The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
Hosting the Hosts
Remember the howls of outrage on the left when George W. Bush held a White House strategy session with Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck? If so, your memory is faulty, because it never happened. But if it had, the left and the mainstream media…surely would have been outraged.
Yesterday President Obama held such a session with most of MSNBC’s prime-time hosts. The Weekly Standard’s Daniel Halper, watching the Twitter feed of the Puffington Host’s Jennifer Bendery, notes that the host guests included Al Sharpton, Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell. BuzzFeed.com reports that Ed Schultz was there too.
What, no Chris Matthews? We suppose the president wanted to make sure he’d be able to get a word in edgewise.
What’s the Big Idea?
“Voyager Spacecraft Finds Solar System Is Bigger Than Thought”–headline, CNN.com, Dec. 4
Young at Heart
When the federal government bailed out Detroit, the Michigan city’s name was a synecdoche for the auto industry. Now a local politician is asking for an infusion of cash literally for the city:
A Detroit city council member is asking President Obama to bail out the financially troubled city in return for residents’ overwhelmingly supporting his successful re-election bid.
“There ought to be a quid pro quo,” said Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, according to My Fox Detroit.
Nearly 75 percent of voters in Wayne County, which includes Detroit, voted for Obama on Nov. 6.
“After the election of Jimmy Carter, the honorable Coleman Alexander Young, he went to Washington, D.C., and came home with some bacon,” Watson said. “That’s what you do,” Watson said.
Young was Detroit’s mayor for 20 years and served as vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1977 to 1981.
As we noted in 2011, Young did more than anyone else to transform Detroit from an economic powerhouse to a decrepit heckhole, to adapt an Obama euphemism. Governmental “bacon,” unlike the real thing, isn’t good for your health.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.”
