The Glaring Idiocy of Political Reporters

As pointed out by a political pundit:

You can argue about how important a role Obama’s platform played in his victory. But, to read any newspaper in the days following the election, you’d think that Obama had to start crafting his agenda completely from scratch. “He ran on a platform to change the country and its politics,” wrote Washington Post lead political analyst Dan Balz. “Now he must begin to spell out exactly how.” Now? I thought that by the end of the campaign even blind and deaf hermits could tell you that Obama had a plan that could be found at barackobama.com/plan. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that political reporters don’t feel compelled to familiarize themselves with the candidates’ programs in detail, but they should, at minimum, be aware of their existence.

Jonathan Chait at The New Republic – pointing out one of my pet peeves about the immediate post-election coverage.