The Meme

Journalists, like all people, tend to goof off when they can get away with it. That this is so is seen clearly in the typical response to GOP misfortune, as E. J. Dionne points out in this op-ed. When in doubt, flog the meme. And this particular meme casts the Democrats as ineffective bunglers with no message of their own. While it's true that the Democratic caucus doesn't have anything approaching the lock-step obedience to the party diktat of the goose-stepping GOP, it's simply untrue that the Dems have no plans and no ideas. But why do the hard work of reporting the facts when you can just bang out a "CW" piece on Democratic ineptitude, which has the added advantage of a pat on the back from Karl Rove and company?

The Democrats' Real Problem

It is now an ingrained journalistic habit: After a period of bad news for President Bush, media outlets invariably devote time and space to "balancing" stories that all say more or less: "Yes, the Republicans are in trouble, but the Democrats have no alternatives, no plans," etc.

The pattern began to fall in place this weekend in the wake of two truly miserable weeks for Bush.

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