It is sad to see Bob Woodward coming to terms with the Chicago machine, which has now spread its cancer throughout Washington, D.C. It will be a painful experience for someone held in such high esteem by his peers. Here is what he faces:
On a personal level, dinner and cocktail party invitations will dry up. Obama supporters are a cult of personality. This appears to be true regardless of their educational level. Facts don’t matter. Reality can be shaped by rhetoric. (The awful truth for America will emerge much later.)
On a professional level, there will be a critical reassessment of Mr. Woodward’s journalistic career and contributions. Expect to see more critical articles like this one in the New Yorker. His personal virtues and vices, not his work itself, will be the subject of discussion.
Given his age, I would expect that Mr. Woodward is probably “old school” in terms of his journalistic archives. He probably has copious notes squirreled away in paper notebooks. He probably has audio recordings on tape. He probably has interviews that people in power perhaps wish he did not have.
The Woodward biography will be rewritten not by veteran reporters, but by today’s propagandists. This is because reducing Mr. Woodward’s stature is essential to blunting his message.
Regarding Woodward’s archives, I would expect his employer to assert ownership, on the basis of his employment and “work for hire” in the copyright law. Given his age (and its influence on habits), he is unlikely to have copies stored elsewhere. He may well lose access to his own archives.
Mr. Woodward’s reception by the entrenched government and media sycophants tells us a lot about America’s prospects of salvation through Obama. His supporters actually believe that we have unlimited money, the rule of law is only to be enforced against one’s enemies, and political patronage is the path to prosperity for the nation.
The world has been here before. Mr. Woodward has glimpsed this, and tried to issue a cautionary word. America’s leadership will have none of it. All Americans will pay the dreadful price.
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