Anthropologists for Obama!
Dorothy posted this at 9:44 PM HKT on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 as Uncategorized
August 28th, 2008
Seen in the DNC Audience . . .
I Smell a Seminar Caller
The Democrats just had a lineup of “normal” Americans speak. Among them was a rather androgynous woman from North Carolina who claimed to be a lifelong Republican who is now voting for Obama. But she had a hyphenated last name, Cash-Roper. Hyphenated last names are eschewed among Republicans and among Southerners generally. How many 50-something women (she said she voted for Nixon) from North Carolina are life-long Republicans AND have hyphenated last names? I’d say the number approaches zero.
Apollo posted this at 8:53 PM HKT on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 as Amer-I-Can!, Audacity of Hype
What a Flashback!
Just seen in the audience at the DNC: GREY DAVIS! Wow! I haven’t thought about him in years. I’d pay 5, maybe 6 dollars if they gave him a speaking role.
Apollo posted this at 8:31 PM HKT on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 as Audacity of Hype
What a Cryptic Song Choice?
I’m watching the DNC, and as Joe Biden came out they played an easy-listening version of “Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog.” I’ve no clue what they intended by that.
Apollo posted this at 8:21 PM HKT on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 as Audacity of Hype
Pentagon City?
I haven’t seen before that McCain’s DC-area condo is in Pentagon City. When I told this to Dorothy, she started laughing. “We could have afforded to live in Pentagon City,” she said. Which is true. Considering Mrs. McCain’s net worth, they’re living significantly below their means if they’re within two miles of Pentagon City.
Apollo posted this at 8:19 PM HKT on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 as Audacity of Hype, Denizens of DC
We’re All Neocons Now
I’m somewhat surprised, but very pleased, that these numbers are so high. The American people know right from wrong, and we believe that it should apply to the international arena. We are perhaps the most dangerous idealists in world history.
Apollo posted this at 6:52 PM HKT on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 as Amer-I-Can!, Mullah Mullah--whoa baby let my people go
I Hope No One Is Still Under The Impression That Obama Treats Opponents With Respect
Someone does the hard research to come up with documents concerning Obama’s past, and then reports on that research. He’s a “slimy character assassin,” a “right-wing hatchet man,” and “a smear merchant.” Never mind that the guy is a fellow at the Hoover Institute who has produced legitimate evidence about something that Obama doesn’t much talk about; he opposes Obama, so he must be denounced in significantly stronger terms than Obama used to denounce an unrepentant terrorist.
That last post says that this reply makes legitimate points; I’m not so sure, since it doesn’t explain why Obama’s entire response to Kurtz is to call him names and ignore the evidence that he’s unearthed. Fitting that such a response occurred on the same night that Bill Clinton spoke at the DNC, as this is exactly how the Clintons would have reacted.
I think this gets closer to the actual thoughts of most Democrats today. I mean, what’s a little bomb throwing forty years ago between friends?
Addendum: John Hinderaker has a good point about Obama’s efforts to charge political opponents with criminal offenses. McCain’s no friend of free speech, but Obama (whose party still wants to reinstitute the “fairness doctrine” to shut down Rush & Co.) seems like an out-and-out enemy.
Apollo posted this at 11:45 AM HKT on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 as Audacity of Hype, The Past Is Never Dead--It Isn't Even Past, We don't need no stinkin' Constitution
A Problem I Wasn’t Aware Of
600 workers were arrested in a very large immigration enforcement operation. Where are they from?
Those detained were from Brazil, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, and Peru, said Barbara Gonzalez, an ICE spokeswoman.
That list reminded me of a song.
Apollo posted this at 12:43 AM HKT on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 as The Melting Pot Boils Over
August 27th, 2008
Enjoying What You Do
Probably the biggest surprise of this campaign is how much the McCain camp seems to enjoy attacking Obama. I was expecting an entire campaign of sanctimonious my-opponent’s-behavior-saddens-me tut-tutting, but instead we’re getting instructions on what toga to wear when at “The Temple of Obama (’The Barackopolis’).” This is great stuff, and it’s more tolerable to watch when it seems like at least one side is enjoying themselves.
