…Is that they’ve learned how to keep that title through an incestuous relationship with other “experts” who, like them, are so often completely and utterly wrong.
Misery loves company, I believe it’s called.
What I don’t understand is why, after such a dramatic record of bad advice and failed predictions, people not only still listen to them — but they continue to pay them handsomely for their willingness to put their complete misreading of the ethos on wide display.
It boggles the mind, frankly. Were there any justice, Karl Rove wouldn’t be dominating FOX News. Instead, he’d be doing what God intended him to do: clinging to the Bush family full time like some sort of giant, hairless skin tag.
The clingyness — so we’re told by our betters — derives from their religious feeling; which, I suppose, could as well be attributed to a religious feeling toward scientism or sociology as toward a more forthright Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism or what-have-we. Sure it is, though, that there’s something akin to a category error at work.
I feel and even better example is Mark Zandi. We can vote how we want, but when the Frotus administration points to the expertise of Mark Zandi who says the stimulus worked and we need another one. Now Zandi will say that the market is starting to show all the good work that The Idiot has done, when in fact, the market is reacting to the good odds that we’ll be rid of him soon.
It’s sorta like those football coaches who kick the ball (punt or field goal) even though the math argues otherwise just so that they can blame the defense rather than make a call that they might then have to explain to a hostile crowd.
Excellent, alp.
There can never be enough Zandi-bashing in my opinion.
Opinion concerning opinion. Mightily recursive. And feeble.
So far distant are we from the solid ground of the meaning of political.
I guess it took a destructive force like Obama to get the people ready for a classical liberal.
Karl Rove is yesterday’s news. It’s time FauxNewz realized that, but I imagine they have a contract with him, so I guess they want to use him. Besides, they’re becoming more establishment-friendly as a PR move, right?
By the by, Mr. Cain’s 9-9-9 collaborator, Rich Lowrie, was on Squawk this morning, and it was a fairly impressive shift he put in, I thought, explaining the rationale behind the proposal, albeit short-cut by the time allotted to him.
All the old political tricks for submarining a candidate aren’t working. It’s like there’s been a paradigm shift in the political machinists’ handbook. Maybe Palin was too quick to get out of the race.
Ace is in full anti-Cain mode now, if anyone cares. However, he is at least conceding that it’s very possible Cain could win the nomination, because a bunch of ignorant idiots (I’m paraphrasing, but not all that much) are willing to vote for him.
My answer on why I would vote for him: Principles, not pragmatism. He seems to share enough principles with me that I’m comfortable with him.
Related to skepticism regarding expert claims to knowledge:
Why Economic Models Are Always Wrong
Ace is a big Perry supporter. They’ve been going full-bore after Cain lately.
Frankly, I like Cain’s chances in a debate against Obama than I do Perry’s, having watched him in a few debates. But I’d vote for Perry in a heartbeat, too. His flat tax, pro-growth plan is actually very good, IMO. At any rate, give me a link to Ace’s anti-Cain stuff if yuo have a chance and I’ll look at it when I get home from picking my son up from early school release.
Incidentally, Herman is now following me on Twitter. That’s pretty freakin’ cool. Makes up for the fact that many of the big “conservative” journalists on Twitter won’t give me the time of day.
Maintaining a steadfast intention to be human can get people in trouble with the smart set right quick. Herman, like the honey badger, don’t care.
her ya go
Link
Link
Ace is like a housecat bringing the rat carcass into the kitchen.
Victims. They’re all victims.
The market is being pumped, al, and what better to pump it than news that there’ll be news one day that maybe Europe’s monetary implosion shall be left to be solved another day. And maybe some nice haircuts.
Pump. The paper flies and the noise flies and the algos run and nothing really changes. Pump.
Ace is Jennifer Rubin with smaller balls and fewer conservative bonafides. If he can’t see a way he could profit from a candidate’s running, he shits on them like a monkey that drank a bottle of ipecac after a large bean dinner.
True JHo, but I still feel that the trillions on the sidelines will stay there until they’re sure Obama’s gone. I know that the fake-Euro-save is pumping it, but the bulls may not stop if it looks like America is coming to its senses.
this mr. ace is a petty ricky perry guy
Link
Someone save Jon Corzine!
