Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? (Washington Post Edition)

Daniel Gross is shrill after reading the Washington Post's Peter Baker, for whom the news is that Bush is "focusing on a domestic agenda," but who has absolutely no interest in telling his readers what that domestic agenda might be.

I give the Post ten years. The Post brand has negative credibility, and the organization has no value once classified ads go elsewhere:

Daniel Gross: July 30, 2006 - August 05, 2006 Archives: SETTING THE AGENDA: A strange article from yesterday's Washington Post by Peter Baker about President Bush's newfound focus on a domestic agenda.

With crucial midterm congressional elections just three months away, President Bush tried Sunday to return to his domestic agenda even while the latest eruption in the Middle East continued to dominate his administration's attention.

Bush flew here after going for a Sunday bicycle ride and hosting a children's T-ball game on the South Lawn of the White House to have dinner with Miami community leaders.

He plans a day of activities Monday in the Miami area, visiting the National Hurricane Center, delivering an economic speech, touring the Port of Miami and headlining a Republican fundraiser.

What's missing in this article? How about some discussion or mention of what President Bush's domestic agenda is. Judging from this account, it consists of raising funds and public relations stunts.

And clearly Baker doesn't read the paper's business section. Toward the end he writes:

With his brother at his side, the president will focus his Miami trip on a series of issues of regional and national concern: hurricane preparedness a year after Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast; the economy at a time when growth appears to be slowing; and port security after the Republican revolt over plans to allow an Arab company to take over management of several U.S. ports.

Growth appears to be slowing. I'd say that last week's GDP report, which noted that the economy's rate of growth in the second quarter was less than half the rate of growth in the first quarter, is a sign that, in fact, the economy is slowing.