In a similar vein, I watched Bill Clinton speak at the DNC tonight. The man obviously enjoys speaking to a large room of cheering people, and he doesn’t get to do it that much anymore. He looked existentially happy, like a pig who only gets to wallow in mud for ten minutes every four years. This is what he was born to do, and it was a delight to watch him be that happy.
Apollo posted this at 8:43 PM HKT on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 as Audacity of Hype
Culture 11
Culture11.com. Why haven’t you been there yet?
Tom posted this at 12:10 PM HKT on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 as Random Bloggish Things
I Know Who I Don’t Want
Out of these 10 reasons not to pick Romney for VP, at least 8 are good. The best is 9, which is similar to something I’ve said time and time again:
9. Rommey supporters typically say that he would be good on the economy. But why, exactly? Paul O’Neill and John Snow were both highly successful businessmen, and yet were weak as Treasury Secretary. Why would Romney be any different – and would McCain want to be seen to hand over control of the economy to his vice president? Business and government require different leadership styles. Few people can handle both well, and Romney’s thin record as governor provides little evidence he can. The conservative Tax Foundation stated that the total state and local tax burden in Massachusetts rose 5.1 percent on Romney’s watch, and the state ranked 46th in job growth from 2003-2005 (in the middle of a boom). In any event, skill in business is very different from skill in finance – or governing.
I really don’t see why so many found this guy to be an attractive candidate. It still makes me a sad panda to look back at how so many movement conservatives latched onto this guy as their standard bearer.
Update: Here is a flaming example of the vacuous “he knows a lot about the economy” pap. There are so many better picks.
Apollo posted this at 7:02 AM HKT on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 as Audacity of Hype, Conservatism
The Iron Lady Fades
Mark Steyn liked to crack that George Bush was Tony Blair with a ranch, which is unfair to the much classier Bush. I hadn’t known, until I read Nicholas Wapshott, that Blair had tried to cancel the planned state funeral of Margaret Thatcher:
Since her party ousted her in 1990 in a typically passionless British coup, she has remained a prophet largely ignored in her own country. While Americans worship her, the British have found it hard to forgive the hectoring and sometimes brutal fashion in which she harried them into changing their ways. It is of little credit to Tony Blair, who shares Lady Thatcher’s fate of being an American idol derided at home, that he vetoed the state funeral she deserves. (To his credit, Gordon Brown swiftly overturned Mr. Blair’s mean verdict.)
According to Daniel Johnson, Thatcher is losing her memory in the worst possible way:
It was generally known that Lady Thatcher, 82, had suffered a number of minor strokes, but until now her memory loss — which sometimes makes it hard for her to finish sentences — had been hidden from the public.
From my own brief encounters with Lady Thatcher during the past 25 years, I can testify that she is still capable of occasional flashes of the old fighter. But for at least a decade she has been fighting a losing battle with Alzheimer’s that is sometimes painful to behold. In a newly published memoir, “A Swim-On Part in the Goldfish Bowl: A Memoir,” her daughter describes how Lady Thatcher kept forgetting her husband Denis’s death in 2003, forcing her to relive the bereavement every time she was reminded.
I think my favorite story about Thatcher’s class happened in the early 90’s, when Reagan was losing his memory but before he announced his Alzheimer’s disease. At a dinner in Thatcher’s honor, the old thespian stood up and gave a graceful and seemingly off the cuff tribute to her, and naturally everyone gave the Gipper a standing ovation. Later on in the evening, he stood up again, and gave the same graceful and seemingly off the cuff tribute to her. The guests were shocked, but Thatcher immediately stood up and lead the crowd in a second standing ovation to try to prevent an old man from feeling confused—and the crowd followed her lead.
She can no longer lead, but may we continue to follow her example.
Hubbard posted this at 6:11 AM HKT on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 as Excruciatingly Correct Behavior, The Past Is Never Dead--It Isn't Even Past
August 26th, 2008
Who’d Want to Drill Her?
