Echoes of War

I agree this wasn't Swift-boating, which is shorthand for inaccurate charges. But why is criticism of someone who attacked McCain in a way that Barack Obama himself disavowed equated with swooning over McCain? Doesn't seem to me that McCain's coverage lately has been all that positive.

Columbia Journalism Review's Zachary Roth also faults the media:

"ABC News political director Rick Klein led the outrage, writing in a blog post on ABCNews.com:

" Find me a single Democrat who thinks it's good politics to call into question the military credentials of a man who spent five-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war.

"This is the perfect embodiment of the press's unbelievably destructive habit of assessing every piece of campaign rhetoric for its political acuity, rather than for its validity and accuracy. Clark's comments may (or may not) have been impolitic. But that has no bearing on their validity or lack thereof--which is how the news media should be evaluating them."

He's got plenty of other examples. But politics is often about tone. You could say "McCain is an utter disgrace who got into bed with a crooked banker" and it would be true. It would also be smacking him for a 20-year-old scandal in which he's admitted he behaved badly. (I'm sure the Keating Five will come up, and it's fair game.)

Obama, on his values tour, wants to get into the faith-based business.

Another Obama flip? Obama opposes an initiative to overturn California's gay-marriage ruling, says the Sacramento Bee:

"In a letter to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club read Sunday at the group's annual Pride Breakfast in San Francisco, the Illinois senator said he supports extending 'fully equal rights and benefits to same-sex couples under both state and federal law. And that is why I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution, and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states,' Obama wrote."

Hot Air's Ed Morrissey argues there is a pattern:

"Barack Obama has reversed himself yet again, but this time he has done a double backflip with a half-twist to the Left. After previously saying he opposed gay marriage and that he respected the rights of states to set conditions for marriage, Obama has now said that he opposes California's initiative to ban gay marriage -- and that he would use federal law to end such efforts . . .

"Once again, voters have to ask themselves what Obama is thinking. I'm no big fan of the gay-marriage ban, but we're getting past the point of the issues themselves and what all of these reversals mean about the candidate."