Because pundits on the far-right who write nasty things about Democrats and important and influential. That's simply how the Beltway press works.

So of course, Politico sends a reporter to visit Krauthammer in his corner D.C. office in order to write up a gushing profile about how influential Krauthammer's (robotic) dissents about Obama have become. (Conservatives email his columns around!) To write up this fantasy that Krauthammer has somehow emerged as a clarion voice. That the Fox News talker and Iraq war cheerleader is a “a coherent, sophisticated and implacable critic of the new president.”

Oh brother.

The headline really gives the game away:

Obama's biggest critic: Krauthammer

First, the declaration is a joke because the entire GOP Noise Machine has been uniformly critical of Obama this year. There is very little variation from the talking points. They attack everything he does. So how and why would Politico possibly select Krauthammer as somehow being particularly influential. (Politico doesn't point to any of Krauthammer's work that's in any way distinguishable from the avalanche of over-excited Obama critiques launched by the right.) It's not possible to distinguish a voice in that GOP pundits crowd because they're pretty much all saying the exact same thing. Period.

Second, note the stated assumption that whoever is “Obama's biggest critic” is automatically a big deal; is somebody the press needs to pay attention to and to flatter in media profiles.

Here's a neat trick. Go dig through Nexis and see if you can find any mainstream media profile from May of 2001, that toasted “Bush's biggest critic.” I'm almost sure no such profile exists because the press, in spring of 2001, didn't care about Bush's liberal critics. They didn't take those people seriously. But in May 2009, “Obama's biggest critic” garners a Beltway valentine.

How silly is this Krauthammer piece? Read this passage as Politico tries to explain why Krauthammer is (supposedly) the new Master of the Anti-Obama Universe [emphasis added]:

But the key to Krauthammer's appeal is the clarity of his opposition to Obama, which began soon after a December 2006 column in which he urged Obama to run for president and guaranteed that he would lose.

Got that? Krauthammer stands out among Obama haters (my term) because he guaranteed Obama would lose in 2008. Krauthammer never saw last year's landslide election coming--was sure Obama would lose--and yet just months later the Politico rushes in to toast his brilliance.

Again: Wrong about Iraq, wrong about the 2008 campaign. But according to Politico, Krauthammer's at the top of his game.