The majestic snow-capped Jackson Hole setting didn't provide for a very exciting political debate, but the changes did suggest just how difficult it will be for NBC to revamp a Sunday news program that was so shaped by the personality and passions of its longtime host . . .

"Mr. Brokaw proved himself a seemly caretaker. The emeritus anchor didn't try to imitate or compete with Mr. Russert, and he kept the mood at a sober but easygoing tempo. Had NBC immediately tapped some of its more junior stars, like David Gregory, Lester Holt or Andrea Mitchell, to fill in so soon, they might have looked like ambitious careerists auditioning to take over while the chair was still warm.

"But in the middle of one of the fiercest and most exciting presidential races in years this 'Meet the Press' had a little too much comity."

Finally, NYT columnist Gail Collins was none too pleased when ombudsman Clark Hoyt wrote that MoDo had been "over the top" in mocking Hillary. So she wrote a letter to the editor:

"I feel compelled to respond to your assault on Maureen Dowd.

"Your complaint about Maureen seems to be that many supporters of Hillary Clinton found her columns offensive. As a former editorial page editor, I can absolutely assure you that supporters of many, many candidates from both parties have found Maureen's columns offensive over the years.

"The sharpness of her wit makes her commentary particularly painful to those who are on the receiving end. That's also why so many readers love her and exactly what The New York Times pays her to do.

"When the public editor laces into an opinion page columnist for making fun of a controversial political figure, it sounds like a suggestion that all of us tone things down. I hope I'm hearing wrong."