An excellent point.

Why are we trusting the media to tell us who is an expert?

Doesn't one need to BE an expert to identify one?

Douglas Feith was chosen to be "exoert" by the Bush administration. He cherry-picked intelligence to fit the Bush agenda.

Did the media report this when it could have stopped an invasion? NO!

I want to see the credentials of the people selling us the experts.

just a "random thought" -- After Chris Matthews got so deservedly bitch slapped for his outrageous coverage of Hillary Clinton... anyone else think he'd be quite happy to prove how right he "really" was?

Matthews should probably be put on a "watch list" ... he strikes me as just the sort of petty, self-absorbed, power-envy filled shmuck who, consciously or unconsciously, could try to bring down "them that shamed him" .... ditto plenty of others ...

It's been said before by others, but once Obama gets the nomination, I suspect they will all suddenly find him somehow "lacking" in so many ways ... this needs to be nipped in the bud.

{I cannot even begin to express how thoroughly disgusted I am by too many of the "supporters" of both democratic candidates ... chill out.}

You're welcome to criticize McCain's foreign policy views, but I think to say he doesn't have experience in this area is simply not true. He has more than Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush combined when they were presidential candidates. He led a Navy squadron during the Vietnam War...

I think it's significant that we now apparently equate "foreign policy experience" with flying bombing runs over third-world countries.

thing about McCain getting a pass from the media.

Maybe that's his job -- ya think?

So what you have is a situation where The Media -- in the person of Chuck Todd -- is "telling" on itself. Sure, acknowledging the critics, while at the same time "reporting" it.

And -- most important of all -- letting everyone know that they don't care what you know or what you think about it.

Nice.

Media as Cheney's Muse. Whispering "So?"

They are so utterly sure of their power, it doesn't matter a whit to them whether their "secrets" are revealed or not.

There's nothing you can do about it.

Is there?

Glenn, you nailed it (again) about the double-standard in the media regarding McCain. I think there is an unexamined surge of emotion about McCain’s biography that seems to earn him a pass on every ethical misconduct or statement—or senatorial action—that contradicts a long-standing and well-crafted political persona. The MTP segment rejoiced Obama’s newfound “mortality” on the trail in the wake of Wright. Yet their real hero, McCain, makes a statement not once, but three times, and it’s a minor senior moment from an incredibly authoritative leader. Huh? Had a Dem or Bush or anyone else made the same error, they would be justifiably slaughtered and emblazoned with a scarlet letter "A" for amateur. Btw, if you think that was simply a senior moment I have a condo to sell you in Florida.

To personally illustrate the depth of the McCain-is-infallible-on-foreign-experience-myth: I was having brunch with the relatives on Sunday, and I gamely offered my thoughts of McCain as the best of the Republican from the bunch to get the right-wing side of the fam to speak to me, a known Democrat with corresponding opinions that don't matter (I'm counted as a blind loyalist even though I am far from it). I asked their opinion about McCain's major Iran-al-Qaeda statement.

Across the board, even moderate/swing Republicans were outraged that the gaffe was presented for their dissection. Their response: "He's suffered for his country and has earned the right" to screw up, to be hard line, to do whatever you name. His extreme, soul-destroying torture over five years is an important issue to voters looking for a sense of ethos and traditionalism in a time of intense conflict within and outside our country.

The press echoes this sentiment, either out of unprofessional chumminess or plain fear of challenging a figure whose sacrifice too rare and terrifying to contemplate. While I sadly understand and accept this bundling of emotion and fear from members of my own family at this stage of the election cycle, I cannot accept this attitude from the press. To be skeptical is their job—to challenge authority in all of its forms is their job—to attempt an objective (or at least fair) analysis of the issues and the candidates’ stands is their job. Why can’t they do their jobs with regard to McCain?

We keep hearing how Iran is supplying the insurgents in Iraq with EFP's, which we are supposed to believe is a "new" and difficult to make weapon. So difficult in fact that the stupid inexperienced, never fought anyone before Iraqi's, are supposed to be incapable of making on their own. As the noted expert on military affairs Gwynne Dyer, has said, there is nothing new about EFP's, they have been in the inventories of Western armies for over 30 years now and can be made in any machine shop.

Here is a video of some guy on the Discovery Channel whipping up an RFP with a bit of plastique, some pipe and a copper cone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LudNqf56AFo&NR=1

The question is, did the Discovery Channel have help from Iran, and when does the bombing start? Or are we just supposed to believe that the Discovery Channel has more military expertise than the Iraqis?

Iraq fought an 8 year long war with Iran and used to have the highest percentage of PHD's in the world. But they could not make an EFP, no way.

The only remaining question is, would Hilary attack Iran? The answer is, yes! But only if Chteney has not done it first.

Real men go to Tehran!

Glenn has a sore tummy. He devours right-wing nauseating threads.

A lawyer will pay a high price for rye bread, or some pumper pickle with butter.

Baldy McEagle is a renown bird-claw manicurist, and never broke a left or right wing.