Doug Schoen: All Super Pacs are bad, except

Doug Schoen is a columnist for Forbes magazine.

He authored an opinion piece that denounced a super PAC for considering using an anti Obama ad that uses material from President Obama's former pastor, Rev Jeremiah Wright. He calls this inexcusable, disgusting and some other names although he seems to acknowledge that the ad was never produced.

Then he says it is a shame that a pro Obama super PAC was forced to put out anti Romney ads in response. Yes, it seems Schoen believes or, possibly is pretending to believe that an ad that didn't get aired is disgusting and shameful, etc. but that the attack ad in response was necessary to counteract the non existent ad.

If he is pretending to believe it, then he is a hypocrite but it is quite possible he believes it.

Schoen's opinion piece is here.

Frank Bruni (NYTimes) accuses

Frank Bruni was the food critic at the NYTimes for several years and now writes on general cultural subjects as well as on food.

In a recent opinion piece he had this to say (in speaking about Bristol Palin),

"...But she so perfectly distills the double standards and audacity of so many of our country’s self-appointed moralists and supposed traditionalists: hypocrites whose own histories, along with any sense of shame, tumble out the window as soon as there’s a microphone to be seized or check to be cashed."

Bruni's piece is full of lots of criticism of both Bristol Palin and Rush Limbaugh. However, I'm unable to follow his argument. As best as I can tell, the accusation of hypocrisy against Bristol Palin is that she has criticized gay marriage while, herself being an unwed mother. I don't understand what one thing has to do with another. Bruni also attacks the Palin assertion that children are better off in a nuclear family than otherwise. Bruni does not accuse Palin of having no facts on which to base the assertion (which would be true) but instead criticizes Palin's ex fiance.

With respect to Limbaugh, Bruni says that since Limbaugh has been married four times, he shouldn't criticize gay marriage. Again, I'm unable to understand what one thing has to do with another.

Bruni's opinion piece is here.

NR Editor Johnathon Cohn admits something

Johnathon Cohn is a senior editor at the New Republic (the image is from about a few years ago when Cohn was already working on the health care issue).

He is a fan of the Affordable Health Care Act (aka Obamacare).

He recently wrote a piece stating that since the revenues raised by the insurance mandate are actually taxes, that then Obamacare is constitutional. I'm not going to comment about that.

Subsequent to his first piece on the subject, someone wrote to him and said that, if the mandate is a tax, then President Obama was breaking his 'no tax increases for people making under $250k/year' promise). Mr. Cohn essentially admits that this is true. If so, it would make Obama a hypocrite for saying one thing and meaning another, at least when the mandate takes effect (it is scheduled for 2014 as of this post) and assuming that Obama knew what Cohn knows which is likely. Interestingly, that does not bother  Johnathon Cohn in the slightest and I don't think it bothers many people either. The reason, I think, is that almost no one believed Obama when he made the promise.

Thus Cohn is admitting Obama is a hypocrite and implying that this hypocrisy was necessary for the common good. 

Cohn's article is here.


Note: my father subscribed to the New Republic for a few years before he died and my mom kept the subscription until she died - I renewed it once after she died in my own name but then did not renew it after that).