Sheehan’s “moral authority,” New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd genuflected, was “absolute.”

NBC reporter Carl Quintanilla interviewed historians he agreed with, and then reported: “Sheehan, say some historians, may be evolving as an icon in the war’s turning point. . . . For three weeks, she’s dominated headlines, mobilized protesters, [and made] it safe, her supporters say, to voice doubts about the war, just as Walter Cronkite did on the evening news in 1968.”

Then–NBC News anchor Brian Williams introduced a profile of Sheehan by saying, “As the 1960s protest song said, ‘There’s something happening here.’”

Sheehan’s use-by date was January 20, 2009, President Obama’s inauguration day. She was — and is — a vocal critic of Obama, too. But there was no room in the script for that. When she was a thorn in Bush’s side, she was just a normal American mom speaking truth to power. When she started criticizing Obama, the same media dismissed her as a crackpot.