Fred Hiatt: I Don't Know Nothin' About the News, Miz Scarlett

On Monday, Fred Hiatt pointed out that a lot of Dems believe that the GOP can't win on the issues. On this score, he's absolutely right: a lot of us believe that. Can you think of a better explanation for McCain's emphasis on race cards, tire gauges, Paris Hilton, and the like? Me either.

Hiatt follows up with this nugget:

But a bigger danger of this faith in the superiority of Democratic policies, ironically, may be insufficient attention to making the case.

O-kay. Obama has made speeches addressing in detail the major issues of the day, and many of the minor ones too. His website is loaded with white papers and the like. By comparison, McCain's speeches, and website, have the policy depth one would expect from a middlin' high-school student of conservative leanings.

One side owns 'making the case.' The other side barely bothers to pretend. It's clear which side is which.

How does Hiatt, the editorial page editor of the Washington Post, not know this?

Well, Hiatt's only in charge of opinions at the WaPo. News is someone else's department.

So you gotta feel sorry for Hiatt. He's got no idea that Obama has been making the case in great detail all along, because the news pages of the WaPo hadn't shown him any of that, what with being busy covering things like how the "race card" claim is playing with voters. He's got every reason to think Obama's speeches and papers dealing with the issues are as nonexistent as their substantive coverage in his newspaper.

Poor Fred Hiatt. If only he could get the actual news somewhere.