Another View

Glenn Reynolds, who blogs at Instapundit, has a column up over at the Wall Street Journal regarding the port deal. I sometimes agree and sometimes disagree with Reynolds, but I always like to read his columns to get a little bit of a different viewpoint on things. Jim, you and he may not agree on this deal, but you certainly DO agree on the White House's reaction to the uproar, to wit:

As I write this, it's not clear where the rest of the debate is headed, but there are already some useful lessons for the White House. First, blogs make an excellent early warning system. The White House, unaccountably, seems to have been blindsided by the furor over this deal, though most people's gut reaction was negative. As with the many bloggers like me who changed their minds, gut reactions can be overcome by evidence -- but the White House should have taken advantage of this early warning to have its arguments in order. It didn't.

That's the second lesson: The White House should not only have read blogs, but responded to them with information and arguments, rather than waiting for blog readers to weigh in. As Rich Galen observed on Wednesday, "It is an issue of this administration having a continuing problem with understanding how these things will play in the public's mind and not taking steps to set the stage so these things don't come as a shock and are presented in their worst possible light." Paying more attention to the blogs won't solve that problem. But it will help.

Read the whole article.