What are the liberal media going to do, now that Obama has been elected President? Will they still label Stephen Harper a ‘Bush clone’?
Lorrie Goldstein makes an excellent case as to why this was an intellectually dishonest campaign right from the beginning – Bush League Reporting.
As Lorrie points out, many of the new President-elect’s viewpoints more closely reflect the Canadian Conservative government’s than did those of George Bush. And comparing Canadian Conservatives to American Republicans is misleading:
One of the most intellectually lazy and politically dishonest things the liberal media have done over the past few years is to constantly misrepresent Prime Minister Stephen Harper as a clone of outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush.
Lazy because the facts don’t support it. Dishonest because those making the comparison know better.
On the bright side, they now have a lot of splaining to do, given the number of political views Democratic presidentelect Barack Obama and Harper share and it will be fun to watch them squirm.
The root problem the knee-jerkers have always had is the different political and social cultures of Canada and the U.S. — we are a centreleft country, the U.S., centre-right — make the Bush-Harper comparison silly from the start …
And Lorrie addresses the Iraq issue pointing out that Harper wasn’t the only one supporting a Canadian effort at that time:
… Finally, to address what the liberal media think is their best argument, yes, had Harper been PM in 2003 it is likely, despite his denials today, that we would have joined the U.S.-led war on Iraq.
But in the U.S. at the time, support for invading Iraq was a bipartisan position widely held by Republicans and Democrats — and by prominent Liberals inside and outside of then PM Jean Chretien’s government, including the current frontrunner for Liberal leader, Michael Ignatieff.
For the liberal media to argue, with the benefit of hindsight, that Harper was wrong and Chretien right, is supportable. But to argue that makes Harper a Bush clone is absurd.
Oh, I’m sure that MOB Canada will still make an effort to discredit Harper for holding the same views as Obama, all the while giving the latter a free pass.
But the words "Lock-step" and "Neocon" are going to sound even more ridiculous now.
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Related: Phantom Observer proves that at least the Liberal Party is now aware that the Bush card can’t be played anymore. But will the liberal media follow lock-step?
Monday Update: The Record – Harper, Obama can work together.
