Bachmann Studies: Cynic Schools

Too bad it is being buried in a Ta-Nehisi Coates comment thread (and Coates is very much worth reading himself), but this blog comment by Yoni Appelbaum (who writes as Cynic) is a brilliant critique of a certain kind of smug and shallow Bachmann-despising journalism.  Here is a taste:

“Both Newsweek and The New Yorker , I think, fall short of the mark. There are three basic ways a journalist can write a profile of a politician. She can attempt to see the world through their eyes. She can also explore and explain the gap between her own world view and that of the politician. These profiles take a third approach: exploring the views of the politician from the perspective of the author. Bachmann comes off weird and creepy – but also, under-explained. Neither author makes much effort to understand why an undeniably intelligent, curious woman like Bachmann would have come to embrace these authors, views, or perspectives.”

Update: Appelbaum (Cynic) has now removed the comment.  He says he want to post something more reflective and thoughtful than the treatment he gave in the comment.  Well, it was already well above what you see most anyplace else.  Oh, well.