ESPN journalist Kevin Blackistone: Obama is betraying union families by not supporting NFL players, or something

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - Union activists blasted Barack Obama for reneging on his campaign promise to put on some comfortable shoes and walk the picket line in Wisconsin during the debate over the budget-reform bill in February. Does he own a pair of comfortable cleats instead? In an unintentionally hilarious column at Politico, ESPN journalist Kevin Blackistone argues that Obama’s failure to take the side of NFL players in the current lockout betrays unions everywhere, invoking Martin Luther King, Jr to make his point, such as it is:

Obama may have made a politically astute move by not picking a side in pro football’s offseason showdown. But it smacked of disingenuousness after he criticized as “an assault on unions” Walker’s proposal to strip public-sector employees of collective-bargaining rights. The NFL owners’ fight against the league’s proletariat, regardless of the players’ wealth or the public’s perception of it, differs very little from the Wisconsin battle.

The NFL fight is a serious attack on unions. In mid-March, team owners locked out the players, who decertified their union to challenge the league’s antitrust protection. The players then filed a court complaint to recoup more than $4 billion in TV revenue they claimed the league “left on the table” during recent contract negotiations. …

So, to riff on a quote from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., not to stand up for unions everywhere is a threat to unions everywhere. And unions seem to be under siege across the country now.