The media starts to admit that they were biased, beginning with the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/10/AR2008101002610.html

Oops. All of the sins, none of the repercussions. Unless people (that’s viewers like you) start using alternative media.The moral of the story – If you let people do it for you, they will do it to you…now is not the time to be apathetic.

Part of getting involved is being able to trust ourselves to appreciate the subtleties and separate politics from policy. Charles Krauthammer wrote a brilliant endorsement of John McCain during the campaign. Christopher Buckley and Peggy Noonan wrote articulate, passionate endorsements of Obama, which was their opinion, and right, as it is mine to disagree with them. Kathleen Parker wrote a famous string of position pieces against Sarah Pain, and received 12,000 hate emails. No need to start calling names, or sending hate mail. That’s what center in the center-right means. That’s the difference between fanatic and idealist.

One of the most ringing endorsements for Obama was from Ms. Noonan, about just that difference between personal and professional politics:

A great moment: When the press was hitting hard on the pregnancy of Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old daughter, he did not respond with a politically shrewd “I have no comment,” or “We shouldn’t judge.” Instead he said, “My mother had me when she was 18,” which shamed the press and others into silence. He showed grace when he didn’t have to.

Grace in victory, and in defeat. In John Mcain’s concession speech:

I urge all Americans … I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.

Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that.

One of my neighbor’s daughters was telling me that in her high school, they abolished Color War. You know Color War- the school gets split into two teams and they create cheers and run races. Silly, healthy competitive fun. Right? Well, apparently not. Her school abolished Color War because they didn’t feel that all of the girls would have a good experience, that they couldn’t lose well and play together.

This may explain a new attitude in politics, America’s ultimate Color War. If red and blue can’t figure out a way to get together, if they can’t all line up in the end and shake hands and say “good game”, then we’ve lost something. All of us.

We should learn to separate the personal from the professional. Something the media failed to do in the last election cycle, This is something many people on both sides, in the heat of the moment, forget.

We cannot afford to do so now.