Monday, August 12, 2024

I got really annoyed at Ross Douthat this weekend and things got a little heated (and went a bit viral)

There are subtle but definite signs that the internal Overton window at the New York Times may be shifting. A news piece over the weekend almost addressed some of Donald Trump's more erratic behavior and Nicholas Kristof (one of the well-established old guard), in reaction to a particularly unhinged statement, actually suggested it was time to start discussing Donald Trump's cognitive fitness.

I feel a bit sorry for Ross Douthat, who appears to have been a bit slow to pick up on the shift in the wind coming from the editorial offices. When this hit me, I thought about John Kerry's line about being the last casualty of a mistake. Fortunately, in this case, it's a failed narrative and not a failed war, and the wounds are all reputational.



For an example of Douthat making an ass of himself on this, here's a case in point we discussed previously.

[Emphasis added]

Ross Douthat: It’s a mistake to go all in on Harris, obviously, because she’s still the exceptionally weak candidate whose weaknesses made President Biden so loath to quit the field for her. [Anyone who thinks Ross Douthat has special insights into these decision making processes please raise your hand and slap yourself with it. -- MP] Potential rivals like Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan are throwing away an unusual opportunity because they imagine some future opening for themselves — in 2028 and beyond — that may never materialize. And the party clearly has an interest in having a better-situated nominee: A swing-state governor who isn’t tied directly to an unpopular administration would be a much, much better choice for a high-stakes but still winnable race than a liberal Californian machine politician with zero track record of winning over moderate to conservative voters.

[Side note:Despite the impressions of Nate Silver the the NYT editorial board, Harris overperformed in all of her California races and won all but one Republican districts in her senate run, including those held by Kevin McCarthy and Devin Nunes which gives you some idea of the research Douthat puts into his work.]



I'm not going to get down in the weeds of the piece, but I do want to throw in a little context here.

Learning after the fact of some kind of diminished capacity of a president is not unusual at all. You have FDR and LBJ's health issues, JFK's pain pills, Nixon's drinking, Reagan's cognitive decline, George W. Bush's issues with focus, and Donald Trump's... Hell, we don't have that much time.

Also remember that Washington is a gossipy and petty town, particularly when the first thing you do is to piss off a powerful faction in the government and in some cases in your own party by making the painful but necessary decision of following through with the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Never underestimate the blob.






The New York Times still employs some excellent reporters, but it has been losing relevance for the last 30 years. On some level I think the people at the paper know this and it's driving them a little crazy. For someone like Douthat whose reputation relies almost entirely on his association with the NYT this has to suck.


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