News blackouts impact us all, even Michael Barone

Michael Barone has a very good post on his new blog in which he shows how silly it is for the Wash Post to try to argue that Bush going to Crawford somehow means that he isn't paying attention to his duties. However, in an effort to appear even-handed, he tries to chide conservatives for criticizing Bill Clinton:

Or think hard, my conservative readers, about what it would have been like to be Bill Clinton in the eight years he was president. Many conservatives see Clinton as a sociopath, a man totally uncaring about the consequences of his actions. I choose to see him differently. We have evidence that Clinton was often pressing for action against Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, understanding that they were a threat. That's evidence that he felt a responsibility to save Americans' lives.

I would be willing to bet that Michael Barone has never seen this book by Buzz Patterson, the Air Force Lt. Colonel entrusted with the nuclear football as an aide to Clinton in the White House. Patterson relates how Clinton was too busy partying to take a phone call from Sandy Berger and give the final OK for a massive air strike against Saddam. And how Clinton whiffed on the chance to take out bin Laden with missiles.

I don't think Barone would have written what he did, if he were familiar with the facts that Patterson has laid out in his book. He's clearly one of the best informed political commentators we have and he obviously understands the profound bias of the news media today. But not everything gets through the media blackouts.