What links disgraced NY Gov-until-Monday Eliot Spitzer and Democratic presidential frontrunner Barack Obama? Something more than party, but something less than a prostitution ring (though if Steve Kroft asked me about it enough times, I too might add the “afaik” qualifier).
At the Wall Street Journal, Kimberley A. Strassel surveys the media coverage Spitzer once got:
Time magazine bestowed upon Mr. Spitzer the title “Crusader of the Year,” and likened him to Moses. Fortune dubbed him the “Enforcer.” A fawning article in the Atlantic Monthly in 2004 explained he was “a rock star,” and “the Democratic Party’s future.” In an uncritical 2006 biography, then Washington Post reporter Brooke Masters compared the attorney general to no less than Teddy Roosevelt.
Obama has received similarly fawning media coverage, which seems unlikely to change much, as the scribes on Obama’s press bus find it tough to avoid the Kool-Aid, while the Beltway press elite is more interested in its Narrative.  Left-leaning punditry is either blind to or trying to ignore the possible scandals lurking in Obama’s background, lest anyone note that the new Emperor’s wardrobe might be lacking.
Even more than Spitzer, Obama is likened to a “rock star.” However, anyone who has seen an episode of VH1’s “Behind the Music” or the E! “True Hollywood Story” knows just how frequently the quest for money, fame and power lead to hubris, excess and scandal. They are cautionary tales with an arc as old as Icarus. Journalists love writing that story, so much so that they seemingly have become an integral part of its modern incarnation.
(h/t Memeorandum.)
Did you link to the Rolling Stone cover, Karl? Poor Dr. Hook.
If not, it’s over at Hot Air.
I do not think that these people realize that the “rock star” story tends to end badly. Just watch any VH1 Behind the Scenes. Or look at Britney Spears, Keith Richards, etc …
*SNORE*
I wonder. How would Michelle Obama react to revelations that her husband paid for dirty sex?
Dan,
Given my usual web gig, I saw the RS cover long before HotAir did. Was going to do a post on it (and the usual Wenner suck-up job inside), but it kinda slipped between the cracks.
cleo,
Everyone pretty much gathers that you’re asleep most of the time you comment, and got more out of this last one than your usual fare.
Actually, Karl, I was impressed that SemenKKKleo was able to type while sleeping. That is quite an accomplishment.
Well, the Obama/Clinton black and gender permutations do bring to mind Michael Jackson.
The Behind the Music/True Hollywood Story narrative doesn’t fit. It goes:
Flyover prole breaks for the bright city, flukes into wealth and power he can’t handle due to lumpen psycho-baggage and congenital irresponsibility, falls from the light, and is guided back into the world by caring professionals as religion-and-family rube invisible to public life, the mass non-person he was born to be.
It’s our pop-Leninist Icarus myth.
psycho,
You don’t see having someone very publicly under investigation by the FBI buy the yard to your new mansion as fitting into the first part of that schema? The kooky church?
The episode — if it is one — isn’t over yet, which is sorta my point.
Don’t forget they were both editors of the Harvard Law Review.
I wish they wouldn’t tease me like that.
Obama’s day is coming. In ’92 the Dems and the MSM floated the George H.W. Bush had an affair story. They did it this time with McCain. Watch your back Senator the MSM is out there waiting to pounce. My guess is there’s a Monica in the Messiah’s past.
They are cautionary tales with an arc as old as Icarus…
That right there is a beaut Karl.
Who will be the shining, life-giving, illuminating sun, that will expose the reskonistic wax beneath audacity’s wings?
From the Wiki link: “heroic audacity”. Heh.
Is Steve Kroft related to Sid and Marty Krofft? H.F. Punstuf? Because that would be so wrong on so many levels, and I don’t just mean Witchy-Poo.
roux – I remember that, and I remember the resounding horselaugh the MSM gave (after they took in a deep breath). It was too laughable even for them, George H.W. Bush was too Fred MacMurray to even contemplate having an affair. Cripes, he probably had gaiters on his socks!
[Aside – look, the cigarette boats were fun, but no one bought that. He would have been comfortable with a Pro-Line and taking the grandkids (everyone in a PFD) out to fish. I don’t care if he has sky-dived, he’s the National Grandpa, and a darn good one.]
But rockstar? That is a different thing altogether.
And in the Icarus story, no one remembers Daedalus. It is interesting that the lobby of the Airforce Museum as a statue of Icarus, when his flight went so…wrong, but none of his dad, even though Daedalus actually completed his mission.
I was always a little suspicious of Jimmy and his Magic Flute. NTTAWWT.
I think it is utterly ridulous for Obama to take responsibility for his pastor’s sermons 2001, 2003 or any year. Rev. Wright was called to ordained ministry, not Obama. He has to give in account for what he preaches, not Obama. He is just a member. Yes we can listen or not, we can choose to find another church home, but I don’t think this is fair. Secondly, why is Obama being connected to Spitzer? That is absolutely redicilous!! The media has gone crazy. It seems to be that Obama is getting too close to winning the Democratic nomination and people are afraid. Why is it so hard for an African American to run for president? All the candidates I have voted for all my life has been rich white men. Our world is not all white. Why does it portray white males always as leaders? There are other nationalities that can lead. Look at McCain, he is the worst representation for a president I have ever seen. But if it comes down to voting for Hillary if Obama is cheated out of the nomination, I would vote for McCain, a republican first. This nation is sick!! How do you think it looks to the other countries the message that America is promoting. It seems very much to me that America is saying that if you are a white man or woman, you can run for president, but anyone else, we will dig up all the dirt we can find to keep you out of office. Now that is the facts. You can denounce, reject or whatever you want to say, but it is the truth. At least that the message I am receiving and I’m sure I am not the only one. I pray for America to change and soon!! As a minister, I believe that the only thing that can change America is God, a power above and outside of this country. I am completely disgusted!!!
[…] Someone else is thinking about the whole Spitzer/Hussein thing like I am. Except in slightly more vague terms, I’ve got the whole “He’s already taken bribes from Rezko” angle… […]
[…] Someone else is thinking about the whole Spitzer/Hussein thing like I am. Except in slightly more vague terms, I’ve got the whole “He’s already taken bribes from Rezko” angle… […]
[…] Someone else is thinking about the whole Spitzer/Hussein thing like I am. Except in slightly more vague terms, I’ve got the whole “He’s already taken bribes from Rezko” angle… […]