This sort of encapsulates the sort of insanity that swept the nation three years ago:
This week, with the jobless rate stuck above 9 percent and the president’s nationwide approval rating at its lowest level, the Vineyard’s broad allegiance shows cracks, leaving some islanders with a more textured, even tormented feeling about the president.
“I just have to say I feel really uncomfortable, because I love loving him,’’ said Leslie Pearlson, a real estate broker on the island.
Res ipsa loquitur.
Some amusing thoughts.
Kirsten Powers says that it’s even worse than it seems:
This was an appalling statement coming from an American leader. What’s next? Will he say he isn’t “second-guessing” and “fully understands” that women are stoned for adultery in Iran?
I wish I couldn’t imagine him doing exactly that.
When various Republican presidential candidates blasted Biden for the statement, NPR’s blog ran a story titled “Biden’s Comment on China’s One-Child Policy Spurs Anti-Abortion Ire.” This really misses the point. The media predictably frame this issue as “pro-choice vs. pro-life” when in fact it is a major human-rights issue. In particular, it’s a women’s-rights issue, which makes the silence from feminists and liberals about Biden’s comment particularly disturbing.
The left, and particularly the feminist left, view everything through the crazy prism of absolute abortion rights.
The top five.
…becomes racist:
Obama’s Midwest tour last week prompted more criticism and ridicule than support on Twitter, according to this week’s Hill Hexagon. …
An analysis of Twitter traffic by Crimson Hexagon over the days of the tour showed that 72 percent of the opinions expressed were negative, while 22 percent were neutral and only 6 percent were favorable.
Among the negative comments, 21 percent were generally negative toward Obama, 17 percent called it a campaign stunt, 15 percent complained about taxpayers picking up the tab, 12 percent offered derisive names for the tour — similar to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s “Magical Misery Tour” — and 6 percent complained that he was not in Washington working.
I mean, what other explanation could there be?
OK, so according to Paul Krugman, Alderaan should be the richest planet in the galaxy:
People on twitter might be joking, but in all seriousness, we would see a bigger boost in spending and hence economic growth if the earthquake had done more damage.
Well, if he means that if Washington had been destroyed, as I (jokingly) suggested (and some anticipated) earlier, he might have a point, but I doubt that’s what he means. I really think he’s serious.
[Wednesday morning update]
Krugman is claiming that he didn’t write it, and it was a case of identity theft.
[Update a few minutes later]
The identity thief ‘fesses up.
OK, anyone want to start a pool on how long it takes someone to blame it on fracking?
“Somewhere in the White House attic is a picture of Barack Obama getting smarter.”
…there is none. And as Michael Ledeen reminds us, events in Libya, Syria, Gaza, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan are not unrelated — they are all battles in a much larger war, the one that replaced the Cold War in pitting totalitarians against the liberal West.
Good riddance. We should celebrate such a rare event — a less obtrusive government, and a victory for the First Amendment.