Daily Beast Correspondent Calls Des Moines Register's Romney Endorsement 'A Practical Joke'

The Des Moines Register shocked many political observers Saturday by endorsing Mitt Romney for president.

Clearly not accepting such a thing, Michael Tomasky, the Obama-loving correspondent for the Daily Beast, came out Sunday claiming the Register's endorsement "is little more than a practical joke":

This Romney endorsement editorial, if you actually bother to read it, is little more than a practical joke. First of all, it has all the hallmarks of having been ordered by the publisher over the objections of the editorial board. Normally, a sentence like "the Register’s editorial board, as it should, had a vigorous debate over this endorsement," translated into blunt English means: "Our idiot publisher forced this tripe down our throats, and we're counting on you the more knowledgeable readers to understand this."

After complaining that the Register didn't tell readers what it likes about Romney's economic policies, Tomasky scolded, "It's as Potemkin Village-ish a piece of journalistic writing as I've seen in a long time."

It is indeed fascinating that Tomasky's view of this endorsement somewhat mimics that of top Obama adviser Stephanie Cutter who said on ABC's This Week Sunday it “didn’t seem to be based at all in reality.”

For those unfamiliar with this writer, he authored Newsweek's summer cover-story "Mitt Romney: A Candidate With a Serious Wimp Problem." Weeks later, he called the Republican National Convention racist.

Tomasky is also the editor of the far-left Democracy: A Journal of Ideas. Check out its Mission Statement:

The mission of Democracy is to build a vibrant and vital progressivism for the twenty-first century that builds on the movement’s proud history, is true to its central values, and is relevant to present times. [...]

[W]e seek breakthrough thinking on the concepts and approaches that respond to the central transformations of our time: the breakdown of the ladder of upward mobility; the promise and problems of an information-based, globalized economy; new national security threats which cross old boundaries and defy old assumptions from jihadist terrorism and nuclear proliferation to climate change, pandemics, and poverty; and a society where people work and live in new and different ways. [...]

Our ambitions are large – as is the scale of the work before us – but we have no doubt that ideas can change the course of our nation. Now is the time to fashion a new progressivism for the twenty-first century, and we welcome all who are willing to join in this conversation.

More can be learned about this "journal of ideas" from an editors' message to readers in 2006:

Conservative ideas have dominated our national discourse for most of a generation. No more. The world and this nation are changing too fast to allow for ideologues who will take us backward. But neither do they allow for those timid souls who are satisfied with, or cowed into, protecting an ever-smaller inheritance from being whittled away. Instead, we need to rejuvenate progressivism and send it back on the march with bold ambition to change America and the world for the better.

Given his far-left political leanings, it appears Tomasky is behaving like a bit of a sore loser with regard to the Register's endorsement.

Just imagine what will come from this guy if Romney actually wins in nine days.

Stay tuned.