Letter to Newsweek on Obama coverage

Dear Newsweek,

I am a Barack Obama supporter, but have been consistently dismayed by your magazine's lopsided, adulatory coverage of him. Your writers' enthusiasm for Obama may have clouded their objective judgment and Fourth Estate responsibility to inform the public and hold our leaders accountable. In order to be a better president, I think Obama needs his supporters to scrutinize and give honest feedback, not add to his ample supply of cheerleaders. While several editorials this year, especially from Jonathan Alter, have justifiably criticized John McCain's campaign decisions, personality, and positions, I have not observed a similar degree of scrutiny for Obama. Apart from exposing "Doodad Pro" and other fraudulent donors to Obama's website in the Oct. 13 issue, he appears almost faultless in the eyes of your journalists. Every politician has faults, and it does not help Obama or America at all by excusing or overlooking them.

As an example of Obama exuberance drowning out reason, consider that in the same issue (Oct. 27), your writers contradict themselves on Obama's foreign policy style. Fareed Zakaria writes that Obama favors greater international cooperation, diplomacy, and would prefer to work with other nations than confront them as adversaries. That sounds excellent to me and many voters who tire of the George Bush approach. Yet four pages before, Alter claims that Obama's "hawkish" comments on unilaterally bombing our ally Pakistan to take out Osama bin Laden proves that he can restore tough defense credentials to the Democrats. So which Obama are we going to get? Obama's aggressive stance on Pakistan is exactly what he criticized Bush for regarding Iraq : go-it-alone hubris, lack of respect for sensitive regional politics, and impulsive use of force that may result in worse anti-American blowback down the road. Our recent brazen attacks within Pakistan have been terribly problematic and destabilizing for the fragile post-Musharraf coalition. Losing our nuclear ally Pakistan to internal chaos is a lot more damaging to our interests and global stability than Osama still alive, but contained in the remote tribal belt. Does Alter or Obama realize that?