As you know if you read this site often I tend to think very little of The Politico. But even by their feature-heavy, random-musing-of-their-minds standards this piece by Elizabeth Wilner is pretty weak stuff. She's excited about the possibility of early Veep choices being made. Which would be fine as a political story goes - except that she doesn't talk to a single person at a single campaign about that being a possibility. Instead she's just riffing on a variety of thoughts and imagining: 1) We could see an earlier choice because the presidential candidates will be picked earlier than ever next year [yep, probably about one month earlier - if those chosen in March usually wait until summer why can't those chosen in February wait too?]; 2) This way the candidates get to control a news cycle [ummm, for no more than a few days - and wouldn't they likely want to control a news cycle closer to the election?]; 3) If the presidential candidates wait, their nominees will bump up against each other and they won't get the same bounce [uh - just how long does she think this story dominates the news?] ... and then she goes off on spending closer to half her story on how the presidential nominees might pick someone from a different party or an independent, again basing her story on no reporting whatsoever.
The Politico really is pretty damn awful. It's kind of embarrassing that the powers that be pay attention to it.
Posted by armand at July 5, 2007 09:08 AM | TrackBack | Posted to Media | Politics