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It seems that very few people have an original idea– or if they are they are ridiculed. The current thing that is “in vogue” is to bash the President and claim no association to him.
In a move reminiscent of Peter betraying Christ, Scott McClellan recently denounced the President’s lead up to the war, stating in a tell-all book that he had reservations about the entire thing.
Regardless of what you believe about the veracity or legitimacy of his statements, these kinds of things build over time. There are few, like Vox Day, who say the unpopular from the beginning. He gets some things wrong– for example, I’m beginning to doubt his prediction about Hillary– but on the topic of Bush, he’s been out in front on the Republican side about the war from the start.
This tendency is best chronicled through this article:
CNN correspondent Jessica Yellin said Thursday she was referring to her time spent at MSNBC when she said she felt pressure not to report stories critical of the Bush administration during the time leading up to the Iraq war.
…
The higher Bush’s approval ratings, the more pressure she felt from news executives to put on positive stories about the president, she said. Pushed by Cooper to explain, Yellin said her bosses would turn down critical stories about the administration and try to put on positive pieces.
This is no doubt factual– news is mostly an business just like others, and when you have a popular President people aren’t going to like to hear their news outlets bashing that President– they’ll go somewhere else. Just like now that his, and Congress’, ratings are in the toilet, the media can feel free to push them down even further.
It’s truly rare to find people of principle– people that will report what they believe, even when it’s not popular. If you find a person like that, listen to them, for it’s not easy to go against the trend.
