Right Wing Debris

Except for mere sensationalism, why would Drudge run this image and headline at the same time the White House was bending over backward to show Laura and Jeb basking in a successful shuttle launch, and Dubya literally drooling over it back at the White House?

I’ve got a few takes: 

1.  When it comes to the media, there’s no such thing as "mere sensationalism." 

2. The collective mind is so anxious these days, people are just waiting for the next shoe (or backback) (or spaceship) to drop.   (By the way, what’s the latest on the real estate market?)  As I’ve said before, expect the worst and it can’t hurt you as bad.

3. No person or organization can "push the envelope" over an extended
period of time without expecting that an escalating pattern of success
is partly contingent on the occasional profound failure. Because people
intuitively understand this, Drudge is tapping into the drama over
whether or not NASA is "back."
 

4. I’d be hyper-vigilant too if I was a wing nut and my President
was now so mired in problems that he was banking on a clean NASA launch
just to buy a few hours of press distraction and an ever diminishing
infusion of vicarious patriotism.

5. Because the manned expedition to Iraq has been coming apart,
and the ambitious launch of Social Security reform never overcame
serious fuel problems, Right Wing Mission Control is now struggling to
suppress doubts about its failing adventures. Despite the continued
bravado (obviously, liberalism is in its "last throes"), doubt has to
surface somewhere and get projected onto something — such as on Drudge’s TV set. 

…Perhaps this debris that conservatives are beginning to spot everywhere is actually falling from the White House.

(Because Drudge never provides photo
credits, I’m guessing this image is either from AP or Reuters via NASA
TV, July 26, 2005, with the circle courtesy of Matt’s people.)