In the article Assessing midterm losses, Democrats ask whether Obama’s White House fully grasped voters’ fears By Karen Tumulty and Dan Balz Washington Post staff writers, I found a paragraph that triggers my disdain for how political reporting is done.  I sent the authors the following email:

The following quote epitomizes what is wrong with political reporting these days.

“But there will be many tough calls to make as Obama tries to decide how far he can go toward compromising with the Republicans without alienating the left in his own party.”

You think that politics is all about wining and losing elections. Did you ever stop to think that politics is about governing the country?

You could just as easily have said:

“But there will be many tough calls to make as Obama tries to decide how far he can go toward compromising with the Republicans without destroying his plan for repairing the country’s economy.”

Both statements may be true. One shows that politics is a game of winning and losing. The other shows that politics is about governing to promote the success of the country.

If cynicism has deprived you of the ability to relate to what is important, perhaps it is time to transfer to a different beat.

I cannot imagine Walter Cronkite or any of the leading news anchors of his time (except perhaps for David Brinkley) treating, on the air, the serious issues of politics and governing of this country as something to laugh at and trivialize while ignoring the importance of the impact on the future of the country and the world.