The Life Cycle Of A Prophet
Graydon Carter's diatribes against the Bush administration have passed through the full arc of a great journalistic campaign. When it began, five years ago, the president was the still the victor of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Vanity Fair editor an aging liberal prophet in the wilderness, irritating, and mocked. Then Graydon Carter because simply a prophet, vindicated by the collapse of the Bush presidency. And now? The obsession continues (the latest editor's letter even compares George Bush to the awful mid-level manager of the Office) — but it feels dated. As we've been told by the pundits, the results of the Iowa caucuses show that the electorate has moved beyond the war in Iraq, Bush and the Clintons. Graydon Carter has not.