Obama is right, the pundits are clueless

Washington Post writer Chris Cillizza, a good guy with a great sense of humor, is among my least favorite pundits. The reason is simple: He is a perfect creature of the DC Echo Chamber, an inbred warrior of the Conventional Wisdom who loves living deep inside the hermetically-sealed media bubble he helps to keep intact. He relishes peddling the "process story," the meme-driven narrative that focuses entirely on palace intrigue, who's up, who's down and related minutiae -- exactly the stuff regular Americans could care less about. But Cillizza was still tasked with coming up with a new twist on the latest inside-the-beltway obsession: Obama's low poll numbers. "He's at the lowest point in his presidency," the meme goes. And unless Obama makes the "wholesale changes" that bomb-thrower James Carville is screaming about on CNN, he's doomed (again). So today Cillizza decided to weave a story about the echo chamber itself and why Obama should listen to its "wisdom." Yeah, that's the ticket! Obamaland, Cillizza writes, thinks "the D.C. chattering class doesn’t have any idea what regular people think. ... But what if Obama and his advisers are wrong?" Except they're not wrong. The media are predictably overreacting to late breaking polls (Obama is at 43% favorability) that are basically meaningless 14 months out from the election. That's why the White House is (rightly) yawning at the news. As I said at the top, Cillizza really is a good guy who doesn't take himself too seriously. He's also whip-smart. And in his heart of hearts, he's no vacant-eyed pundit. He just plays one on TV, as the cliche goes, and the pay is good. But this cheeky way of life is not cost free. Cillizza and his media compadres are a principal reason why our body politic is broken. Moreover, Mr. Obama is right to ignore them.