Why Obama should drop his fight against Fox News

A good rule for public feuds is always to be punching up. Getting in a pissing match with someone of lesser stature only elevates your opponent's stature and diminishes yours, no matter who wins on points. But where does that rule leave the President of the United States? The leader of the free world may find it hard to find a worthy sparring partner, but that doesn't mean he's not sorely tempted to take a swing.

Right now, that temptation is coming from the midtown Manhattan headquarters of Fox News, which has been needling Barack Obama in ways large and small since long before he moved into the Oval Office. Fox officials would say their network is merely filling the vacuum left by the sycophancy of all the other mainstream news operations, which are only too eager to polish Obama's bust. You can decide for yourself whether Fox's relentless focus on ACORN and that missing birth certificate constitute valid watchdogging or biased mudslinging. Either way, the question is, is it smart for the Obama Administration to hit back?