Katharine Graham Would Be Spinning (We Hope)

By Zamboni

In July 1861, assuming they'd witness a cakewalk for the Union, hundreds of curiosity-seekers packed picnic baskets, got into carriages, and traveled the 26 or so miles from Washington City to Manassas, Virginia, to watch the first Battle of Bull Run. (The fight turned into a Federal rout, sending the spectators fleeing in disarray back to the capital.)

Our point is that if folks in horse-drawn buggies could make it to Manassas that day, why couldn't an up-to-date print edition of The Washington Post do the same?

We cats were astounded to open our hard copy of the Post on Wednesday morning to see no mention, not even a photo, of First Lady Michelle Obama and her remarkable speech to the Democratic National Convention. Everything was written in the future tense: "First Lady to Reflect on Obama's Values," "First Lady Michelle Obama was scheduled to....," etc. Disgusting.

In fact, given Mrs. Obama's social media ratings on Tuesday night, it's downright atrocious.

Now, we realize that a lot of stuff is done online these days. Heck, we're online; we get it. But — nothing in print? Goodness gracious. Our hard copy of The New York Times had it. Last we checked, The New York Times is a newspaper from.... New York.

It's just the latest in a long line of quibbles we cats have with the Post. The paper that courageously pursued the Watergate story at great risk has become fat, lazy, and scared of appearing as if they disfavor Republicans. Case in point: Chris Cillizza calling Ted Strickland's speech "rankly partisan."

"Rankly partisan"?!? This is our convention!

If Democrats say the slightest most combative thing, the Post pundits raise eyebrows and cast it as a declaration of nuclear war — while the GOP can regularly launch abusive lies and get a pass. We cats don't know how anyone could have listened to more than one minute of the Republican Convention and not call it, um, rankly partisan.

The Post is a sad, sorry mess. Like the Union cause, they'll ultimately survive — but in the meantime, we cats say, their generals suck.