Obama Wrote a Blog Post— and It Sucks

Last month, President Obama urged Congress to ignore bloggers (along with radio pundits, lobbyists, and professional activists) because they create "manufactured crises" (you can relive that stirring speech at Mediaite). It wasn't clear at the time what, exactly, Obama had against bloggers, writes Jonathan Chait in New York magazine, but now it is: "He resents bloggers because he is a failed blogger himself." Yesterday, the president penned his own blog post for the Huffington Post—and it's simply not very good, says Chait. The post, which calls on Congress to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act—which would ban workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation—is not wrong in ideology, he writes, but it is made with "limp reasoning."

"Obama simply repeats over and over that discrimination is wrong," writes Chait, but that's not what opponents of the law are arguing against—they believe it's unnecessary, a case of government butting-in to private contracts, and will inspire "frivolous lawsuits." The rest of Obama's post is just padded out with repeated calls to pass the ENDA—which is redundant, says Chait, given we already know how the president feels about it. "Arianna Huffington obviously knows how to attract an audience, but the decision to display such a weak op-ed is bizarre," writes Chait. His conclusion? "Obama should not quit his day job. Whatever that is." Click through to read the full column. (More Barack Obama stories.)