I get the impression Von Drehle sat in front of the Glenn Beck show for a week and tried to patch together an essay out of the experience. The result was a failure, journalistically and intellectually. I can't really tell where Von Drehle stands, but he seems to take Beck's factless claims about Obama, the Democrats, etc., as matters for debate, not verification, making no attempt to tell us about the reality behind them. There's not a insightful word in here about Beck's brand of conservatism or its contention with Obama. It jumps from topic to topic with the whimsy of Beck's show... I could go on. When I read this I was immediately reminded of Perry Bacon Jr.'s wasteful piece in the Washington Post back in November 2007 that discussed how rumors of Obama's "Muslim ties" were hurting his campaign (links). Media observers hung that story out to dry then, and I hope we collectively do the same with this garbage from Time now.