The clueless commentariat

Sometimes the commentariat leaves me dumbfounded. How in the hell do some of these people get to be journalists -- at major media outlets, no less? Judging from their output, some of them couldn't get a job at the weekly Car Trader.

Today I ran across a Richard Wolffe column on the Newsweek Web site that was so atrocious it simply could not pass unchallenged. I fired off an e-mail, which I'm sure he'll never see, but at least I have the satisfaction of reprinting it here:

Really, now -- in this column, you seem almost as clueless as George W. Bush.

* Bush cannot possibly talk about pocketbook issues, because he knows nothing about them. The concept of financial problems is utterly foreign to him. His father's wealthy friends provided the financial backing for GWB's every business venture, and they were always there to bail him out when he failed: he's never had to face the consequences.

* I'm not at all surprised that Bush got off the subject of Medicare ASAP and moved on to his favorite topic, the "war on terra." Remember, this is the same guy who told a professor at Harvard Business School that Medicare and Social Security constituted "socialism." While he now pays lip service to them as every politician must, I've seen nothing to indicate that he's actually changed his mind.

* Why on earth would a giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry disguised as a "Medicare prescription drug benefit" (and a confusing program at that) provide a "winning message on the cost of living for seniors"? Surveys show that the majority of seniors oppose the program (which means they're a lot less gullible than some journalists).

* "Populist president"? The guy who's given us government of, by, and for big corporations and the wealthy? Could we possibly be talking about the same person?

Next time, you might want to do your homework. It's always advisable to know what you're talking about.