Is the bloom coming off the rose for the Most Equal Comrade in the entertainment world?

Wow.  Left-leaning journalistic organs are showing signs of waking up to reality on both coasts.  First, the WaPo editorial board slams the MEC over Cuba normalization, and now Variety gives him a ringing smackin' over his handling of the Sony hack:

Barack Obama has until recently enjoyed the nearly-unalloyed fervor of the entertainment industry. Hollywood has been the President’s ATM machine for the past seven-plus years, the one bastion of billionaires which had marched in lockstep to fund his campaigns and the outside groups supporting his agenda as he grew increasingly unpopular nearly everywhere else. Obama may find his Hollywood popularity a little dimmed these days too, if the most important trade journal in the entertainment business gives any indication. In a signed editorial, Variety’s co-editor in chief gives Obama a surprisingly sharp slap for throwing Sony under the bus during Friday’s press conference — and accuses Obama of attempting to distract from the fact that he’s got no real response to the North Korean hack:

Just when things couldn’t have looked any worse for the studio, President Obama turned sharply critical of Sony in a news conference Friday, second-guessing its decision to withdraw “The Interview” from theaters.

Why he bothered to pass judgment on Sony at all may have come as some surprise at a time when assembled reporters were likely more interested in hearing more about the investigation into North Korea’s involvement, as well as the U.S. response.

Cynics might suggest that targeting Sony gave Obama something to distract from the precious little he offered on what he knew or planned to do next. Blaming the studio also shifts already mounting criticism that the U.S. lacks any coherent cyber-security strategies despite the growing number of attacks pounding not only the government but many other corporations.

In other words, think of the Obama subtext thusly: “Cut me some slack on not defining what exactly the ‘proportionate’ response to North Korea will be because, hey, it’s not my fault (cue finger-point at Sony).”

Andrew Wallenstein wonders at the end why Obama even singled out Sony for this fingerpointing. After all, Sony was still willing to release the film even after the threat — but the theater chains refused to show it. It was only after that refusal that Sony announced they would pull the film from release. Why not blame the cinema chains instead of one of Hollywood’s largest studios — and Obama backers?

Don’t expect this to turn Hollywood into cheerleaders for Republicans. The only movement Sony execs have made politically is to thunder into Al Sharpton’s studios for making tasteless jokes in private about Obama’s cinema preferences. (They should apologize for greenlighting a Sabrina the Teenage Witch rehash instead.) Perhaps this will just allow for a smoother transition from Hopenchange to Clintonostalgia in the next two years. Their cash will still go to progressive causes and Democratic Party stalwarts.

Still, the scales seem to have fallen from the eyes at least momentarily at Variety, which is what happens when Obama’s foreign-policy fecklessness gores one’s own ox instead of someone else’s. Obama has tossed more than a few people under the bus to cover for his own policy failures. It’s just this time, though, that he’s done the underbus toss with his major benefactors.

Wow.  That's gonna leave a mark.