So says blogger publius at Osidian Wings, proving once again why the traditional press has a disdain for liberal bloggers--they make reporters look bad.

The premise of Cooper's weekend article was that Obama loves to build up strawmen arguments about his critics (“some say....”) and then knock them down. Cooper claims that Obama makes up stuff all the time about his critics, assigning them accusations they would never really make.

Enter Osidian Wings:

So let's say I'm Helene Cooper of the NYT. And let's say I have a great idea for an article -- the premise is that Obama knocks down pretend strawmen in his speeches just like Bush used to do (e.g., “Some have said...”).

It would be a good idea for an article -- if it were true. But it's not, as about 15 minutes of Google and Lexis would show. But Cooper went ahead and wrote it anyway.

Bottom line: the Times never should have run the piece simply because it completely failed to prove the article's central point; that Obama manufactures strawmen arguments just for show.