Hypocrites Calling Hypocrites Hypocrites

As has been widely reported on this blog and others, the New York Times released its Non-Fiction Bestseller list this morning and the anti-Obama diatribe The Obama Nation was at the top. It is there not because of the free-market, a mechanism that allowed the book to compete with others and achieve a level of popularity equivalent to the skill used to craft it, but in spite of the market.

Book sales have been largely driven by bulk orders from conservative book clubs, and what small percentage are based on direct retail sales are being boosted by a promotional campaign not just from the publisher (Threshold Editions, chaired by none other than Republican activist-cum-literary elite Mary Matlin) but by the entire Republican media conglomeration. The author has been interviewed dozens of times by talk-radio and FoxNews type outlets, sponsored of course by the commercial advertisers that help fund McCain's campaign.

In light of this blatant rigging of the system, the proposition that Obama had to take public financing in order to be as honest as McCain is ludicrous. McCain, like Bush before him, was counting on the assistance of a vast, right-wing conspiracy to mobilize his soldiers. The campaign is only secondary to a much larger and richer movement to make him the next President. Until there is an honest attempt by both parties to limit this sort of behavior, there will be no meaningful campaign finance reform. And if John "Maverick" McCain of McCain-Feingold fame isn't prepared to call this stuff out, then all of his talk about wanting an honest and fair system is just that.