'NY Times,' Everyone Else Gaga Over Obama

I don't find myself agreeing with Jonah Goldberg a whole lot, but his column today on "Obama Fever" is right on the money.

The media love-fest directed at Barack Obama over the past few days has been something to behold. Even conservatives like the National Review's Rich Lowry are finding themselves swept away by it, notes Howard Kurtz in The Washington Post.

But most remarkable is the coverage Obama's been getting from The New York Times ever since his win in Iowa. After reading this piece on Saturday -- headlined "Daring to Believe, Blacks Savor Obama Victory" -- I put down my paper and remarked to my wife, "The Times has gone gaga for Obama."

And that was before I got Sunday's paper, in which Frank Rich opened by saying, "After so many years of fear and loathing, we had almost forgotten what it's like to feel good about our country," and Maureen Dowd made it through an entire column without using "Obambi." (Of course, Dowd's loathing for Hillary Clinton has always outweighed her self-regarding contempt for everybody else.)

Today's paper contains only trace amounts of balance. Aside from this page-one story saying Obama is "like catnip for many people younger than 30," there's a faintly critical story accusing him of limiting his press availability to preserve his front-runner status. And then there's David Brooks, who indulging his usual preference for sweeping generalizations over inconvenient facts, calls Obama "an orthodox liberal" who "never tells audiences anything that might make them uncomfortable." Maybe Rich Lowry should give Brooks a talking-to.