I just saw a clip of him ticking off the things he’s not supposed to be doing, in his black cowboy hat. Leading the polls, drawing the attention, etc… But the best was “I’m not supposed to be wearing this hat. But I’m doing it anyway.”
Dare I say…OUTLAW!?
Agreed, Al.
It’s also all componentry of the complex dynamic that has allowed the crafty OWS fomenters to lay claim to a portion of the problem, leverage some of that handy-dandy positive feedback — where as with language, you go east to get west and here you reform stuff by empowering its architects — and co-opt and displace the whole legitimate reform movement that was the TEA Party.
The bulls will naturally take up short-term positions here, profit from the trendy mood, and Barry can call it a victory for conservative principles and pocket his proceeds in the polls. In ten days it’s all forgotten as both race off to other pastures, monetary and political.
Where manipulating entire economies for paper profits while industry burns is seen as free, hands-off marketeering, I’d just recommend shorting liberty.
Does Ace not think that a genuine argument?
At any rate, Cain’s answer to the FOX News reporter who asked about his Alabama Bus Tour and George Wallace was spot on: Once he had to sit at the back of the bus. He now OWNS the bus. That’s the promise of America.
That was downright lyrical, JHo.
I’ll try something shorter: Obama = volatility.
Quoth Rabbit: [Cain] talks like a fucking dumbass much of the time, and when he’s not talking like a fucking dumbass, he’s doing an empty folksy pander which is all very nice for those who are receptive to it but says nothing about policy or ideas or competency for office.
Methinks somebody’s suffering from status anxiety.
What I don’t understand is why, after such a dramatic record of bad advice and failed predictions, people not only still listen to them — but they continue to pay them handsomely for their willingness to put their complete misreading of the ethos on wide display.
We know damn well that they’re not hired for their insight or their predictive ability. It’s all about establishing the narrative, and creating a set of credentials that will convince an audience that these guys should be listened to.
For the networks, it’s just one more thing that’s True Because We Keep Saying It.
He may be an Outlaw, Pablo. But can you come up with one conservative thing he’s ever said? One memorable thing?
ricky perry supporters tend to be jerks to the other candidates supporters. for example redstate’s mocking palinistas and mr. ace’s cain bashing.
On an inexpert front, have any of you good folk wondered at the similarities of the nascent European Union’s disheveled political condition with that of the Americans under the Articles of Confederation? Do the Euro’s see the deal? Can they possibly figure themselves a political way out?
I like Perry. Not a Cain basher. I think Perry would call Obama a dick during a debate followed by a great cheer going up across the nation that could be heard from the space station. Romney lost me with his Ohio 2-step.
But the dick thing would be priceless. I don’t ask much.
i meant blogs not individual ricky perry supporters
Herman Cain came to prominence for a reason.
If people can’t see that reason, they’re not honestly looking or finding overly simplistic ways to dismiss it.
Which, hey, that happens in the primaries. But, let’s not Jen Rubin Cain, right? ‘Cause, that’s not cool or something.
It’s cool nr.
“But can you come up with one conservative thing he’s ever said? One memorable thing?”
There’s a bunch of conservative stuff here, if you listen.
The part Ace should remember: “stay informed…stupid people are ruining America.”
Oops, link.
All y”all know who else the “experts” and hangers-on and pundits said was too “folksy” to be a credible candidate, don’tchya?
Reagan?
Partisans being partisan: it’s gloriously American, ain’t it?
Squabbling is what we do.
From the link @40
Never seen a derailing that made the train run faster before…
Of the GOP candidates, how would you rank them as far as being trustworthy in holding to their core beliefs when making decisions about important issues?
Does it seem strange BT, that if we were to think of Obama in that regard, our first inclination would be to say he scores a big fat zero, yet on reflection realize that in point of fact he more likely comes closer to 100%?
decreasing trust left to right
paulcainbachmannsantorum, perry, romneyhuntsmann
Sdferr I don’t think we really know who Obama is or what he really thinks. Blank slate to project upon and all that. Come to think of it we have more knowledge of what Michelle believes than Barack.
nr,
mentally i hadn’t even considered paul in my list, you you are right he would be the most trustworthy to hold true to his core beliefs.
