Let’s pause and consider how rich it is that Bush is accusing Kerry of using the “politics of fear,” when he’s the one running with Dick “Our cities are doomed. _Doomed_, I tell you!” Cheney.

On “NPR this morning”:http://www.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.php?prgDate=20-Oct-2004&prgId=3 they ran a little spot on the subject, looking at Kerry’s flu chatter and Cheney’s apocalypse chatter. Fair enough — it _is_ silly that Kerry’s trying to make political hay out of the flu shortage, and he deserves to be called on it. But “You won’t get your flu shot and _it’s his fault_!” just doesn’t have the same horrific ring as “You’ll die in a nuclear explosion and _it’s his fault!_” And Kerry’s pulling this nonsense just now, opportunistically, whereas Cheney’s been doing it all through the campaign.

The spot is one of those classic instances of “balance” where equal time and consideration are given to unequal offenses. I realize this sort of thing is normal in the media, but despite “previous frustrations”:http://www.polytropos.org/archives/000480.html, I still expect more from NPR, and am frequently disappointed.