Please donate to the “Jonathan Alter Obama Scandal Education Fund”

Posted by William A. Jacobson
Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 10:26am

Never has there been a love as true or as blind as media Obamalove, as evidenced by adoring puff piece written by Jonathan Alter for Bloomberg News, Obama Miracle is White House Free of Scandal:

President Barack Obama goes into the 2012 with a weak economy that may doom his reelection. But he has one asset that hasn’t received much attention: He’s honest.

The sight of Texas Governor Rick Perry tumbling out of the clown car recently as a “birther” (or at least a birther-enabler) is a sign of weakness, not just for the Perry campaign but for the whole Republican effort to tarnish the president’s character.

Although it’s possible that the Solyndra LLC story will become a classic feeding frenzy, don’t bet on it. Providing $535 million in loan guarantees to a solar-panel maker that goes bankrupt was dumb, but so far not criminal or even unethical on the part of the administration. These kinds of stories are unlikely to derail Obama in 2012. If he loses, it will be because of the economy — period.

Solyndra not a scandal? In what universe is that true?

Even the professional left is having none of this nonsense, from emptywheel at Firedoglake, The Scandal Is that Jonathan Alter Doesn’t See the Scandal:

This Administration has smothered what was left of rule of law. And yet Alter can’t find a scandal?…

And part of Alter’s problem is his adoption of Brendan Nyhan’s definition of scandal: the reference to something as a scandal by a WaPo reporter on that rag’s front page.

Indeed, it’s all how the mainstream media defines scandal. And the MSM has decided to define scandal to exclude anything which could harm Obama’s chances of reelection.

Let’s educate Alter on the scandals of the Obama administration. I’ll start:

Solyndra – how is it not a scandal when a big Obama campaign donor receives special treatment to bilk the country of half-a-billion dollars?

Fast and Furious – guns missing, border patrol agent dead, Mexican gangs well-armed, and an Attorney General who is incompetent at best, misleading at worst.

Nixonian control of press access to fundraisers.

Obamacare – possibly the most deceptive law ever passed, so much so that one of its key cost-saving tools turns out to be too costly to implement.

The disregard of judicial orders as to Gulf oil leases and the near shutdown of new production.

And it goes on and on. Please contribute to the Jonathan Alter Obama Scandal Education Fund, in the comments.