Walter Shapiro on the risk that the GOP Just Might Nominate [Herman Cain] a Candidate Patently Unqualified to Be President:
This is how presidential vetting traditionally works. The press pack pounces on the logical fallacies in a candidate’s positions and the shakiness of his resume. Party elites and top fundraisers then decide, if they have not already, that any candidate subjected to this kind of non-ideological media assault is unelectable. And eventually voters—especially when the calendar moves beyond activist-dominated Iowa—get the message that they are trying to elect a president and not merely thumbing their noses at the establishment.
Since when does it work this way? Certainly not in 2008.
It was the press’ distinct disinterest in Barack Obama’s past and associations which resulted in a temperamentally unfit, economically unqualified, and politically mischievous candidate winning by a sizable margin.
If the good faith of the press is our weather vane, then it’s a foul wind.
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