Yeah, what he said about the media’s new annointed

Brent Bozell on identity politics on the road to the White House:

The campaigns have just begun, and already, I’ve had just enough of this pandering. Is being black or being female a qualification, something that makes you a superior president? Or is the election of 2008 going to operate on the theme of America being dared to prove it’s “ready” to endorse diversity for diversity’s sake? The media are already knocking on that thematic door: Is America still too racist or sexist to pick either a black ultraliberal or a female ultraliberal?

Whatever happened to the notion of merit? Or the value of experience? What about ideology? These factors have so far been undervalued in the hype factory.

Badly hidden in all the media’s excitement is the belief that America’s supposedly still-oppressed and powerless minorities just naturally do things better, or at the very least, should be allowed to man the helm (woman the helm?) because it’s their turn.

I think identity politics are a really, really bad thing, for precisely the reasons above: