Time Magazine Liberal? You can judge a magazine by its cover

    A couple of friends recently took issue with my description of Time magazine as the official magazine of the establishment left. Now, to be sure, I don't suppose the establishment left has an "official" magazine, but it is hard to imagine a magazine that works harder to peddle the current left-of-center message that the liberal mainstream media is trying to cram down America's throat.
    Certainly the "true" magazines of the left are publications such as The Nation, Mother Jones, The New Republic, American Prospect and so on. I sometimes enjoy reading articles from these magazines. One can find good ideas, even from those one usually disagrees with. But these are not what I would call the "establishment left" magazines, as their views tend to fall far to the left of the establishment liberals.
    At one time Newsweek would have carried the title of the mouthpiece of the establishment left, but its circulation and influence have dropped to the point that it can no longer carry the crown. And there was a time when Time was a conservative magazine, back in the day of Henry Luce. This conservatism lasted through the 1970s and moderated in the 1980s. But for the past 15 years or so, Time has worked hard at being liberal, and has succeeded.
    Nothing illustrates its status as cheerleader for the left than its own covers over the past few years, and its role as a high priest of the Cult of Obama. In the 2008 election year, Obama was featured as part of the cover photo of the magazine 15 times. If you count the skybox, Obama was featured on the cover in almost half the issues. John McCain's photo appeared on the cover of Time five times; three of those were shared with Obama. So McCain got two solo shots without Obama while Obama got 12 without McCain, 10 being solo shots.
    Oprah Winfre appears on the cover of every single issue of her monthly "O" magazine So she appeared on the cover 12 times in 2008. Obama appeared on the cover of weekly Time 15 times. Maybe Time should change its name to "O: The Obama Magazine."
    Following the election, Time kept it up. Of course, Time wasn't the only magazine to slobber all over Obama, just the most obvious. I sometimes wonder how long it will be before they start referring to him as Moammar Gadhafi refers to himself, as our "Brother Leader.
    America is a slightly right of center country. Obama is an extreme, radical liberal. To get elected he had to hide his true political beliefs from the electorate, which his unofficial campaign staff -- also known as the press corps -- helped him to do. Americans loved the idea of a moderate black president who could perhaps put some of our nation's past behind us.
    As Americans have realized that they bought a pig in a poke, they've become a little irritated. They don't want the government to take over health care. They don't want higher taxes and bigger government. They don't want unlimited illegal immigration. They don't want reverse discrimination, or for Black Panthers to be allowed to beat up whites who try to vote. The Obama administration supports all of these things and the American public doesn't.
    And so Obama is becoming increasingly unpopular with most Americans. Time magazine, aware of this, decides to pull out their photo archive and put Obama on the cover yet again, this time with a Photoshopped image of Ronald Reagan with his arm around the uber-liberal president and a message that Obama "HEARTS" Reagan.
    Pulease!
    Time a magazine of the establishement Left? You Betcha!