all of this has happened before...

one of the things that's so sad about gary welsh's anti-obama schtick is that it's so unoriginal. roy edroso has his number:

If you missed the one on Michelle Obama, now might be a good time to have a look, as conservatives are complaining that the "Whitey" Tape story is being pinned on them unfairly. Of course Larry Johnson got that ball rolling, and the smarter conservatives refused to fall for it. So instead of telling us that the story was true, they told us it was believable, given the towering evil of Mrs. Obama. It's an old blogosphere trick, but not so well known that it doesn't bear pointing out.

that's pretty much the ultimate "shorter gary welsh", condensed to its essence. but roy wasn't writing about gary; i'd be surprised if he'd ever even heard of gary or his blog.

far from being an intrepid journalist as gary pretends, his "reporting" on obama is nothing more than an echo of something much larger. there are thousands just like him throughout the country, repeating the same smears and smug self-justifications, and they're largely interchangeable.

not only is gary's obama blogging credulous, over-the-top, sleazy, and slanderous, but it's boring. it's been done before, on a thousand other blogs. at least when gary writes about indiana politics, even when he's at his worst, there's a fair chance that i haven't heard it before. his obama blogging is just banal.

in the early days of this blog, i wrote far more about national politics. these days i generally don't, other than the occasional short post to note major events. i just feel redundant; there are so many blogs out there discussing national politics that i rarely feel i have anything new to add. i'm an artist and the blog is just one of my projects; i don't have time to compete at that level. most of my posts now are about indiana politics because it's easier to be relevant in the much-smaller pool of indiana blogs.

in contrast, gary's blog is called "advance indiana"! what do larry sinclair or michelle obama have to do with advancing indiana, or for that matter, "re-affirming our state's constitutional principles"? gary's obama rants aren't even on-topic! ¶