This Is Why I Keep Archives.*

This post from October of 2012 is a real artifact of the Before Time.  The lede originally consisted of two videos, one long since taken down, the other now tagged as private.  And a big chunk of the post was from Andrew Sullivan's section at The Daily Beast blog* which Tina Brown gave him when she was running the place and which no longer exists.  And the time, between his own blog, The Daily Dish (and thanks to GrafZeppelin127 for the catch)* Sullivan bid fair to being the most read non-mainstream-media politics and media person on the internet.

Also bear in mind that this was about Barack Obama's first presidential debate with Mitt Romney which took place in October, not June.  

Let us proceed.

From this very blog, October 9, 2012 (before I'd begun the "Stupid Shit Andrew Sullivan Says" Feature.)

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Andrew Sullivan

Based on President Obama's one-sentence joke about his people making him "do his homework", Mr. Sullivan (who has to-date penned over one million "Newsweek" cover articles which, in their aggregate, make Obama out to be the Magic Black Gay Risen Gandalf Christ) concludes that POTUS is...

... 

Too arrogant to take a core campaign responsibility seriously. Too arrogant to give his supporters what they deserve. If he now came out and said he supports Simpson-Bowles in its entirety, it would look desperate, but now that Romney has junked every proposal he ever told his base, and we're in mid-October, it's Obama's only chance on the economy.

... 

I've never seen a candidate self-destruct for no external reason this late in a campaign before. Gore was better in his first debate - and he threw a solid lead into the trash that night. Even Bush was better in 2004 than Obama last week. Even Reagan's meandering mess in 1984 was better - and he had approaching Alzheimer's to blame. 

I'm trying to see a silver lining. But when a president self-immolates on live TV, and his opponent shines with lies and smiles, and a record number of people watch, it's hard to see how a president and his party recover. I'm not giving up. If the lies and propaganda of the last four years work even after Obama had managed to fight back solidly against them to get a clear and solid lead in critical states, then reality-based government is over in this country again. We're back to Bush-Cheney, but more extreme. We have to find a way to avoid that. Much, much more than Obama's vanity is at stake.

So another Surrogate Daddy has broken Mr. Sullivan's heart.  Well, I'm sure he'll find someone else's media image to fling himself into sooner or later.

Meanwhile Mr. Sullivan, if you want a real joy ride, then try the Full Liberal Experience by rinsing and repeating the disappointment you feel at this moment over and over again for 30 or 40 years.  

Experience to gen-u-ine thrill of...

...being right about really important issues. 

...being excluded from any conversation of those really important issues because Liberals are icky and hate America! 

...watching the national dialogue about those important issues being framed by fascists, theocrats, imbeciles and corporate popinjays floating crackpot theories that have all failed dozens times before. 

...being mocked and marginalized as an America-hating, cut-and-run Commie Fifth Columnist for opposing the fascists, theocrats, imbeciles and corporate popinjays and their crackpot theories that have all failed dozens times before.  

...watching your country being driven to ruin by fascists, theocrats, imbeciles and corporate popinjays all implementing their crackpot theories that have all failed dozens times before.   

...watching the fascists, theocrats, imbeciles and corporate popinjays emerge unscathed from the rubble of the catastrophe their crackpot theories have once again created.  Unscathed and loudly proclaiming slogans like "No one could have predicted this would happen!" and "If Only Both Sides Hadn't Been So Partisan!"  and "The problem was that our crackpot theories were not implemented fully and purely enough, but next time..." 

...and then watching as the same fascists, theocrats, imbeciles and corporate popinjays gear up to do it all over again.

That, Mr Sullivan, has been the reality of being an American Liberal for the last several decades: despised, marginalized, constantly disappointed by weak leaders, horrified by the outright, giddy thuggery, lies, bigotry and treason of the Right, enraged by the cowardice and complicity of most of the media and, despite it all, steadfastly engaged in the long-term project of building our more perfect union.

And that, Mr. Sullivan, is a life you cannot handle.

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And you know what?  Turns out he couldn't handle it.  

I Am The Liberal Media