Barack Obama Shows A Little Salsa

Several responses you have posted here refer to the pleasures of the flesh.
Is there a deep-rooted reason for the pre-occupation? Do you have issues in that regard? [Yet we have no shrinks in the Swamp - except the moonlighter textee who seems to know all that is wrong with the pres ..]

Scherer, you're being disingenous, aren't you? Aside from me being the childish equivalent of textee (validating your reasoned centrism), you can admit that there are numerous commenters here who treat you with respect, who genuinely attempt to engage you? I'm not one of them, of course. I have grave misgivings about the effectiveness of this aspect of the new media template. Whether you engage like KT or not, the product doesn't change. IMO, until proven otherwise, I see MSM engagement with the netroots as a Rahm-like attempt to coopt progressives--we're all in the veal pen now. We rant here in lieu of ranting on the streets. A wonderful pressure release for otherwise distracted citizens.
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Of course, my "loathing" is absurd hyperbole. It's as real as your hurt feelings. It's all cyber induced, fictitious rot. I don't loathe you b/c I don't know you. I loathe what you and Time represent. You're simply a convenient whipping post for unbridled populist rage against the machine that you front. In your eyes, you don't merit any of this scorn, you're not at all complicit in the failure of the great American experiment. Wonderful, whatever works for you man.
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But please don't mistake my criticism, childish, boorish etc. as a plea for engagement. I would question, however, if you consider this a blog or yourself a P-T blogger? If so, isn't it your obligation to get down here on the street, close to the dirty hippies and gun-nutters alike? As with your amazing take on Russia, you'll surely be a better writer for having such up-close and personal contact with the rabble, right?

MS, good to hear you're conscious of your isolation. Having grown up in the DC bubble, within that discourse circle if you like, having spent a couple of years on the hill, I know how different/surreal it can be relative to the rest of the country (sh!t relative to South Capitol Street, the timeless suffering I've observed there all my life). When politicians and the media who cover them are virtually set off from the street (literally right outside of the Longworth Bldg) what are the consequences, I wonder.
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And I missed your tea party reporting, though I guarantee I'd have no problem with the topic being covered. Discounting disproportion (vs. gay rights or anti-war protests), the Beck hysteria is by no means astro-turf alone. As Taibbi or GG have illustrated, it begins w/ populism, misguided, yes, but populism nonetheless.
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The problem progressives have with the media (textee = jc writ large) is one of equivalence ... the whole
"there are extremes on both sides of debate, and thus they must both be radical or wrong.” The MSM by and large is incapable of distinguishing between real & faux populism. But the energy is largely one and the same--against an estab. that goes unchallenged in congress or in MSM pub's. We naturally anticipate demagogues like Beck or Dobbs deluding the rabble, but it'd be far easier to refocus the people's energy if our media didn't take a pass (see: Jon Stewart's brilliant bit yesterday).
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So, inside baseball is fascinating to a pt. MS, but at some point you have to pick sides, don't you? From one ghost in the shell to another, we may lack your access/privileges, but you'd admit that you don't have to be inside to see the light, right?
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Maybe Chomsky is right and all of you are conditioned out of calling b-s long before you interview for your cush (& fleeting) gigs. But I've never embraced that aspect of his theory. There are great, principled folks working as journalists in America. Sadly, I think far too many are closeted, for fear of repercussions, or simply peer pressure, that finding the golden mean is so embraced in Versailles that daring to question its primacy is heresy. Colbert's stunning honesty a few years back at that roast comes to mind. The go home, make love to your wife…
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Anyway, your last comment is gracious and betrays an awareness of a lot of this, articulated or nay. Or perhaps it's a throwaway line, I don't know. I'd leave you with this, as someone about to welcome his first kid into the world: 20 years later, whatever you might be doing (and if I were you I'd entertain the notion that it might not be writing) I'd guess you'll be doing alright. When you're sitting around with family in your liberal enclave, maybe with a few kids at your knee, think ahead and wonder what you'll tell them you did to advance justice in a deeply flawed society on the brink. I admit it's a cheesy reverse carpe diem call to action, W-ever-TF that is. I say this b/c expatriate or nay, I have grave doubts about the world my kid will come to see (in a Cormac McCarthy sort of way).