After all, the guy IS running for president!
So I got into an argument with a conservative blogger this morning. What made it unique is that I was arguing with Instapundit, one of the biggest bloggers in the universe.
In a post titled Where's Barack?, Reynolds criticized Obama for failing to condemn an anti-Semitic flier that was handed out by a black preacher in Memphis. That the flier is anti-Semitic is undeniable; it's also unprofessionally designed, oddly convoluted, and overall, it comes across as the ravings of a lunatic.
What I disagreed with about the Instapundit post was that Reynolds was employing a tactic that is increasingly common on political blogs: taking some example of offensive behavior (often an isolated example, like some local activist saying something extreme), and then criticizing a public figure, or even an entire political group, for not publicly condemning that behavior, and implying that a failure to publicly condemn the behavior equates to tacit approval.
In this case, the implication was that Barack Obama, currently the front-runner in the Democratic Presidential primary race, is somehow remiss in failing to make a public statement about some low-budget flier a preacher in Memphis has been handing out in limited quantities. Was the offensive flier promoting Obama, you might ask? No, it had nothing to do with Obama or his campaign, whatsoever. So why would anyone suggest that Obama has to condemn it? I'm not sure, but perhaps it's because Obama and the candidate the flier promoted are both black Democrats. Representative Cohen, who the flier targeted, has actually endorsed Obama, and no one has alleged any link between Obama and the preacher/pamphleteer.
Anyway, you can read the post, with my comments, here. After Reynolds posted my complaint about the post, he explained that he was trying to illicit a response from Obama, and I responded that that was fair enough. That's one of the reasons I read Instapundit - even when I disagree with him (which is a majority of the time when he's talking about politics), I appreciate that he takes a logical, intellectually honest approach to things. Here, there's nothing wrong with soliciting a response from a candidate.
But before bloggers equate a non-response on this local flier with tacit approval, I would ask where they place the flier on the list of challenges facing the country. Personally, I would prefer for our candidates not to waste their time addressing garbage like this flier.
"Where's Barack?" [Instapundit]
"Jewish Rep. Cohen Battles Antisemitism and Racism In Re-Election" [Wash. Post]
In a post titled Where's Barack?, Reynolds criticized Obama for failing to condemn an anti-Semitic flier that was handed out by a black preacher in Memphis. That the flier is anti-Semitic is undeniable; it's also unprofessionally designed, oddly convoluted, and overall, it comes across as the ravings of a lunatic.
What I disagreed with about the Instapundit post was that Reynolds was employing a tactic that is increasingly common on political blogs: taking some example of offensive behavior (often an isolated example, like some local activist saying something extreme), and then criticizing a public figure, or even an entire political group, for not publicly condemning that behavior, and implying that a failure to publicly condemn the behavior equates to tacit approval.
In this case, the implication was that Barack Obama, currently the front-runner in the Democratic Presidential primary race, is somehow remiss in failing to make a public statement about some low-budget flier a preacher in Memphis has been handing out in limited quantities. Was the offensive flier promoting Obama, you might ask? No, it had nothing to do with Obama or his campaign, whatsoever. So why would anyone suggest that Obama has to condemn it? I'm not sure, but perhaps it's because Obama and the candidate the flier promoted are both black Democrats. Representative Cohen, who the flier targeted, has actually endorsed Obama, and no one has alleged any link between Obama and the preacher/pamphleteer.
Anyway, you can read the post, with my comments, here. After Reynolds posted my complaint about the post, he explained that he was trying to illicit a response from Obama, and I responded that that was fair enough. That's one of the reasons I read Instapundit - even when I disagree with him (which is a majority of the time when he's talking about politics), I appreciate that he takes a logical, intellectually honest approach to things. Here, there's nothing wrong with soliciting a response from a candidate.
But before bloggers equate a non-response on this local flier with tacit approval, I would ask where they place the flier on the list of challenges facing the country. Personally, I would prefer for our candidates not to waste their time addressing garbage like this flier.
"Where's Barack?" [Instapundit]
"Jewish Rep. Cohen Battles Antisemitism and Racism In Re-Election" [Wash. Post]
posted at 8:18:00 PM | permalink
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