Somebody replaced Joe Kline with a clone.

[gratuitous]

1. Uncharacteristic of Joke Line, er Joe Klein

But of course, the self-bestowed absolution granted on the media for completely ignoring Romney's "near perfect record of cowardice, obfuscation and downright lies" is a good tip-off that this is indeed Mr. Klein getting all indignant. Romney's record may show enormous disrespect for the public's intelligence, but what does it say for a popular media that faithfully parrots every obfuscation and lie, never once betraying a scintilla of skepticism that what Romney or his advisors just said is a load of bullshit?