Nancy Pelosi loses a battle of wits with a crowd of chanting protesters. The cardinal rule of dealing with hecklers is that, unless you know you can say something funny, the best response is no response. Drilling their brains is not funny.
To be fair, I’m having a hard time coming up with the witty response she should have used. Perhaps there’s just no witty way to defend stupid policies.
Apollo posted this at 4:41 PM HKT on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 as Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be!, The Democratic Congress
Howler of the Day
From The Prophet:
I also agree with David Brooks’ excellent advice today, which is that Obama needs to simply be who he is. He just isn’t a Krugman-style attack dog; he isn’t terribly partisan; he isn’t really that radical. Clinton era tax hikes for the successful and tax cuts for the struggling, a healthcare proposal less statist than Romney’s, diplomatic caution, religious temperance, global awareness: these are his themes, bound together with the hope of the next generation. He is the 21st Century, while McCain is eager for the 19th. You have to trust the American people to see this – not panic, trust.
Ephasis Added.
Seriously Andrew? Obama has been ranked as the most liberal senator in the senate by voting record. His tax policy would put us on par with many countries in Europe (I assume we would also enjoy their wonderful levels of employment and stellar growth.) He enjoys a 100% rating from NARAL, and has killed bills that would prevent one of the most heinous forms of abortion (oh and he lied about it too.) He opposed offshore drilling, before he was for it (a flip-flop so quick and total he must have gotten whiplash). He supports drivers licenses for illegal immigrants. He supports strong affirmative action so “that its not just a quota” (not just a quota? So he supports outright quotas?) He also wants to cut our missile defense program (in the face of a resurgent Russia, unstable regimes in nuclear Pakistan and North Korea and an Iran who is actively working towards nuclear technology.)
In every single one of these stances Obama is not only wrong, but far from the mainstream.
Give me a break.
Jamie posted this at 12:42 PM HKT on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 as Audacity of Hype, What Ever Happened to Andrew Sullivan?
One Final Squeal
I have made this argument before, but the foolishness of the GOP Veepstakes, and the fact that this is probably my last opportunity to say my peace on this matter, compels me to write one last time about why Sen. McCain should chose Fred Thompson as his running mate.
As its famous first occupant once wrote, the Vice Presidency is “the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.” According to the constitution — and contrary to Dick Cheney’s tenure — the veep’s only two official jobs are to preside over Senate, casting the deciding vote in a tie, and to assume office if the president dies or leaves office before the end of his term. This is a terrible place to purposely put someone with executive experience, ambition, and a history of being a go-getter. That is why it would be such a waste of Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, or — in a similar way to — Sarah Palin or Bobby Jindal, both of whom need to grow in office before being put out to the political pasture.
Thompson, however, has the perfect temperament for the job: indeed, the very laid-back, laconic approach that undid him in the primaries could be a tremendous benefit to him in office. There’s no question of his ability to preside over the Senate, and he’s certainly just as qualified to succeed the president as Sen. Biden.
But Thompson also provides at least two positive reasons to be picked. To begin with, his conservative bona fides and close personal friendship with McCain offer the best chance conservatives have to curb McCain’s many inanities. Thompson has an excellent chance not simply to put conservative ideas forward to McCain, but to actually slap him around and be listened to. Thompson could have a steadying effect on McCain, something badly needed.
Related but different, however, would be Thompson’s ability to act as a spokesman of the McCain administration and for limited government/federalist-style conservatism. Simply by virtue of his title, Thompson can be on every news show — domestic and foreign — every night as the public face of American Conservatism and President McCain.
One final suggestion: though McCain is only required to choose a running mate at the convention, there’s nothing to prevent him from announcing his cabinet appointments there as well. Wouldn’t it be startling if, after introducing his Vice President, he went to announce that he has already chosen his Secretaries of State, Defense,and Treasury, and Attorney General nominees, right as John Bolton, Joe Lieberman, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani took the stage?
Tom posted this at 12:16 PM HKT on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 as Audacity of Hype, We don't need no stinkin' Constitution