The Intellectually Vacuity of New York Times Political Analyses

March 6th, 2008 Posted in Obama, Punditry

Here’s the New York Times, an “analysis”:

After Tuesday’s primary victories for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, her focus is momentum; for her Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama, it is math.

Math vs. Momentum: it’s a simple opposition, and it alliterates. That’s why it’s been the conventional wisdom of the TV and the Web for more than 24 hours. And so the New York Times jumps on this idea like it’s an analysis. It’s an article that fails to mention that it is virtually impossible for Clinton to catch up on pledged delegates. Rather, it regurgitates the Clinton spin that neither candidate can win without superdelegates–a truth that misses the point.

More conventional wisdom from the New York Times: Obama is a “chastened candidate in search of a lost moment.” Despite the fact that Obama closed huge gaps in the expected vote and never expected to win these states. After 12 victories to 3 (not to mention his Texas caucus win), and a 150 pledged delegate lead which is impossible to catch, Obama is “chastened.” More:

Mr. Obama once again failed to administer an electoral coup de grâce, and so allowed a tenacious rival to elude his grasp. Now, after appearing nearly invincible just last week, he faces questions about his toughness and vulnerabilities

Never mind that if Obama had won all four states, it would not have been an “electoral coup de grace”–that this is impossible for either candidate at this point. Despite the fact that polls never showed Obama winning these states–”appearing nearly invincible.” Now he “faces questions”–but we don’t learn from whom; the classic journalist’s passive formulation to express and disavow opinions at the same time.

The final idea of this article is this: that Obama must conform. That he must finally play by the rules of the game. He must “absorb the lessons” and “counterpunch forcefully.” Despite the fact that Clinton can only win by having party officials overturn the decision of the pledged delegates. There is a palpable hope that he will go negative, that he will reveal his flaws in all their fullness, that he is just as conniving and unprincipled as Clinton–one of the fundamental arguments of her campaign.

I’m not claiming that the press is motivated by a pro-Clinton bias: they are motivated, as I’ve mentioned before, by the dramatic turn. But they are also motivated by the more fundamental instinct to worship and then sacrifice: to kill the God. Obama’s positivity transcended us, they once claimed; but now he has been brought down to earth. It’s not just dramatic reversal, it’s the ultimate reversal. Where there was the thrill of elevation and submission, there is now the thrill of incorporation and destruction.

And so it’s an allegiance to superstition over thoughtfulness. It’s a pathetic failure on the part of the press–an insult to the notion of “analysis.” It’s nonsense that flatters the importance of the narrative–and so the importance of the narrators; self-important to the end, and so basically stupid.