I’d heard the Evan Thomas bit on Obama’s “slightly creepy cult of personality” before, but never in context. Still, for those of you who already have heard it, there’s a bit more to chew on here in Thomas’ comments to Charlie Rose.
Not to mention, an opportunity for the august new “center-right” punditry to take Rush Limbaugh to task for his fraught suggestion, in his gloss on Thomas’ remarks, that “we’ve seen this before”.
– Unless Rush was alluding to Lyndon Johnson. In which case, never mind.
(h/t Diana)
Comment by pdbuttons on 11/12 @ 5:55 pm #
the barn door is open
the horse…gone
Comment by RDub on 11/12 @ 5:57 pm #
Mr. “We’re worth 15 points to Kerry” is now concerned about the degree to which someone is in the tank for a politician?
Comment by dre on 11/12 @ 6:04 pm #
Evan Thomas is a creepy creature of his own making.
Comment by BarrettBrown on 11/12 @ 6:04 pm #
Lyndon Johnson rules. He’s the bad boy of the presidency. I use a calendar that starts in your “1963,” that actually being Year Zero of the Lyndonian Era.
Also, does anyone here despise Thomas Friedman? And, if so, why?
Comment by dre on 11/12 @ 6:13 pm #
“Also, does anyone here despise Thomas Friedman? And, if so, why?”
“As a condition for the bailout, Friedman demands that “any car company that gets taxpayer money must demonstrate a plan for transforming every vehicle in its fleet to a hybrid-electric engine with flex-fuel capability, so its entire fleet can also run on next generation cellulosic ethanol.â€Â
There is already an auto company that does this. In addition to sedans, it offers hybrid models in even its largest SUVs. This company is also the industry’s largest investor in cellulosic ethanol production, and every model it makes is flex-fuel capable.
This company’s name? General Motors. Obviously, there’s more to profitability than being green.”
?
Comment by The Monster on 11/12 @ 6:17 pm #
Well, Ed Morrissey says we shouldn’t use the N word when we talk about Obama. (Not that N word…)
We’ve seen it before, alright. We just aren’t allowed to call it by name.
Comment by pdbuttons on 11/12 @ 6:19 pm #
i don’t despise anyone
except pompous douchebags
and their whole douche-baggery bubble
that’s why if u order a meal at the drive thru
with a snotty ‘tude
i’m gonna piss in your drink
why do u think they went to plastic knifes/forks?
cuz ur an asshole
Comment by Mossberg500 on 11/12 @ 6:22 pm #
Monster goes Godwin in less than ten comments. Well done, sir!
Comment by ian cormac on 11/12 @ 6:30 pm #
Friedman gives pedantic windbags a bad name; on any topic. From his Labor views on Israel, to his contempt for center right populism, to his insistence on his uniquely sophisticated understanding of free market
policies (he made root for the anarchist, when he and Krugman were in favor of the WTO)
Comment by Salt Lick on 11/12 @ 6:30 pm #
Also, does anyone here despise Thomas Friedman? And, if so, why?
I’m not one of the smart people here, Barrett, but I despise Friedman because he strikes me as an opportunist. He seems to support ideas when they look like winners, then bail when things look bad, and then make more money saying the reason things look bad is that the people who actually tried to put his ideas into practice didn’t do it the way he would have done it, if he wasn’t so busy writing a book about his next big idea.
Comment by pdbuttons on 11/12 @ 6:30 pm #
don’t know who to credit
starbucks…
the only place u have to wait
ten minutes in line
to watch five people
make one cup of coffee
thomas friedman!
good grief
line two- richard holbrooke is on line two
unfortunately
your minutes have run out
Comment by urthshu on 11/12 @ 6:35 pm #
B-b-but he’s closing Gitmo! No more Cuban Concentration Camp!!1!
PS.Doesn’t actually bother me. It was going away no matter who got in.
Comment by Ric Locke on 11/12 @ 7:01 pm #
Bet a dollar?
Oh, Camp X-Ray may very well empty out. Those creeps have to go somewhere, and with even the lawyer who was most prominent in generating the “they’re all entitled to the protections of American citizens” meme admitting that it all had more to do with bashing Bush and keeping lawyers employed than anything resembling “justice”, the place where they go is someplace functionally identical. Temporarily, at least, it might not be considered worthwhile to close X-Ray and set up another one somewhere.
