After spending most of his life bedding down with one group of narcissism-flattering imaginary invisible magic unicorns -- enlightened, stout-hearted, fiscally-responsible, socially-broadminded Conservatives -- Mr. Sullivan has seen the error of ways and leaped into the sack with an entirely different group of narcissism-flattering imaginary invisible magic unicorns: those intelligent, stout-hearted Centrists who (for some reason that is never revealed) have been in a coma for the last 30 years and never once noticed that their country was going up in flames or who was starting all the damned fires.
Those:
...pragmatic non-ideological Americans (who) are deeply worried about the short-term economy and the long-term debt and are trying to find a reasonable leader whom they can trust to thread the needle through both problems.Who are polite enough not to call attention to his awful, awful past:
Forget the taxonomies.Who really-really aren't imaginary! Really!
These people exist and I'mtheir Messiahone of them.
And who all live happily together in the same, tidy Halperinian/Brooksian/Friedmanian/Gregorian ideological cul-de-sac that just so happens to lie perfectly equidistant between that Crazy Right...
Do I find Palin or Perry or Romney more plausible on these questions than Obama? Nope.
And that Equally Crazy Left...
Do I want Obama to go all left-populist on me? No.Mr. Sullivan concludes with one, final bit of mendacity:
But what I really am is just someone trying to be an adult and looking for an adult to echo this in office.
Mendacity because Mr. Sullivan is not an adult.
He is a dilettante, who wants to larking around on political Pleasure Island forever
and never pay the price.
5 comments:
My previous analogy of finding a happy medium by being only half infected with rabies still stands.
Though he certainly uses adult words, Sullivan's claim to adulthood does indeed contain a stunning lack of that quaint old oddity, ownership of guilt. Some say that conservatism was once a functional & viable system, vicious or ignorant as it may have been, back when it could still allow this exotic beast to be an essential part of its daily operations. It is open to debate whether anyone alive today ever actually witnessed this wonder in action.
It's pretty safe to say that the day Obama "goes all left-populist" is the day he insures that Air Force One will soon have a Cemtex-related boo-boo at 22,000 feet, with him in it. To me, all this "Obama = Dubya 2.0!" poutrage on the American left betrays just how perilously naive they are as to the nature of modern realpolitik. There are manifold benefits in thinking through all the different reasons that Bismarck called politics the art of the possible.
I would simply like to point out to the first poster many of the Left's criticism's of the President are thinks the Executive Branch can do or is doing.
He doesn't need Congressional Authority for the DOJ to investigate War Crimes, War Profiteering, and whatever Wall St. was doing over the last decade. (as an example)
There is also a lot to be said about moving the Overton Window back to Left a little bit instead of conceding every argument.
That said Sullivan is a weasel who keeps trying desperately to prevent the Rampaging Elephant of the GOP from wrecking his precious Margaret Thatcher/Ronald Reagan collectable conservative china plates.
"Obama = Dubya 2.0" ... poutrage on the American left ... how perilously naive THEY are ...etc
Ah yes, any criticism of Obama must be conflated with total left fringe looney-tune thought. Reducto ad absurdum. We hoi polloi thank you for correcting our misguided opinions.
The art of the possible - as applied to Obama? I have to agree with RobSPL on this one. And I'd add that Obama has lots of things within his power that he actively avoids doing: getting the HAMP funds going, interpretations of requirements by the Fed on that $16T in loans to big banks and Wall Street. How about revoking the letter W's administration wrote for Goldman Sachs that lets them avoid standard commodities trading requirements (leverage, margin calls, mark to market, etc)? They've moved on from oil and grain to metals (GS controls 25% of the worlds aluminum, and is hoarding it in warehouses).
Obama can't bring himself to say the word "Republicans" in his concession/victory speech this week - it has to be "Washington" or "Congress" or "politicians." Christ, he's like the intellectual kid who keeps handing over his lunch money to the school bully, then wondering why the bully doesn't stop and/or respect him.
In my naivete, I'll be doing GOTV for the WI Democratic Party over the next 10 days (recall elections on 9th & 16th). And I actively plan to bend the ear of the Dem party chairman for WI-CD-1 and let him know my "poutrage," perilous though that may be.
With a 10 million vote margin over McCracked/ Mama Grifter, wide majorities in BOTH houses of congress AND about 65% favorable polling, it was more than simply "possible" to at least get a vote on HR676-Medicare for all Americans.
John Puma
Lots of reasons why guys like Will lie, I'm sure. Some probably enjoy it, and enjoy pissing us off. Some are pathological. Some are just evil little bastards.
It's not just individual, though. Broadcasters don't script every "spontaneous" interview and discussion show. Not even Fox. They don't have to. The template is very well known.
The performers know exactly the role and stock character they've been hired to play. You play the role and conform to character? Then you have a running gig. You don't? You won't be invited back, and your contract won't be renewed.
Oh, I made a unicorn cartoon as a tribute to this post: http://agrippinaminor.com/scarabus/?p=1561
I also have one which BlueGal tells me is similar to one Driftglass made featuring David Gregory: http://agrippinaminor.com/scarabus/?p=1553
Post a Comment