Not Engaging My Critics, Vol. 1

A regular round-up of extremely critical appraisals of my work, here displayed with only the comment that the writers in question cannot comprehend a world where an observation about what is, is not necessarily equivalent to a belief about what ought to be.

From Ace of Spades, on President Obama and the oil spill:

Yes, Marc Ambinder, he can win -- he can do something about the oil slick.

Not just talk about it or "strike the right emotional notes," but actually do something about it, something tangible, something real, something with real-world impact.

That's how he "wins," dude. And that, I'm sad to report, is the onlyway he wins.

But liberals are determined to believe that Obama can "win," as he has his whole life, not by actually accomplishing anything but by giving a nice speech.

From some guy on The Daily Caller website:

Ambinder's defense is the stock defense of all those involved in this seamy underworld of co-optation: This is how Washington works. Power holders like to socialize, and journalists only stand to gain by getting as close to them as they can whenever an opportunity presents itself. And in case anyone doubts that getting super-soaked by a boat-shoed Rahm Emanuel won't lead to scoops that serve readers, well, what the hell do you know? Probably not as much as Ambinder, the editor of the politics channel at the Atlantic, a political consultant to CBS, and a former editor at ABC News. And now a flack for the Obama White House.

And then there's this: @notmarcambinder, a serviceable approximation of my brain, if I do say so myself. 

I wish he or she would update the picture, though.