It's the media, stupid (it always is, isn't it?)

Bush made the speech he should have made two or three weeks ago to the National Newspaper Association today, not that it necessarily would have mattered, considering the perfect storm around the Dubai ports controversy. The media, in its almost ritualized desire to get Bush on every occasion, piled on the late-blooming story with such alacrity that the public immediately made it difficult for our spineless politicians to examine the matter in anything resembling a dispassionate manner. As I noted yesterday, I had not made up my mind on this subject, and still haven’t. But I do know the decision-making process was a disgrace. Since how we interface with the Islamic world is by far the most important issue we face today, if it turns out Bush was right on this one, as he may have been, then our media and politicians have, once again, a lot to answer for.