Same-same like the tax business. It’s conventional wisdom that “46% of Americans pay no taxes.” It’s also a lie. Poor people and the lower middle class pay a larger fraction of their income in taxes than anybody else — it’s just that the money goes to Anheiser-Busch and Frito-Lay first, then gets forwarded to the Government after a percentage is taken out.
You have to keep your eye on the ball.
Regards,
Ric
Comment by Mossberg500 on 11/12 @ 7:05 pm #
Ric, you forgot Phillip Morris!
Comment by urthshu on 11/12 @ 7:21 pm #
Oh, after the war ends – cessation of hostilities as the jargon goes – POWs are released to their home countries. Pretty sure he’ll bolt from Iraq, at least.
Sorta related: If AQ had any sense, they should find a bunch of older black women to be their negotiators to Obama, I think. He’s sorta ruled over by women, esp. Michelle, and I have never met a black man who could stand up to a horde of black women yelling that they’ll ‘break a foot off’n yo ass!’
They’d probly tell him to get his skinny ass a job, too.
Comment by Ric Locke on 11/12 @ 8:05 pm #
Mossberg — yeah. The closest thing there actually is to a world currency is Marlboro Red, box-pack, with a US tax stamp. Freely convertible and accepted anywhere. Also regularly counterfeited.
urthshu, the problem there is they aren’t POWs — this is the whole basis of the controversy. They are people who were caught up in the war and became participants without formally joining up: “illegal combatants”. In situations where relations between the combatants were relatively cordial, they tended to be treated as camp followers, interned until there was a chance to let them go; in situations where divisions are bitter on at least one side, they tended (and tend, today) to be either shot or released on the spot, with “shot” being choice #1 in all cases. No army in the world, in all time, has ever gathered them up POW-style, as here, so there are no precedents and therefore no settled law — hence the arguments.
Regards,
Ric
Comment by urthshu on 11/12 @ 8:14 pm #
I know, Ric. Just sayin’ is all. Once it’s done, they can’t be considered either POWs or anything else other than political prisoners with no sentencing. Its a problem both McC and O were going to face, and both would be doing the same, pretty much. Its an albatross.
Comment by cranky-d on 11/12 @ 8:38 pm #
pdbuttons, I wasn’t a fan at first, but you’re starting to grow on me.
No, I don’t mean like a fungus.
Comment by guinsPen on 11/12 @ 8:42 pm #
Please to wash hands after handling turtle.
Comment by pdbuttons on 11/12 @ 8:52 pm #
cranky-d- i think ur cool
my sober side u mean
my fucked up side
i know…
ehh.thanks to jeff 4 letting me post
ace of spades banned me-snap
after 2 days of my bullshit
idoes anyone have his email?
i’m conputurd
tried to email him
i like his site
thanks to all of u
ps if
u think i’m an ass
skip my comments
thats all
y’all
Comment by Ric Locke on 11/12 @ 8:58 pm #
urthshu — yeah. If the damned Left had just been willing to shut the f* up for a while, the problem wouldn’t exist.
Strange as it may seem, I’m fully convinced that Bush expected to get some credit for humanitarianism over this. Established procedure back to the Stone Age would have been to drag them out back of the camp, beat out of ‘em whatever could be got in ten minutes or so, followed by a slit throat and latrine-trench re-use. Prisons may or may not be pleasant, but unlike graves (however shallow) people do get out of them sometimes.
The sort of ironic thing is that if they hadn’t been turned into political footballs most of them would be out now, less the one or two genuine bad actors (as opposed to what you might call “informal soldiers”). Now the big problem is that in most cases their home countries either don’t want them back, or would slap ‘em in a holding cell just long enough to get the irons hot.
There is no real solution, so everybody’s going to dither. Personally I’d give ‘em each $1000 in twenties and a new suit, and let them out in front of the Afghan restaurant on California Street in San Francisco. Nancy would love it.
Regards,
Ric
Comment by geoffb on 11/12 @ 9:13 pm #
Put me down as another pdbuttons convert. happyfeet got me to reading your stuff and I too like it.
Smiles are alot needed these days.
Comment by Jeff Y. aka The Continental on 11/12 @ 9:16 pm #
Creepy. Creepy? It didn’t creep me out. I scared the shit out of me. The guy has nothing. No policies. No experience. No nothing. Zip. Nada. And he inspired a Presidential win. Huh? Somebody, explain.
Comment by pdbuttons on 11/12 @ 9:23 pm #
#22
thanks-i actually think everyone here is funny/sarc
happyfeet is number !
