Salon’s content-free critique of the punditocracy

Andrew Sullivan links to this Salon essay by Mike Madden and Walter Shapiro on the seven big mistakes made by the punditocracy.  Here they are: Sarah Palin would help the McCain ticket; McCain strategist Steve Schmidt was a genius The Price at the Pump Will Fuel the Mood of the Voters Obama should have accepted ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

Andrew Sullivan links to this Salon essay by Mike Madden and Walter Shapiro on the seven big mistakes made by the punditocracy.  Here they are: Sarah Palin would help the McCain ticket; McCain strategist Steve Schmidt was a genius The Price at the Pump Will Fuel the Mood of the Voters Obama should have accepted public financing Obama Was Guilty of Hubris in Trying to Expand the Electoral Map Down-ballot Democrats Will Flee From Obama The Hillary Holdouts Will Never Come Back Andrew is proud to say that he, "didn't buy any one of them."  Um, here's my question -- did anyone in the punditocracy actually buy into these arguments?  This is a serious question.  You'd think that Shapiro and Madden would be able to provide a linkfest of pundits who committed these seven sins.  Scanning the essay, however, all I can find are two links -- to a William Kristol essay on Palin and a Patrick Ruffini blog post about public financing.  That does not constitute the punditocracy.  Maybe I talk to and read different pundits, but most people I read committed, at most, one or two of these errors (Furthermore, I'd dispute that one of their seven errors is really an error -- judging by the amount of campaign rhetoric devoted to energy independence, energy prices still resonate as an issue).  Indeed, most independent analysts I know and trust had a common take on this stuff.  I ask readers to do Madden and Shapiro's work for them -- are they correct in their assessments, or is this just is a half-assed effort to tar the chattering class? 

Andrew Sullivan links to this Salon essay by Mike Madden and Walter Shapiro on the seven big mistakes made by the punditocracy.  Here they are:

  1. Sarah Palin would help the McCain ticket;
  2. McCain strategist Steve Schmidt was a genius
  3. The Price at the Pump Will Fuel the Mood of the Voters
  4. Obama should have accepted public financing
  5. Obama Was Guilty of Hubris in Trying to Expand the Electoral Map
  6. Down-ballot Democrats Will Flee From Obama
  7. The Hillary Holdouts Will Never Come Back

Andrew is proud to say that he, “didn’t buy any one of them.”  Um, here’s my question — did anyone in the punditocracy actually buy into these arguments?  This is a serious question.  You’d think that Shapiro and Madden would be able to provide a linkfest of pundits who committed these seven sins.  Scanning the essay, however, all I can find are two links — to a William Kristol essay on Palin and a Patrick Ruffini blog post about public financing.  That does not constitute the punditocracy.  Maybe I talk to and read different pundits, but most people I read committed, at most, one or two of these errors (Furthermore, I’d dispute that one of their seven errors is really an error — judging by the amount of campaign rhetoric devoted to energy independence, energy prices still resonate as an issue).  Indeed, most independent analysts I know and trust had a common take on this stuff.  I ask readers to do Madden and Shapiro’s work for them — are they correct in their assessments, or is this just is a half-assed effort to tar the chattering class? 

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

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