Who is Ezra Klein?

Last week, The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein puzzled many when he said the Constitution “…is confusing because it was written more than a hundred years ago.” Klein’s popularity, especially on MSNBC, has long puzzled me, but this statement took it another level and begs the question, who exactly is Ezra Klein? Reading his Wikipedia bio, it sounds like Klein is just another kid with a blog, yet progressives view him as much, much more.

I’ve tried reading Klein’s work in the Post, but it comes off very amateurish, repeating worn out progressive talking points, adding nothing original to political debate.  For example, consider his December 30, 2010 column, “What the tea party wants from the Constitution.” It begins with an ad hominem attack on the GOP and then opens into a passive voice-filled, incoherent tirade against tea party affiliated politicians’ intent to require all legislation to carry with it “a statement from its sponsor outlining where in the Constitution Congress is empowered to enact such legislation.” In the end, the article merely mimics what Klein’s colleagues at Slate have been writing for months. Stripped down to its core, Klein’s writing is nothing more than a “tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Clearly, the Post bought into Klein for his image and nothing else.

Klein comes off as nothing more than a beard-less hipster parrot, incapable of forming an original thought, but because he started blogging before blogging was cool, and because he can tweet about Bon Iver or the Avett Brothers, the Post felt he could score with young readers. Landing a job with the Post offers many perks, chief among them working for a prestigious American newspaper, but also the ability to work with all of the subsidiaries of the Washington Post Company and the Post’s cozy connections with MSNBC–all of which are darlings of the Left.  Now, instead of running out Eugene Robinson for the millionth time, the Post can run out Klein, someone far more palatable to a younger demographic.