During my career, I have worked at the editorial pages of two different daily newspapers. Writing unsigned editorials in the voice of the institution is a tough gig. For one thing, your credibility rests on remaining consistent in your judgment. If it was bad when Democrats did it, it still bad when Republicans do it. For another, any and all errors are understandably seized upon.

My sympathy notwithstanding, I have to ask a pointed question: Why are the staff editorials in The New York Times so bad? This is not an ideological criticism (
I’ve offered those before). I am talking about the basic errors and blatant flip-flopping.