THE LIBERAL MEDIA LIKES LIBERAL POLITICIANS, EXCEPT WHEN THEY'RE LIBERAL

The Washington Monthly's Ed Kilgore is looking at the present moment, and he thinks it looks a lot like early 2009:

... Here’s the emerging MSM narrative of the national political scene:

President Obama, having "shifted to the left" since winning re-election, is in a popularity free fall because of his harsh partisan treatment of Republicans and his false prophecies of the negative impact of the taste of austerity offered by an appropriations sequester his staff invented in the first place. Moderate Democrats are fleeing him in hordes, and/or preparing to triangulate against his old-school liberalism.

Republicans, meanwhile, having "rebranded" themselves and shown they are willing to adjust to defeat by bravely attacking the memory of Todd Akin and considering a change in their posture on immigration that's half-way down the path back to that of George W. Bush, have at the same time held fast on making "runaway spending" their obsession. And they have a new hero: Rand Paul, whose 13-hour filibuster last week showed that principle-based confrontation is the best, the only, the eternal way to secure conservative victory....

All of which, says Ed, may be leading to another good midterm showing for the GOP, which would be "enough to convince conservatives all over again that extremism bears no significant political risks."

Argh.

Of the Republicans, Digby says:

The truth is that they never really lose their mojo. They might lie back for a little while and catch their breath.... the question we really need to ask ourselves is how they are able to dominate our politics even when they are in the minority.

How do Republicans manage to dominate our politics? I blame the elite media -- even though I think most people in the elite media are culturally liberal, and it's probably true that most of them vote Democratic, and most of them seemed to like Barack Obama more than they liked John McCain or Mitt Romney.

But while they seem to want Democrats to win, they want them to govern as Republicans. Oh, maybe not hardcore wingnut Republicans. But Republicans nonetheless. They want them to move right. How far to the right? Well, however far Democrats move to the right, the media wants them to move further. Because, see, that's where the center is: it's always just to the right of the rightmost point Democrats are willing to occupy.

As soon as Barack Obama took office in 2009, members of the elite media were suddenly horrified that he intended to do some the stuff he said he'd do when he was running. That was terrible! He was supposed to repudiate himself and move right! And although he did move right on some things, he didn't move far enough right. Because a Democratic president can't. Wherever he is is too far left -- even if it's exactly where he was when he was running (and getting good press coverage from the elite media).

It happened four years ago to Obama. It's happening again.

Most members of the elite media are too sophisticated to be a natural fit for the Republican Party -- but they hate themselves for this. So as soon as it's time to get down to governing, the Republican propaganda colonizes their minds. And they take out their self-hate on elected Democrats.