WSJ To Endorse Obama? (Or: Matt Drudge Drunk?)
The Wall Street Journal does not, historically, endorse presidential candidates. But the newspaper has a new owner since the last election, Rupert Murdoch, who said he was considering changing that policy. It's hard to imagine the rabid right-wingers of the Journal editorial page jumping in the tank for Democratic nominee Barack Obama. But if the WSJ were to be planning an Obama endorsement, it would seem natural for conservative blogger Matt Drudge to get ahold of the news first, as he seemed to be implying in one of tonight's headlines, pictured at left. (The graphic reads "Presidential Material/Barack Obama.")
Of course, it's entirely possible Drudge has had a few too many birthday cocktails tonight and, shorn of inhibitions, decided to let his true feelings shine through, and got a bit sloppy with the facts in the process.
Or maybe he means the WSJ's coverage is just totally in the tank for Obama? Because we're pretty sure Politico doesn't do endorsements either.
[UPDATE: Or, as suggested in the comments, he's talking about the polls from the news organizations, which would make much more sense. This theory doesn't quite explain the graphic — but Matt Drudge being Matt Drudge would.]
Or maybe, as our tipster wonders, Drudge was hacked?
Or maybe he's got a genuine scoop after all. It would be bizarre for the Journal to endorse Obama, after running editorials over the past week tying him to vote fraud, "tax and spend" economics and the "soaking" of small business. But at a certain point in time one might have said the same of Bush administration vets Scott McClellan and Colin Powell.
"Bottoms up" indeed, Matt.