Is Buffett Bashing Bullish?

In a new article by the Globe and Mail, David Berman asks a good question: "Is all the Buffett bashing these days bullish?" He notes for starters what happened the last time this was prevalent (in 1999), gives some facts recounting what's happened at Berkshire of late, and in response to a recent article by Doug Kass, notes:

What's interesting is that, by Barron's estimate, Mr. Buffett's stock picks beat the S&P 500 in 2008 by an impressive 13 percentage points (though Mr. Buffett's holdings and the S&P 500 both fell). The criticism, then, comes from the performance so far this year. Mr. Buffett, a long-long-term investor, would probably be appalled to learn that his investing prowess is being called into question based on just 17 trading days.

He didn't point out the illogic of Kass calling Buffett's strategy "stale" at the same time he accuses him of "style drift"--but it's a good article worth reading in any case.