I used to think that too BT. I looked at him as merely a confidence man out for his own aggrandizement, whether aggrandizement in terms of adoration or of remuneration, it made no difference to me. Then I read Stanley Kurtz’s book: now I look at him as a confidence man cloaking an utterly sincere ideologue, doing everything he does, including the confidence man schtick, as in service to his ideology (which, granted, we don’t have from him in detail, since that would be giving up the game on his part — still, we have enough, I believe, to be capable of sketching it out for ourselves.)
That just brought a smile to my stone face, Crawford. Thanks!
Expected from the plantation blacks and their Democratic owners; but more surprising to see it come from Right-wing fops as well.
I agree, sdferr. Inexpertly, I do not think that Obama is very smart, but he is certain that he is a Golden Boy. He is a snake-oil salesman and a very dangerous one, at that.
There is saber-rattling out in the hinterlands of the blogs about Paul going third party. God, I hope not. I don’t believe the country can survive another 4 years of Obama.
There are people who have lingering doubts the country can survive the three years already under its belt leigh. I’m not with them on that one, thinking instead that the roots of the demise, if it is to come, lay much deeper and farther back in time.
I am not with the doubters, either. I believe in our American Experiment and that we can rebound and learn from this debacle. I don’t see a demise; I see a rebirth. We certainly live in exciting times.
“if it is to come, lay much deeper and farther back in time.”
perpetual motion machines don’t work
We do have to ask ourselves what it is we must learn, both from what you describe as this debacle, and I think, what it is that we have lost which was once first conceived, then understood, then carefully crafted, polished, cherished and yet has become nearly unthought or unthinkable — in the main — today. Not to say unthinkable as such, just unthinkable as an ordinary and necessary consequence of all else we know, as I think was the condition or state of affairs for the men who conceived our political order initially. They were on to something they knew was brand spanking new as a synthesis of political thought up to their time, and they were in love with it. For us it had become an easily dismissed historical inheritance, like an old mahogany table passed down through the family’s hands, no longer fashionable, no longer appreciated for its beauty, no longer understood in terms of its proper use, so shoved first into an untraveled corner of an infrequently visited room, and finally into the attic to be forgotten.
This little Republic’s demise began when Americans started softening, post-WWII, and accelerating from the mid-60’s to present.
Even those events serr8d, had their causes, which it seems to me long pre-dated them.
Leigh, I don’t think snake oil salesman is quite right. I think he is a true believer; infinitely more dangerous.
sdferr, I’ll agree about the roots. That goes back to Wilson at least(in this country).
I still say the The ’70’s produced the first real stem though, after a through fertilizing in the ’60’s. When Ted Kennedy first legislated health care with the HMO, and seat belt laws went into effect, the subtle shift from individual determination bestowed by our creator, to individual security mandated by our ruler, was set. From that cascaded smoking laws, helmet laws, restaurant menu laws, toilet laws, salt laws, light bulb laws, and on and on to the crowning piece, Obamacare.
I ain’t giving up yet, but we have a long bitter battle ahead if we are to reclaim our God given liberties, and the first effort is one we cannot lose, or we lose the battle. That is to stop the implementation of Obamacare. If that thing becomes entrenched, we are done as a free market capitalist society,
thoughts on intentionalism from a progg
Link
[quote]So make no mistake about it — I mean, whether it’s health care, or the economy, or education, or foreign policy, [b]the choice we make in this election will determine nothing less than who we are as a country — but more importantly, who we want to be.[/b] Who are we? Will we be a country that tells folks who’ve done everything right but are struggling to get by, “tough luck, you’re on your own”? Is that who we are?
AUDIENCE: No!
MRS. OBAMA: Or will we honor the fundamental American belief that I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper, and if one of us is hurting, then we’re all hurting? Who are we? (Applause.)[/quote]
/Spake the FLOTUS today in Tampa. Stopped clocks and all that…
Damn. Tag fail.
Have you fellows listened to Dr. Arnn talking with Peter Robinson about the Declaration and the Constitution? It’s worth your time, I guarantee. Dr. Arnn is terrific.
More Acehole …
Hell, no, and people shouldn’t, because choosing Romney would be only fractionally better than BHO in the long run. I’d be dissatisfied, as I was with Bush, and even less inclined to fully stand behind him.
“, and I’m sick of instructing them that maybe they should rest their Emotion Muscles a little bit and work out their Thinking Muscles some more.”
you 1st ace/rickyperryblowjobartist
I always lurves Game Seven(s). Of course I’m pulling for La Russa’s team.
