Sunday, May 08, 2005
Wishful Prophecies
CNN's report that Labour MPs are calling for Blair's ouster is one of the less impressive pieces of reporting I've read recently.
Essentially, their article assesses the depth of exhaustion with Blair by talking to his enemies within Labour. It makes no effort to find MPs in the middle of debate, but instead settles for the people acting to undo him - most of them opponents of his over the Iraq war. These people would be demanding Blair's resignation no matter how large his parliamentary majority.
Politicians are often artists at creating self-fulfilling prophecies through media blitzes - witness Karl Rove's election efforts to create a premature victory narrative by dispatching Dubya to dark blue states like California or New Jersey - but this is all a little much. The fact of the matter is that Blair won, and he beat the worst case scenarios that people were holding out for him. I've read too many obituaries for Blair to find this one persuasive - especially in light of its transparently thin reporting.
Essentially, their article assesses the depth of exhaustion with Blair by talking to his enemies within Labour. It makes no effort to find MPs in the middle of debate, but instead settles for the people acting to undo him - most of them opponents of his over the Iraq war. These people would be demanding Blair's resignation no matter how large his parliamentary majority.
Politicians are often artists at creating self-fulfilling prophecies through media blitzes - witness Karl Rove's election efforts to create a premature victory narrative by dispatching Dubya to dark blue states like California or New Jersey - but this is all a little much. The fact of the matter is that Blair won, and he beat the worst case scenarios that people were holding out for him. I've read too many obituaries for Blair to find this one persuasive - especially in light of its transparently thin reporting.
