Passing Judgment

We are now on the 95th day of Barack Obama's presidency, and that revving sound you hear is the machinery of the media-industrial complex, gearing up for the Big Day.

There will be special sections, news analyses, cable logos and round-the-clock chatter as journalists race into their 100-day evaluations. This arbitrary benchmark has become nothing less than another opportunity for media marketing.

Some have already crossed the finish line, because, really, why wait for 100 days when you can scoop your colleagues on Day 89?

White House officials, I can tell you, find the whole exercise to be rather pointless, but have decided they have no choice but to play. If every reporter, anchor, columnist, host and blogger is going to be offering sweeping judgments on the Obama presidency, they want to accentuate the positive. That is why they disclosed late yesterday that the president will be holding a news conference on Wednesday, where he'll presumably evaluate himself. read more...