Feats of clay

By Carl

From your mouth to God's ear, Lou:

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs is seriously considering running for U.S. Senate in New Jersey as "an intermediary step" that could lead to a run for the White House.

Dobbs told former Sen. Fred Thompson's radio program on Monday that he had been urged to run for president and would talk to some people about it.

Ironic, isn't it, that Dobbs would make this rather curious statement on the radio program of a fellow dragged into a Presidential primary season he was neither enthusiastic or prepared for.

But I digress...

We speak often of politics as a bubble in this country, that people who run for office and particularly incumbents, are out of touch with the common man and the common problems we face.

You'd think this would not be the case for a man who just spent his entire adult life covering news stories. Three years ago, I might have agreed with you.

I think the downfall of Dobbs from CNN was less a matter of his instigating commentary on his program, in particular with regards to immigration reform, and more about hubris.

Some leaders in media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond the role here at CNN," Dobbs told viewers, "and to engage in constructive problem-solving, as well as to contribute positively to a better understanding of the great issues of our day.

Pho, as they say. That's quite the load Dobbs is asking us to swallow.

Dobbs has lived in an echo chamber these past few years, I suspect. He's had his ego stroked, pampered and inflated because, well, yes, he brought in ratings.

But he brought in ratings based on anger and hate, not because he proposed solutions to problems that either made sense or could be enacted. Rounding up 23 million people (rough estimate) and sending them on their merry way, then shutting the door behind them would not be easy, and indeed, would be economically disastrous for American workers.

Anyone who watched or read Dobbs' articles would have been struck by the intense anger this man feels towards people who, admittedly, are here illegally. It's almost as if his wife had an affair with one of his gardeners or something.

But here's Dobbs, willingly naive about the popularity he enjoys beyond his insular and insulated bubble.

Good for him, I say! Let him run, and be a shining example to the Glenn Becks and Rush Limbaughs of the world. It's easy to sit on your fat ass and postulate, pundulate, and prognosticate from the comfort of your Herman Miller Aeron chair, but to actually get up and go out and meet people and try to explain your hatred to an audience sitting sober and in a formal setting....meh, not so much!

Dobbs will have his lunch eaten and his hat handed to him, and that will be the end of advocacy journalism as we know it. Good riddance, says I.

(Cross-posted to Simply Left Behind.)