Everything that's wrong with elite media

This Washington Post article is the most infuriating thing I've read in weeks:

McCain-Obama So Far: Positively Negative
By Dan Balz

A campaign between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain once offered enormous possibilities for something new. Instead, the two presumptive nominees have opened their campaigns for the White House with what looks and sounds like a repeat of the kind of politics both have promised to leave behind.

Since Obama (D-Ill.) wrapped up the Democratic nomination a few weeks ago, he and McCain (R-Ariz.) have served up a series of indignant exchanges over foreign policy, terrorism, the economy, energy and campaign money. Their aides have gone further, with snarling put-downs in conference calls and taunting e-mails that flow constantly out of the Chicago and Crystal City headquarters... On a host of issues, the differences between the candidates are profound and should provoke a vigorous debate. Both candidates once promised that such a debate would be civil and respectful. But right now the presidential campaign appears to be more a rerun of the kind of polarized battles of the recent past than something that heralds something new.

Think this through for a minute. The candidates are having intense, passionate, public arguments over ISSUES -- not shallow bullshit like flag lapels and hotheaded preachers and however many wives John McCain's had, but ISSUES -- and Dan Balz is upset because they're not being "civil and respectful." Apparently foreign policy, terrorism, the economy, energy, and campaign finance are just not relevant to the Washington Post unless they come dressed up in fancy clothes. This is how our media thinks: politics as nothing more than a debutante ball. It makes me sick.

These people should not have any role in our national discourse. They just shouldn't.