First, at the point where you’re pointing to comments made to a supporter by a Democratic candidate who lost the presidency more than 50 years ago, you’re reaching.

And, of course, you can’t impute the media’s biases to Obama unless you also accept (which you do not, in the last paragraph) imputing the entire Bush ideological complex (Fox, Republican hangers on, etc.) to the Republican party. Besides, apart from some isolated examples (the NY Times occasionally & Fox), the identification of the media as a Democratic surrogate is tired and empirically disproven. The media are out for one thing: money. Obama’s a better story this cycle. But when he messes up, that’s an even better story. They’re opportunists.

For the record, too, Obama has on multiple occasions chided the media for focusing on distractions. When Palin’s “babygate” story broke, Obama called out the blogs/networks that were boosting it and said he’d fire any staffer that used it for political gain. McCain, to his credit, asked conservative groups to stop calling Obama a Muslim – in the primaries. He’s now quite content to let lies spread, especially through his campaign ads, which he angrily defends to an increasingly skeptical press. If you want to talk about distractions, have a look at the ‘sex ed’ ad.

Onto Bush – his presidency was never anything but a culture war flare-up, his entire agenda a way of setting up an us-them dichotomy to his advantage, from gay-baiting to calling anyone who disagrees with him a “traitor.” If you’re honestly going to pretend that Bush, above all the rest of the Republican party, isn’t a preeminent culture warrior… then I don’t know what to say.

Thank you for your considered reply. I don’t believe you know what my characterization of New Yorkers is, because in my previous reply, I never characterized them at all. I gave examples of empirical experiences, largely subject to statistical variances. FWIW, I believe for the most part, New Yorkers get a bum rap.

As to “Democrats have never put a politician in place who’s said anything but” – I don’t know how old you are, and it’s none of my business, but if you’re old enough to have been around, back when a supportive heckler interrupted Adlai Stevenson with “every thinking person in America supports you,” and he replied “Yes, but to win I need a majority,” – then I’m sorry, but your memory is short.

You’re also missing the point: Democrats have not often needed to resort to this kind of name-calling, because they are happy to let the cheering media do it for them. True, Barack Obama never, never named Sarah Palin when he made the “lipstick on a pig” comment, never mentioned her, but as the video shows, his crowd erupted in delightful laughter and applause. It should be clear enough to any neutral observer that they knew exactly what he meant, and that he was counting on it: The media did the groundwork for him. I’m not re-hashing this silly distraction just for its own sake, I simply mention it as an example, one of many. Democrats don’t get off the hook for “never saying anything but.” They’ll get off MY hook when they show a backbone, and at the risk of losing popularity, chide the media for distracting Americans with these idiocies. Because it’s a foregone conclusion that when conservatives chide the media, they’re simply angry white whatever.

I believe it is your turn to cite an example of Bush indulging in name-calling. I’m not saying you’re wrong and he never did, just asking. And if what you really meant was, not Bush himself but “people like Bush” – then I beg you to explain what you mean by “people like Bush” and how it would be different from me “characterizing” New Yorkers as “People like Paul Krugman” (which I haven’t).

Having been a real New Yorker, too, along with a real Texan & Georgian, I have to disagree with your characterization of NYCers. People here are polite too, just in a different way: “hey, yo, can I help youz,” instead of, “excuse me sir, are you lost?” etc. Democrats have never put a politician in office who’s said anything but. The Republicans have, and want to do so again.