NP: Beck, Guero

Daily Kos cites some other blog that has chronicled the reports the Bush adminstration has suddenly decided to stop publishing. Now, I'm sure they had some legitimate reason for doing so, that have nothing to do with actual results refusing to toe the party line -- like maybe sarcasm -- but that's not what I'm getting on about.

Markos ends this post with the comment "Can there be any doubt that this is the worst presidency ever?"

This is problematic for a couple of reasons. First, it's preaching to the choir of the highest order. Daily Kos wouldn't even exist if it weren't for the belief that Bush is the worst president ever. Which makes this line a throwaway for grandstanding purposes only.

Second, Kos has no real value beyond that liberal grandstanding, and here's where I wish I had a solution. The ultra-liberal blogs, to me, feed right into the polemicized media paradigm more than they break it. Anybody not already on their side can simply dismiss them as propaganda by shouting them down with their own talking points, and everybody on their side already agrees with them.

Then again, maybe Kos is acutely aware of this, and is simply trying to maximize his audience among the believers. Don't ask questions you don't already know the answer to, that sort of thing. But that flies in the face of this pervasive left-blogging notion of empowerment that has sprung from Howard Dean's ascendancy to the Democratic Chairmanship, and that troubles me. Dems need the backbone, to be sure, but at some point, the intensity could very well push the less committed in a different direction unless some diplomacy is used.

This is resonating with me right now because it, too, reminds me a lot of the Fire supporters group situation. Or maybe I'm feeling like the choir I belong to was also preached to on the Daily Show last week when John Avlon, author of Independent Nation, was the guest. Be reasonable!