This is journalism?
A hard hitting “analysis” from the AP:
Analysis: Obama revels in contrasts with McCain
Barack Obama has found something that eluded him during the primary season — contrast. And, he’s basking in it…These days, Obama assails McCain’s position on the issues every chance he gets. He levels his charges with a commonsense tone and lighthearted touch that couches the criticism while making his core argument: McCain and President Bush are the same.
Is this a “commonsense tone“? Is this a “lighthearted touch“? Ah, well, this is what we can expect from the sentinels of democracy all the way to November. Strap in.
UPDATE
A more sober tone in a piece about John McCain:
Iran has condemned U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain for joking about killing Iranians with cigarettes and said it showed his “warmongering” foreign policy attitude, media said on Sunday. McCain, who once sang in jest about bombing Iran, on Tuesday reacted to a report of rising U.S. cigarette exports to the Islamic Republic by saying it may be “a way of killing ‘em.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said: “McCain’s crude remark on the indiscriminate killing of the Iranian nation not only testifies to his disturbed state of mind, but also to his warmongering approach to foreign policy.”
As opposed to the “lighthearted” and “commonsense” Obama, McCain is “known for acerbic comments and for sometimes firing verbally from the hip.” So it goes.