Okay, so while I'm at it I am going to post on the whole Newsweek/Niall Ferguson thing which was the cover of Drudge a few days ago.
First here is
the cover story that started it all. And a relevant quote just for the heck of it...
...the question confronting the country nearly four years later is not who was the better candidate four years ago. It is whether the winner has delivered on his promises. And the sad truth is that he has not.
In his inaugural address, Obama promised “not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth.” He promised to “build the roads and bridges, the electric grids, and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.” He promised to “restore science to its rightful place and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost.” And he promised to “transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.” Unfortunately the president’s scorecard on every single one of those bold pledges is pitiful.
The article goes on to catalog O'Bongo's various and storied failings much to the delight of conservatives. I think that conservatives (and I include myself here) derive more pleasure from this being the cover story of Newsweek and the ensuing liberal apoplexy that went with it than the article itself.
Perhaps one of the higher profile liberal freak outs came in the form of
Paul Krugman's editorial rebuttal at the NYTs...
There are multiple errors and misrepresentations in Niall Ferguson’s cover story in Newsweek — I guess they don’t do fact-checking — but this is the one that jumped out at me. Ferguson says:
"The president pledged that health-care reform would not add a cent to the deficit. But the CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation now estimate that the insurance-coverage provisions of the ACA will have a net cost of close to $1.2 trillion over the 2012–22 period."
Readers are no doubt meant to interpret this as saying that CBO found that the Act will increase the deficit. But anyone who actually read, or even skimmed, the CBO report (pdf) knows that it found that the ACA would reduce, not increase, the deficit — because the insurance subsidies were fully paid for.
Which was then followed by
Niall Ferguson firing back at Krugman (and others)...
The other day, a British friend asked me if there was anything about the United States I disliked. I was happily on vacation and couldn’t think of anything. But now I remember. I really can’t stand America’s liberal bloggers.
“We know no spectacle so ridiculous,” Lord Macaulay famously wrote, “as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality.” But the spectacle of the American liberal blogosphere in one of its almost daily fits of righteous indignation is not so much ridiculous as faintly sinister. Why? Because what I have encountered since the publication of my Newsweek article criticizing President Obama looks suspiciously like an orchestrated attempt to discredit me.
My critics have three things in common. First, they wholly fail to respond to the central arguments of the piece. Second, they claim to be engaged in “fact checking,” whereas in nearly all cases they are merely offering alternative (often silly or skewed) interpretations of the facts. Third, they adopt a tone of outrage that would be appropriate only if I had argued that, say, women’s bodies can somehow prevent pregnancies in case of “legitimate rape.”
Their approach is highly effective, and I must remember it if I ever decide to organize an intellectual witch hunt. What makes it so irksome is that it simultaneously dodges the central thesis of my piece and at the same time seeks to brand me as a liar. The icing on the cake has been the attempt by some bloggers to demand that I be sacked not just by Newsweek but also by Harvard University, where I am a tenured professor. It is especially piquant to read these demands from people who would presumably defend academic freedom in the last ditch—provided it is the freedom to publish opinions in line with their own ideology.
Finally, Newsweek decided that they had to explain and justify the "controversial" cover story and they discuss it here with Justine Rosenthal, the executive editor of Newsweek....
Miss Rosenthal looks like an animated corpse with eyeliner, BTW. Watching her talk was creeping me out.
The Daily Kos weighed in with several postings on the subject. Here is
a link to the one with the most comments and it's pretty much what you would expect from the hysterical left.
Another offering from
the DK...I would advise anyone who currently subscribes to this rag to end your subscription promptly. This week, Newsweek Magazine is featuring it's cover story titled "Hit The Road, Barack. Why we Need a New President" This is nothing more than a smear attempt by a washed-up, has-been Harvard Professor, Niall Ferguson, a self-admitted Romney/Ryan supporter, who was an advisor to John McCain in 2008.
Of course, Newsweek wants people to know that Ferguson first and foremost is a "writer" and "historian" who just happens to think that Romney/Ryan would make a better President. But his propaganda piece is barf-worthy and bordering on fringe musings.
The PuffHo put out an article on the original Ferguson piece and its aftermath. The article is typical PuffHo boring but there are 800 or so comments that follow it with the usual unintentional comedy gold.
I have no idea why Newsweek would allow this story to be published. It's an even greater mystery as to why it ended up on the cover. Perhaps they are attempting to raise the profile of their mag to something above doormat...don't know. I certainly don't believe that they are attempting to be fair and balanced. That is patently absurd.
But, the thing is that this article or anything remotely like it would never have seen the light of day if things were even marginally hopeful that O'Bongo was going to be re-elected. I believe that Newsweek knows the truth about President Downgrade's odds on being returned to office and they are making the most of it for whatever reason. Keep your eyes out for more stuff like this showing up in other outlets in the next few weeks. This is a force of nature now.
