LiveWire

When my husband and I lived in Israel, about a million years ago (Ok, it was 1970, but it feels like a very long time ago), there was no Internet. There were no cell phones. And calling the U.S. was very expensive: twelve dollars a minute. (Sounds like a lot of money? In 1970, it was considered a small fortune.) When our first child was born in Jerusalem, we sent telegrams to our families in the U.S.

There were, however, lots of newspapers. Unfortunately, no American ones. I would have felt totally cut off from whatever was happening  in the U.S., except for one saving grace: Time Magazine. Once a week, I would take the bus to the center of Jerusalem, to the “international newsstand.” There, among the many Hebrew, as well as Polish, Hungarian and who knows what other languages, I would get the latest edition of Time. It cost me several dollars (at a time when, back in the U.S., the newsstand price was fifty cents), but I considered it a necessity. I needed to know what was happening back home.

When we returned to the U.S., I practically “overdosed” on newspapers, and I stopped reading Time on a regular basis. And, when my political leaning shifted to the right, I stopped reading it altogether.

Anyway, I was wondering if you were as surprised as I was by the  cover of Time two weeks ago – a picture of Putin, with the caption:  “America’s weak and waffling. Russia’s rich and resurgent—and its leader doesn’t care what anybody thinks of him.”

You didn’t see it? Oh wait… neither did I.

via The Weekly Standard:

…Well, that’s because it ran on the magazine’s Asia, South Pacific, and European editions. The U.S. edition ran with Texas A&M’s quarterback sensation Johnny Manziel, under the headline “It’s Time to Pay College Athletes.”

We’ll concede that a college football cover on the U.S. edition might sell better than the Putin cover. Still, it’s fair to suspect that Time may be covering for our incompetent commander in chief. Last week, it was announced that Richard Stengel, the managing editor of Time for the last seven years, is departing the magazine to work for Secretary of State John Kerry. And in case you had forgotten, the current White House spokesman Jay Carney came to the administration from, yes, Time. Since 2009, at least 15 journalists have joined the Obama administration….

With such seamless integration between the White House and the Fourth Estate, you can bet that the media think criticism of the Obama administration amounts to friendly fire. Indeed, after a week or so of pathetic rearguard attempts to deny the undeniable fact that Putin has rendered our president “weak and waffling,” they are now in full retreat….Politico editor John F. Harris co-bylined a piece for his publication headlined “And what’s right with President Obama?” In case you had forgotten, Harris wants you to know, “His smile remains dazzling, even if he flashes it less often.” …And, Harris assures us, Obama’s “longstanding ability to coolly assess his circumstances and then adapt to them means that he is still better positioned than most of his peers to work his way out of problems.”

Really, Mr. Harris? Because, without the help of fawning media sycophants like you,  POTUS-with-the-still-dazzling-smile wouldn’t be able to work his way out of a paper bag.

Just saying…