The Howler on "Lou's Canon"

Speaking of favorite bloggers, I sometimes think I shouldn't post much more than "Read Juan Cole" or "Read the Daily Howler."

When I first start reading the Howler (Bob Somerby), I found him eccentric and annoying.  I was pretty skeptical of his whole approach to critiquing the mainstream coverage of political news.

It was following his comments on the press attitude toward Al Gore that eventually convinced me that the Howler really knows what he's talking about.  When Gore endorsed Howard Dean last year, the mainstream press coverage proceeded to follow what the Howler calls their "script" about Gore.

When I heard that story, I went immediately to Dean's Web site and read the full text of Gore's endorsement.  You didn't have to be any kind of political specialist to see that Gore stressed one issue:  the Iraq War.  He said he was endorsing Dean because Dean was a straightforward critic of the war, and he (Gore) thought the war was a disaster for American foreign policy.  It was the only specific issue he mentioned.

The Big Pundits were all over the Gore endorsement.  And they puzzled and puzzled, and asked each other and floated various theories to explain the ineffable mystery:  why did Gore endorse Howard Dean?  There were many exotic theories.  Why, oh why, oh why, could he have endorsed Dean?  They didn't even bother to mention, much less analyze, what Gore had actually said, that he was endorsing Dean because he was against the Iraq War.

It was stated so clearly that I would have thought even someone on a Oxycontin high could have understood it.  But the Big Pundits didn't even bother to bring up what Gore actually said, even to dismiss it as "reinventing himself" or whatever.  One notable exception was Jules Witcover who defied the press corps' simpering foolishness as he often does and actually talked about what Gore said in the speech.

The Howler was calling it right.

So I was mightily pleased today to see that the Howler is also recommending the Reagan biography that I also recommended the other day: Lou Cannon's  President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime:

In the past few days, we’ve been rereading parts of Cannon’s book, and we must say this: Every time we revisit this text, we’re more impressed by its author’s rare abilities. Few writers can describe a pol’s failures so frankly, then turn around and dispassionately describe episodes where he performed more ably. We’ll also recommend Cannon’s 2003 book, Governor Reagan, which takes us up to Reagan’s inauguration as president. Did Cannon ever vote for Reagan? Read these endlessly instructive texts. See if you can tell.

And don't miss the Howler's account in this post of the way in which the "grinning entertainers" of what passes for a political press corps in America have been remembering Reagan.  He also links his perspective on the press to the insights of Lou Cannon's biography of Reagan:

At times, did Reagan work from the type of “script” Rhett Dawson [counsel for the Tower Commission] demanded? Yes, but your “press corps” works from such scripts every day. No wonder they see a congenial figure in the man who good-naturedly claimed, to two different world figures, that he had filmed the Nazi death camps. Yes, Reagan often made strange claims. But none of his claims were half as strange as the claims your “press corps” makes routinely. Your brain will now recommend denial, telling you this can’t be so. We suggest you read Cannon’s books, then watch an hour of cable.

If I'm on the same wavelength as the Howler on this, I must be doing something right!