The Washington Post thinks maybe so.

“Russia has one foot into the international community . . . and one foot that is not,” a senior administration official said. Membership in institutions such as the World Trade Organization and the Group of Eight major industrialized nations “is what is at stake when Russia engages in behavior that looks like it came from another time.”

As both presidential candidates were in their own words clear in their condemnation of Russia’s invasion, it solidified US awareness. No one on either side of the Atlantic bought into Russian propoganda and the Russians had to be feeling a sense of isolation. One wonders if they hadn’t or if criticism had not been so strong and universal what might have been.

Russian military operations blitzed well beyond South Osettia in a remarkable period of time, but it had clearly been pre-plannned. Too many major pieces were in place for it not to have been in the works for some time. Air strikes into Georgia itself weren’t needed to pacify South Osettia. The Georgian army, although tough and well trained, were no match for Russian armor. Especially when combined with air support second only to our own.

The Russians knew this would be the case which made their air strikes and shelling of Georgian cities was unnecessary militarily. The Russians meant to punish the Georgian people and benefit in what ever way they could.

From The Washington Post

According to reports from security experts who have been monitoring the ongoing cyber attacks, the Web site for the office of Georgia Foreign Affairs (mfa.gov.ge) was hacked, and its homepage was replaced with images depicting Georgia’s president as a Nazi. That site is currently offline.

Other Georgian Web properties, such as the Caucasus Network Tbilisi — key Georgian commercial Internet servers — remain under sustained attack from thousands of compromised PCs aimed at flooding the sites with so much junk Web traffic that they can no longer accommodate legitimate visitors.

Security Blogger Jart Armin has been tracking the attacks by conducting Internet traces and lookups at key Georgian Web properties.

Apparently this is straight out of the Russian playbook:

The apparently coordinated cyber attacks are reminiscent of recent cyber wars waged against other former Soviet republics that have attracted the ire of the Russian government for various political reasons. Last month, a similar assault targeted important Lithuanian government Web sites. In April 2007, the ultra-wired country suffered major disruptions in much of its information infrastructure, thanks largely to Russian hackers who were upset over the removal of a Soviet World War II memorial from the center of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.

The Washington Post spelled out the reason why increased demonization of “Big Oil” by calling for a windfall profits taxes are wrong:

Making Exxon surrender money that is now falling into its lap would not necessarily affect its longer-term plans or incentives. Indeed, some of Big Oil’s “windfall” already will go to the government: The more profit the companies earn, the more corporate income tax they pay. But to add a five-year tax increase on top of that to pay for a one-year gift to voters would, indeed, increase the cost of doing business. That cost would be passed along in forgone investment in new production, lower dividends for pension funds and other shareholders, and higher prices at the pump — thus socking it to the consumers whom the plan is supposed to help. If oil prices fall, there might be no windfall profits to tax. Then the Obama rebate would have to be paid for through spending cuts, taxes on something else or borrowing.

The Post does a wonderful job of telling its readers why increasing taxes on oil companies will backfire on everyone. Dems continued use of “Big Oil” as a demonizing mantra is archaic. The Post editorial writers seemed to even mock its use.

So the Dems are attempting to demonize their way out of this with a an outdated populist message that is falling on more deaf ears all the time. Speaker Pelosi’s line in the sand on drilling continues to be a drag on Dem credibility on energy as Republican’s in Congress stayed in Washington to grandstand in a way thats kept the issue burning. They’ve lost a reliable ally in the Post, too.

In my Mets days, guys used to hate giving interviews that they knew would be heard in the clubhouse. Any use of a personal pronoun in their statement would be mocked in unison, “I, Me, Me, I, Me, Me, I……”

So if we are to believe WaPo’s Dana Milbank, Obama said this yesterday when speaking to congressional democrats:

Inside, according to a witness, he told the House members, “This is the moment . . . that the world is waiting for,” adding: “I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.”

Dem operatives are out spinning now and saying that the quote was taken out of context. Some like the one who appeared on Fox moments ago attempted to change the subject by running out the false claim that McCain had attempted to land a helicoptor on an oil rig during a hurricane. McCain cancelled his visit to an oil platform over a day in advance because of safety issues. Nevermind the fact that the rig was going to be evacuated. Hysterical dem hacks are notorious for making false claims on TV.

To draw the parallel with major league players again, when the freshly interviewed player returned to the hooting lockeroom, he’d often be asked if he’d been reading his own press clippings too much.

Perhaps this is what Obama is doing. Intoxicated by roaring masses and a largely fawning press, Obama is now personifying what he’s been criticized for becoming - the messianic figure. The use of “I”, even in a meeting with colleagues, is troubling in the manner in which it was applied. No matter what context.

Nontheless, a great unswoon is underway. With the startling critical editorial from the Washington Post’s Richard Cohen yesterday was just another example that with 97 days left the media may not be as in the tank for Obama as some have observed.