Booted by MSNBC, is Alterman Making a Pitch to be Obama's Press Secretary?

By Ken Silverstein

When you're attacked by political pundit Eric Alterman it can only mean you're doing something right—so I was pleased when Alterman wrote about me on the Huffington Post website last week. Alterman, whose blog was recently booted from the MSNBC website, is still whining about a story I wrote about him in the July 22, 1997, Village Voice, which he described as “an incompetent hit job” in his posting last Thursday. He went on to accuse me of writing another hit job on Senator Barack Obama in the November issue of Harper's.

I'm biased, of course, but I'd say the Voice piece was a very competent hit job on an insufferable windbag. The article focused on Alterman's hypocrisy in writing a book that attacked media pundits (Sound and Fury), then using that book as a springboard to a career as a pundit.

In Sound and Fury, Alterman criticized various pundits for their arrogance. But as I noted back then, it would be hard to top Alterman when it comes to arrogance. The Voice article cited a note he sent to media group FAIR, after they had published a special report on pundits that failed to mention the great man's masterwork. “I just read the October/November issue!” wrote Alterman. “It sucked! How the fuck can you publish a whole fucking issue on the pundits and ignore my fucking book? Where the fuck did you learn the word punditocracy anyway? Give me a fucking break.” (Incidentally, Alterman refused to answer questions for the story and then tried to get the article killed.)

As for my Obama story, it's no hit job. In the article, I described Obama as possibly the most charismatic Democrat since Robert F. Kennedy, and noted that he is sincere, well-intentioned, and genuinely interested in changing our political culture. The article did take stock of Obama's record in Washington, since much of it looks disappointingly conventional. Because Washington is so intensely hostile to reform and reformers, a progressive like Obama may not be able to accomplish much.

I also said that Obama was seen as a potential nominee for vice president in 2008, leading Alterman to respond, “That's right, vice president, not president, which as every sentient, politically aware individual knows, is the decision that [lies] before Barack right now.” Yet in a podcast about three weeks ago (well after my story shipped to the printer) Alterman said that, while Obama might “conceivably” run for president, John Edwards was the “strong favorite” to emerge as the anti-Hillary candidate, and that Alterman's “smart friends in Washington” thought Mark Warner (who was about to drop out) had a shot as well. But the “real hope,” and something Alterman said he'd been saying for the past two years, was a Gore–Obama ticket.

That's right—Obama as veep, not president. Alterman changed his talking points after Time magazine ran a cover story last week speculating about an Obama presidential run, so now, true to form, he is posturing as if he's been saying so all along.

I wonder about the wisdom of Obama running for president after serving only a few years in the Senate. He made a similarly hasty bid to win Congressman Bobby Rush's seat in 2000 after a brief stint in the Illinois senate, and he was soundly defeated. But if he does decide to mount a campaign, I would advise Robert Gibbs, Obama's current spokesman, to keep an eye on Alterman: his constant cheerleading is a sure sign that he's hoping one day to become President Obama's very own Tony Snow.

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