Circular Firing Squads
Patterico charitably describes President-elect Obama as a good man who holds bad ideas. I agree with half of that proposition, but unlike Jeff Goldstein am content simply to describe Patterico’s position as wrong rather than dishonest. Liberals are supposed to spew this crap. Conservatives are not. So knock it off, you two. Jeff is probably right on the underlying issue – Obama has done too many transparently bad things of late to be worthy of a presumption that he’s a good man – but that doesn’t mean anyone who believes otherwise is lying. At worst it means he’s been duped. Charismatic people have a way of doing that.
Meanwhile, outside the Blogosphere, certain elements of the the McCain campaign are campaigning harder against Sarah Palin than they ever did against Barack Obama, and some local schmuck proves that other-party’s-guy derangement syndrome is alive and well.
I guess I should be happy that if everyone on my side of the aisle is going to make asses of themselves, they’re getting it out of their systems now rather than shortly before any major elections. Still, it’s disturbing to say the least.
UPDATE: More on Obama’s sweet, chewy goodness here.
UPDATE x2: On the other hand, impeachment (h/t: Venomous Kate) seems a bit premature. Let’s wait until we at least have a majority in both houses, people. Even then, convincing a majority of Congressmen that “being a mendacious pinko douchebag” constitutes a high crime and/or misdemeanor seems like a rather tall order. For now I’m holding out hope that the “impeach Obama” Facebook groups are either (1) run by mobies or (2) tongue in cheek.
November 6th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Couldn’t agree with you more. Commenters at Race42008 (now 2012) and other sites are flying with accusations over which staffer said what about whom and whether said staffer was an ex-Rombot. Apparently some hardcore Palin supporters and hardcore Romney supporters cant wait until late 2011 to scream that if the other candidate wins the nomination they won’t vote.
It kind of reminds me of High School actually, which really makes me sad that some of our “side” can act this way. On the other hand, as long as the sane people keep speaking up, hopefully most will calm down before its time to get down to the business of planning for 2010 and 2012.
November 7th, 2008 at 3:18 am
I think Palin has the potential to be the next Ronald Regan, and the last thing the Republican party leadership wants is some outsider who owes them nothing being elected by a grassroots storm.
It won’t surprise me if Palin starts getting trashed by beltway Republicans.
November 7th, 2008 at 7:04 am
You may be right about that. Of course, some Beltway Republicans (Peggy Noonan, George Will, David Frum, etc.) have begun doing that already. Reagan wasn’t universally loved within his party, either.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:14 am
No . . . Reagan wasn’t universally loved by his party until he died. Then he was St. Ron.
The 1970s versions of Krauthammer, Will, Noonan, et al, all hated Reagan.
I lived through the 1970s and 80s, and during the 70s I thought Reagan was a lightweight – superficial and intellectually vacuous. Even in the 1980s I did not really change my opinion. By 1984, I decided that he was lucky rather than particularly smart, and that lucky beat smart.
It was not until the 1990s, when the fruits of Reaganism began ripening that my opinion of him began shifting, and really until his letters were published that I finally realized that he had an extremely shrewd intellect hidden by a genial facade. Yup. I misunderestimated the man in a big way.
Now I hear the same type of rhetoric that was aimed at Reagan by Beltway conservatives about Sarah Palin. They may not be wrong, this time, but then again, they may again be just as correct as they were 25 years ago about Reagan. Only this time, I plan to reserve judgement, and base my views on Palin’s actions in the future rather than pundit nattering. I think three years will give enough information for us to tell whether she is a Ronald Reagan or a Jack Kemp.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:26 am
No . . . Reagan wasn’t universally loved by his party until he died. Then he was St. Ron.
Bing, bing, bing, we have a winner.
I spent much of the 80s saying, “Well, maybe Ronnie’s an idiot, but then his advisors are geniuses.”
I also gotta admit, I’m with Goldstein on this one.