So, Ace thinks “people” need his instruction? Jeez, what an ego.
“I’m sick of instructing them that maybe they should rest their Emotion Muscles a little bit and work out their Thinking Muscles some more.”
mr. nyc along with coulter telling me the kool aid to drink. a big fu you’ll.
First cold day in Hell, I’ll read Ace again.
Someone be sure to let me know when that comes about, m’kay?
Cain doesn’t seem particularly angry to me … the only anger we ever see is when Romney thinks someone is gonna take away his his pretty pretty pony and sometimes we get a flash when people accidentally if understandably behave as if 80s-relic Rick Santorum were deeply and abidingly politically irrelevant
and then there’s Obama – who seems very very angry at the idea that the election will be a referendum on his record of ass-raping America’s economy
but for the most part we haven’t seen near enough for reals anger by a long shot, given what’s been done on our little country
I’m looking forward to seeing Obama show the fear in his jaundiced eyes when he realizes that the crowd is about to turn on him and no one is doing anything to stop it.
We don’t need anger. We need competent, uncorrupted management.
‘feets! Is that a glimmer of support for Mr. Cain that I detect in your comment there, because mayhaps you are losing teh woody for Perry?
I’m more pro-anger than you are I think. I especially like the part where someone calls the president a fucking dick on national tv.
Who in their right mind gets a facial tattoo, even if it is behind their freakin’ ear?
serr8d I been there for like 3 weeks – Perry I could happily vote for but he really hasn’t impressed me at all and I couldn’t really fault anyone for not voting for him – So Cain is all we have left. He doesn’t dazzle me. Not yet anyway. But I could vote for him easy peasy.
I would only vote for Wall Street Romney cause I think he’d be better for my 401k than a second term of the wee socialist fuckstain.
But that’s not a very good reason to vote for someone.
I do enjoy the judicial placement of public anger: “YOU LIE!”, for example, was perfectly enacted AFAIC. More of that, please!
That half-inning was very helpful.
I’m substituting pancakes for anger tonight I think, on account of I haven’t had any lately.
after ricky perry called peeps heartless, the santorumcainbachmann crowd have no use the emotion peeps like mr. ace.
Mrs. Bachman is near dropping out. Santorum might as well. If Ron Paul tries to run as an Independent, I hope his son locks him in a closet after Thanksgiving dinner.
Theriot vs. the mullet.
“Mrs. Bachman is near dropping out. ”
speaker of the house is her gig.
cain as the “not romney” has bachmann speaker, newt advisor, and santorum/bolton foreign policy with paul eco.
pancakes! I deserve pancakes maybe later tonight I can grab some I don’t really have any foozle in the hoose
Ms. Bachmann needs some time in the penalty box for being a skeevy, opportunistic, hacktastic twat. Maybe she could spend some quiet time there learning how to keep her feet out of her mouth.
“Ms. Bachmann needs some time in the penalty box for being a skeevy, opportunistic, hacktastic twat.”
nah ms. bachmann needs to lead the charge in the house to eradicate obamacare/epa/education et al. with klondike bars.
Slamming down bat and helmet?
UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT! 15 YARDS!
mr. herman says 9-9-9 means jobs-jobs-jobs. what say you mittens?
Pujols shot his wad in Game 3. He’s no Reggie Jackson
.
I think Ace has Cain confused with McCain.
OK, this is just sad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOYVB2hc0HA&feature=player_embedded
Helpful comedy hint: Be funny.
Let Ryan do it. Or Chaffetz. Steve King, maybe. Anyone who hasn’t dropped their panties and pulled their skirt up over their head.
Ya’know, from what the Cards have been through to get here, and the Rangers too for that matter, this Series more nearly resembles a Stanley Cup decision in the grinding grueling slog sense than any other Series I can think of.
“Let Ryan do it. Or Chaffetz. Steve King, maybe. Anyone who hasn’t dropped their panties and pulled their skirt up over their head”
ms. michele with one “l” has been leading the charge against baracky unlike the speaker of the tears. clean house on these losers. ms. michele with one “l” will start hacking at the big gov’t.
go cards
“red” is beating “blue” tonight
Champagne time.
Good job, La Russa.
How about that?
Belichick was running around Foxboro in a LaRussa jersey. I think that did it.
Kings of the roost.
Nice goin’.