He makes some good points in this article, but they're few and far between. I think the Leftists this guy is so hot & bothered about are a lot less common than he seems to believe. In fact, I'd say they're fringe weirdos, not worth worrying about--and certainly not worth all the space he gives them.

A few of my problems with this article:

1) The bit about the alleged New York teacher who says W. is a devil. Obviously, this guy is reactionary, emotional, a bit of a boob. But pretending that he's wrong simply because Bush compares favorably with KIM JONG IL? Asinine.

2) Trying to link an effort to learn about the causes behind 9/11 with an apologist attitude toward the terrorists is ridiculous. 'Nuff said.

3) The idea that if you believe America is an evil empire, you believe America is the only evil empire. Rosenbaum seems to think that anyone who criticizes American government is an apologist for China, etc. I'd like to think he really isn't that naive, just too lazy to avoid an easy analogy (dressed up like an intelligent one, natch).

4) All this crap about Marxism. First of all, the portion of the Left that still uses Marxism as a rallying cry is pretty minimal. Second, anyone could take the position that capitalism has been misused as much as Marxism. Would Rosenbaum accept his own argument, inverted? I doubt it. Saying "Because America isn’t perfect, it must be evil. Because Marxist regimes make claims of perfection, they must be good" is a gross oversimplification of any rational person's belief system.

Like I said, he made a few good points--W. isn't stupid, of course, and portraying him that way only makes him more dangerous--but on the whole, this is just another example of the heartbreakingly low level to which political journalism has dropped.