Marc Ambinder is leaving DC for LA. He lists what he's learned about the city. Number six:
The politico-media culture is obsessed with The Meta-Narrative, as if Baudrillard is enjoying a neo-American reconnaissance. When something happens, it is often much easier to place it into the context of a metaphor that captures something simpler to understand, often by applying a level of analysis that takes the thing out of its real context and Meta-izeses it. When Rush Limbaugh says something, the debate often turns on the people who have written about what he said; their motives and judgments are questioned more than his; somehow it becomes more important to ask "Why David Axelrod isn't slamming Bill Maher for calling Sarah Palin the C-word" than it is to keep Limbaugh's original action under a microscope.
Worse: some think this is actually more sophisticated than taking a stand on the core issues. Paul Waldman focuses on Marc's observation that politicians and "the media haven't developed the vocabulary to explain how positions evolve." That's because of the convention that somehow changing one's mind is a function of weakness rather than strength. See Bush v Kerry. And the entire Bush administration.
The Dish 