By David A. Kaplan, contributor

January 4, 2010

You could count on Fox's Bill O'Reilly to attack from the right, and MSNBC's Keith Olbermann from the left. By contrast, Dobbs was a bilious brew on CNN. Confoundingly, he also was hard to peg, an assortment of contradictions that reflected either independence or opportunism.

For example, he seemed to have genuine concerns for U.S. jobs and empathy for the middle class, yet it's hard to be a paragon of the people when you have your own plane and preside over a 300-acre farm, Hickory Hollow, in the suburbs of New York City.

He wants us all to buy American, yet that twin-engine Hawker jet of his was made in the U.K. by British Aerospace. He has railed against illegal aliens yet professed support for immigration. He opposed outsourcing, globalization, and unfettered trade yet calls himself a champion of free enterprise. He has little use for unions or corporations.

Read More ...