June 26, 2011
The Washington Post had a clean out the refrigerator front page piece taking pot shots at President Obama for favoring a certain number of politically connected firms in the clean energy business and also using his travel for political purposes.
There are two distinct issues here. Is the president using his travel for political purposes? Do fish swim in the ocean?
Come on folks, this is not serious. There is no front page story in presidents using their travel for political ends, there’s no story period. This is always done. In fact, if it turned out that President Obama’s travel did not seem to fit his political agenda, that would have been an appropriate front page story.
There is a separate issue as to whether the Obama administration has circumvented normal procedures to give government support to political allies. This is an issue and possibly even a front page story, however the piece is too scattered to give a clear sense of the evidence on this point.
The Post would be well-advised to leave the nonsense about political travel in the frig and focus on the allegations of corruption in the loan guarantee process. If there is a clear case here, then present it to your readers.
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