Category Archives: Political Commentary

Political Commentary

Any Minute Now

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James Lileks awaits the war protesters. In vain.

The anarchists aren’t up on it. Nothing from the central Green party. But it’s possible they’re just getting their blast emails out, alerting everyone to the upcoming World Can’t Wait / Protest Imperialistic Imperialism Protest, complete with giant mocking paper-mache puppets of Putin with black oil dripping from his fangs. Who here can do a Putin? C’mon people, I need a big Putin. This international cabal isn’t going to collapse on its own! It needs the sort of humiliating defeat only a large, three-dimensional effigy borne on the streets of a Western city in full view of bored policemen can bring.Yes, any day now: the streets will be filled with protestors.

Mao is denounced as well.

Political Commentary, Space

Nearing The End?

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Robert Block is wondering if the Stick is dying. I liked this bit:

In the face of the latest reports of trouble, sources say that NASA leaders are looking at a possible replacement design, including one that would use the shuttle’s two four-segment solid rocket boosters, and a liquid engine with four RS-68 engines and no upper stage. While it sounds similar to a rocket called the Jupiter 120 or the Direct 2.0 concept which is being proposed by moonlighting NASA engineers, the sources insist it is not the same.

Yes. I have a literary theory that the Iliad and the Odyssey weren’t written by Homer, but by another blind poet with the same name.

Political Commentary

The New Brown Shirts

17 Comments

Glenn explains:

No doubt they all go around exchanging Obama Salutes and clicking their heels…

But don’t call them a cult!

I guess that it really is all about the “O.” Sabine Ehrenfeld is still a lot hotter, though. At this point, given the other choices on the menu, I’m ready to sign up for a Sabine/Paris ticket. Too bad she was born in Germany.

I suspect that Senator Obama’s fans may prove to be his worst enemies.

[Update a while later]

Ace has more.

Political Commentary

An Idle Thought

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I wonder how many of the people who are giving Congress single-digit approval ratings know which party is in charge?

I think that it’s foolish for John McCain to be running against George Bush. He shouldn’t be asking whether or not you’re better off than eight or four years ago. That’s Obama’s line.

He needs to ask whether or not you’re better off than you were two years ago, when the Dems started mismanaging Congress. Point out not how much gas prices have gone up in eight years, but in how much they’ve gone up in two years (probably the biggest percentage jump in history). Never use the word “Congress” without prepending it with “Democratic.”

Political Commentary

Peaked Too Soon?

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Amid the fact that Obama’s having a bad week, and not jumping ahead in the polls as conventional “wisdom” dictated, it’s useful to note that he’s not only not president yet (despite his play acting at it with the seal and the overseas visits), but that he’s not even the Democrat nominee. I will continue to remind people that regardless of what Hillary! says about supporting him, actions shout where words whisper.

She did not withdraw from the race, and she did not release her delegates. Obama does not have enough “pledged” (i.e., derived from primary victories) delegates to get the nomination–he needs the votes of superdelegates who had previously committed to him in June, but they are still free to vote however they wish in Denver.

If he continues to make gaffes, and look weak, and lose support of the yout’ who were supposed to be his big ace in the hole, and Obama fatigue sets in, there may be a lot of buyers’ remorse among the once-enthusiastic Democrats. The stage is once again set for a very exciting convention in Denver, in which die-hard Hillary! supporters, despite her demurrals, will put her name in nomination and demand a roll-call vote. And those superdelegates will once again, and finally, be faced with a very ugly choice–go with a demonstrably weak candidate, and mollify the black constituency, or go with the winner of the latter part of the primary, and risk tearing the party apart (not to mention putting up a candidate with continuing high negatives), perhaps complete with mile-high riots. And the worse he seems to be doing, the harder the choice will be.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Reporting The Edwards Scandal

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Mickey Kaus makes the case:

The only legitimate reason not to cover this scandal, it seems to me, is simple sympathy for Elizabeth Edwards–and I’ve gotten enough emails from anguished and angry members of the MSM to conclude, with Estrich, that it’s the prime reason for the MSM blackout. True, I also suspect that if Mrs. Edwards were a conservative Republican, or even an unbeloved Democrat, the MSM might somehow find a way to overcome this compassionate sentiment. But that doesn’t make it wrong. Reporters don’t have to print everything. You could conclude that the need to protect Mrs. Edwards her children is so great, the karma of Enquiring so bad, that all of the obvious, public-interesty reasons for covering the story should be thrown out the window. And if John Edwards were already so damaged that in practice he’d never get a significant public office even if he wants one, I might agree (even if that meant sacrificing the deterrent effect of full exposure).

But that’s a point that clearly hasn’t been reached yet, at least not while most Americans are being kept in the dark about what, exactly, has led to Edwards’ mysterious disappearance from the political oddsmakers’ charts. A man arrogant and ambitious enough to think he can run for president posing as a loyal husband while keeping his second family secret, even as he visits his mistress in a famous hotel that is hosting a convention of journalists, will be arrogant and ambitious enough to keep hiding under the shield of his wife’s illness until he can attempt a comeback– if given the chance.

The alternative, it seems to me, is to let affection for Mrs. Edwards suck journalists into a Print-the-Legend world where they must spend their time burnishing–or at least accepting–the story powerful people and institutions want them to tell, the story of the wonderful Edwards marriage, rather than figuring out and telling readers the truth. If I wanted to be in that business I’d be a publicist.

That’s certainly what the “journalists” have been when it came to Barack Obama. Does anyone doubt that if Edwards were a Republican in similar circumstances, that there would have been a NYT story about it? The question answers itself.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary

It’s That Time Of The Week Again

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Lileks examines the train wreck that is Garrison Keillor’s latest:

I’m sorry, but I’m just fascinated by his column. Each is nearly identical in formlessness, subject and general pointlessness. To be fair: we all write at haste and repent at leisure, unless we can somehow get it out of the Google cache. We all make inelegant remarks that seemed wonderfully writerly at the moment but curdle when exposed to another pair of eyes. It’s the perils of blogging. But he has an entire week to write these things. Never does he attempt to make an argument or explore a line of thought – it’s just flat assertions ladled out with nuance or shading. The sun rises, Bush is bad, life is long but also short and so you should sit outside and drink lemonade and think of the people who came before you and sat outside and drank lemonade and there is a comfort in that continuity and we need all the comfort we can get in these days when nihilists in golf pants are everywhere and the Republic lies in ruins. Also, he is given to run-on sentences. This week has perhaps the finest example yet.

If that’s not enough, there is some cereal blogging, too.