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Opinion: Fox News is evil -- <em>unless</em> you’re selling an Obama book

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Ah, the flexibility of politics. You gotta love it. The Obama administration has in recent weeks picked a silly fight with the Fox News Channel to help keep impatient supporters on its own left from rebelling too much. If you’ve got a common enemy, you’ve got to stay together, right? Even if you’re unhappy with the progressive progress on numerous Democratic fronts.

It’s a silly fight for several reasons. It makes a president who must face down other nuclear powers look timorous and thin-skinned about something as inconsequential as the most popular U.S. cable news channel.

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It ignores the fact that more than a third of Fox News viewers are Democrats. So the David Axelrod-Anita Dunn communications strategists are willfully forfeiting an opportunity to get their message out to millions more likely supporters.

And, worst, to pick and prolong a partisan fight with lowly D.C. journalists goes directly against the fundamental message that Barack Obama made a keynote of his $750-million holy campaign last year: changing the partisan tone in Washington once and for all. Change to believe in. No podemos si.

As a result, you haven’t seen Obama administration officials interviewed much over there on Fox News, despite the invitations.

Come Thursday night, that won’t change. That’s because David Plouffe is not an official member of the Obama administration. He is, however, the single individual arguably most responsible for getting Obama into the White House.

Why will the Obama campaign manager appear, you might ask? Because he wants to sell his book (‘The Audacity to Win’), would be the answer. Which is apparently different than selling a political message. So Plouffe, who still loyally touts the official Obama line (he was nattering at Fox News again over the weekend on other outlets), has apparently received a presidential dispensation to appear on the evil empire.

Our diligent colleague Mark Silva, who broke this story, has much more detail here.

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-- Andrew Malcolm

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