THE GREAT MINDS DECIDE - AT 5:59 P.M. ET:  Reader Greg Koster alerts us to a new list provided by Newsweek - the worst tactical blunders of the last ten years.

I guess this took about ten minutes to compile, sometime after a meeting in which Newsweek contemplated its grim future.  Among the brilliant choices are President Bush's Katrina flyover; John Kerry allowing himself to be "swiftboated"; the debaathification of Iraq; President Bush's "mission accomplished" statement; the SEC not detecting the crimes of Bernie Madoff; Alan Greenspan's interest-rate policy; Israel's 2006 invasion of Lebanon; the Time-Warner/AOL merger; GM's SUV mistake; McCain suspending his campaign after the financial collapse of 2008.

Notice a trend there?  Kind of a left-wing list, isn't it?

Missing are such minor items as the 2007 intelligence estimate saying Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program; the Democratic opposition to the surge in Iraq, which turned out spectacularly well; Obama's misreading the 2008 election results and plunging in popularity; Obama's failure to vet radicals who then were offered posts in his administration; and the blunders by most news outlets in not learning why they're losing readers and viewers, and why Fox is gaining.

Newsweek is in sharp decline.  Now you see why.

November 11, 2009