It arrived faster than even I feared. Big City political corruption and tactics like we're seeing here can survive in a city. One or two newspapers, possibly with conflicting interests resulting in the wrong influences are over-matched. They will not survive the scrutiny of even a shrinking national news presence on a daily basis.
The only way it works is if you presume there aren't some younger Woodward and Bernstein types around worrying about their own best shot, more so than Obama's. I don't buy it. Add in conflicting camps in the Democrat party - remember, pre-Obama these were more centrist Clintonites everywhere and they didn't just go away. In fact, Obama invited many of them into his administration because he had no foundation of support comprised of seasoned professionals.
Also see here. The speed of the news cycle and the world today is so fast, this stuff will take time - but not as much time as it did a decade ago. Via Michelle's link as above:
With intervention from Michelle Obama, the Americorps inspector general was given the boot and replaced — for doing his job too well, it seems, and uncovering squandering of funds by favored contributors, educational institutions, and left-wing groups.
The old Sacramento High School site that Kevin Johnson's group converted into 4 part charter school is a local joke. One of the 4 campuses left 2 years ago amid controversy. My daughter was one of the first graduates 2 years from the school that left St. Hope.
In speaking with the principal and others that were in the middle of the St Hope scam it was apparant that the campus was a money mill. There was little accountability for where the money was spent and the management was completely incompetant.
This IG did his job. The problem is the Chicago graft machine that is at work in both the White House and the local St. Hope campus can't be questioned by a pesky "Duddly Do Right" type. If "America is a mean place" had a hand in this it needs to be investigated.
I would choose the IG that they are trying to give the boot to! He seems to get results!
Posted by: SacTownMan | Friday, June 12, 2009 at 01:14 PM
I'm sad to say that I think you are dreaming here, Dan.
If there were any aspiring Woodward and Bernsteins in Chicago we would have known that Rev. Wright was a whack job racist as soon as Obama announced his candidacy.
No one in the media wants to know anything negative about Obama, so no one is going to go looking for negative stuff and any negative stuff that is out there is going to be totally, completely downplayed and excused.
Posted by: anon | Friday, June 12, 2009 at 01:53 PM
The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which. –George Orwell, Animal Farm (1945)
Posted by: mark l. | Friday, June 12, 2009 at 02:32 PM
We the people need to start screaming about all of the corruption that is going on in DC. They are killing the future of this country. 2010 elections, a lot of them have to go. Email or call your local politicians, the MSM and demand they cover the corruption, and call or email the white house also, to let them know we are not going to allow things like this to continue.
Posted by: TheBad | Friday, June 12, 2009 at 07:38 PM
The trouble with America is that our media has been made mercenary. A newspaper or other news outlet cannot have access to the president unless they say nice things. Any criticism will be completely ignored and the paper who is so forthright will be an outcast.
Posted by: picomanning | Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 02:37 AM