The Sinking of Andrew Sullivan

I looked at some of my posts over the years. I used to link to Andrew Sullivan quite often as he is a great writer. He had great insight on many issues that were pertinent at that point in time.

I gave up reading him when he started thinking he was bigger than the blogosphere. Sure, Andrew was a huge part of making blogs a household word (almost). I think he lost his connection with me when he became arrogant about who was reading him and why they were. Glenn Reynolds, Charles Johnson, Josh Marshall and more recently, Powerline and Michelle Malkin never seem to think they are bigger than the blogosphere. Perhaps the good Mr. Sullivan is infected with the typical media/ivory tower syndrome so prevalent in the media.

Anyway, Conservatives--or more likely Neocons and Libertarians--read and linked to him on a daily basis because his posts were well thought out and enlightening. Even the near daily rants about homosexuality and gay marriage were interesting reads...to a point.

The problem I had with Andrew was that he crossed the line from a brilliant gay advocate to someone who had visceral outbursts whenever anything critical was written about homosexuals. He would seethe and lash out at anyone who had a differing opinion.

He morphed from a strong supporter of the Bush Doctrine into a Bush critic simply because he didn't agree with Bush's stand on gay marriage. He was one of the strongest cheerleaders for the invasion of Iraq and then wavered when things became difficult.

It's too bad, actually. Sullivan can most definitely write as you can see by reading his Sunday Times pieces, that is not the issue. My main issue, and that of other more prominent bloggers, is that his opinion doesn't really factor into the daily conversation anymore.

I have no idea if Sullivan's numbers are up or down as compared to a year ago. To be honest, it doesn't matter to me. I feel a bit pensive that a blogger who used to be a flag denoting the direction of opinion has become someone who just plain doesn't matter in the national debate.