[but sssh- i’m gonna unseat the bitch- just between me and u
ur secret squirrel name will be….
geff
toodles
ssshhhh
1
Comment by Jim Ryan on 11/12 @ 9:25 pm #
Somebody, explain.
Senator Stuart Smalley.
Comment by urthshu on 11/12 @ 9:28 pm #
Jeff Y –
Do NOT look up anything regarding his proposed ‘civilian national defense force’ if you’re easily creeped out
Pingback by Fuck Obama « docweaselblog on 11/12 @ 9:29 pm #
[...] Fuck Obama’s creepy cult of personality. [...]
Comment by geoffb on 11/12 @ 9:29 pm #
Better than most things I’ve been called, especially the mispronunciations at school events. My name used to be more unusual way back when, same name just uncommon.
Comment by guinsPen on 11/12 @ 9:44 pm #
u think i’m an ass
I think you’re a turtle.
Comment by pdbuttons on 11/12 @ 9:46 pm #
#25-stuart smalley was a sat-nite-live charecter-a dr.phil pre-cursor
al franken-played the smalley
every episode he would have the guest host on
and they would talk about problems/always coming back to STUARTS problems
and every episode he[stuart] would look in the mirror and…
oh god!
i wish i could say i looked that up on wiki-pedia but i didn’t…
fuck me- i know an al franken skit and i hate the dude
how many hail marys is that- cuz i mite call an exorcist!
if this don’t get me banned….
whatever don’t kill me/makes me stronger!
Comment by JD on 11/12 @ 9:53 pm #
4 – Farv-ruh
Comment by pdbuttons on 11/12 @ 9:58 pm #
i love the brett/ he do not make me fret/
thursday child has favre to go
Comment by geoffb on 11/12 @ 10:30 pm #
Stuart Smalley would look in a mirror and say, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.”
Now don’t feel so bad pd.
BTW What email were you looking for?
Comment by JD on 11/12 @ 10:32 pm #
Al Fucking Franken. Can you believe that. Al Fucking Franken, in the US Senate. At least the Left can no longer say that they are the party of intellectuals.
Comment by lee on 11/12 @ 10:44 pm #
Oh look. More creepiness.
While the N word is still very evil, the C word is catching up fast, though at this time it is simmering at the raised eyebrow level.
Developing…
Comment by pdbuttons on 11/12 @ 10:52 pm #
# 33
ace of spades
he banned me after two days
i just love his site/love to comment/want to apologize
i was probly…flipant?[ha]
anyway
i am a comp tard-[really] i’ve trie twice to contact his site
but i fuck up all the time
thanks 4 being there 4 me
cry!
sarc/trooly
Comment by geoffb on 11/12 @ 11:05 pm #
That I don’t know except the one he lists on the homepage.
Sorry.
Comment by Christoph on 11/12 @ 11:26 pm #
Well, Ed Morrissey still refuses to answer this question, calmly put, by Jay Mac.
I’ve been Ed’s commenter for years and he knows full well I have a slightly — uh — robust online persona. It’s never been a problem. He was always much more tolerant of strong, even offensive debating styles than someone like, for example, Patterico.
But when I went on a thread and asked him if he’d answer Jay Mac’s question, I was banned, instantly. Note that Jay Mac merely asked Morrissey to explain why he’s attacking conservative commenters as deranged for asking the precise questions Morrissey asked before Obama’s election.
Is Ed Morrissey intimidated? Cautious? Intellectually disingenuous? 100% correct and Jay Mac totally wrong?
Is Morrissey the last journalist or blogger who will be less critical of Obama now that he’s going to be in power?
Comment by mojo on 11/12 @ 11:43 pm #
Necrophiliac?…
.
.
…
What?
Comment by Diana on 11/13 @ 2:29 am #
Ta, Jeff.
I have a new idea for a Burma Shave commercial:
“Watch this Spaced”
“Watch this Spaced”
“Watch this Spaced”
Comment by Rusty on 11/13 @ 6:02 am #
#23
That is why he has Rahm Emmanuel. That guy ought to scare the crap out of everybody, Emmanuel. He makes Karl Rove look timid. He has a reputation here in Illinois of being a ‘take no prisoners’ kind of pol. Vicious, ruthless, and mean. Which , by the way, is a good name for a law firm.
Pingback by Calendar Chinesse Pregnancy on 11/13 @ 3:04 pm #
[...] Well, it’s new to me… [...]