In a twist…

The New Neo Posted on by

…on the immortal words of LBJ, Councilman Steve Lipski was in the tent pissing in, since it’s logical to assume that the DC club crowd that was the object of Lipski’s uh, favors, was heavily Democratic in composition.

And speaking of LBJ—in my quest to find a good link for the Johnson quote to which I’m referring (that Johnson would rather have J. Edgar Hoover inside the tent pissing out than outside pissing in, quote number four here), I found a page of quotations from LBJ listing quite a few insightful and /or funny ones that seem to retain their appropriateness today: Continue reading →

Baldilocks nails it

The New Neo Posted on by

An excellent observation from Baldilocks:

Losers find it almost impossible to act like winners even when they win.

Since Obama’s victory, troll visits to right-wing blogs are up, dropping comments that show all the class of second graders in the schoolyard singing “Nah nah nah boo boo, stick your head in doo doo.”

You’d think they’d be happy to have won, with no need to waste time and energy on such entertainment. But it you’d think that, you’d think wrong. For a certain segment of the Obamaphile population (and I have no idea how large it is), the feeling of triumph goes hand in hand with the desire to spit on others in their overwhelming delight at their own victory. Not an admirable impulse to be sure, but an ancient one. By their fruits ye shall know them.

In the clutches of Obama Derangement Syndrome?

The New Neo Posted on by

Here’s a link to my piece for Pajamas Media on how to avoid the perils of ODS. It appears to me from a very quick perusal of the comments there that most people would prefer to plunge right into ODS instead.

A bit of clarification and reiteration of my point of view:

I think it’s not only our right but our duty to criticize every single move of Obama’s that we feel is wrong or ill-advised. Nor have I abandoned the idea that as President he (or Congress, with his approval) might make decisions that are actually dangerous to the country’s security, its liberty, or its economy.

But it is best for the nation and for us as individuals to not assume that will happen. Instead, we need to wait with cool heads and open minds to see what actually happens, and then respond to it. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t prepare ourselves mentally and emotionally, as well as strategically, for that possibility. But we need to remind ourselves it’s only a possibility.

Post-racial America: show, don’t tell

The New Neo Posted on by

Obama ran as the post-racial candidate. But he was not above using false accusations of racism to beat his opponents, and he emphasized the racially historic nature of an Obama win.

The first method is to be condemned. And although in a true post-racial world (which we most assuredly have not entered, nor have we reached nirvana when last I checked) the second would neither be necessary nor important, it is one of the best things about Obama’s victory.

For me, Obama’s negatives outweighed the great positive of electing the first black President. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t find some pleasure in the fact that we have done so. Continue reading →

Jules Crittenden…

The New Neo Posted on by

…has a lot to say, including something I meant to mention about George Bush:

Obama is in luck. George Bush ended that war in Iraq, and all Obama and the Dem Cong have to do is not screw up the peace….[T]he one thing I wanted most out of the second Bush administration has been accomplished.

The day after: post-election reflections

The New Neo Posted on by

A few minutes into the second Presidential debate, I realized McCain was almost certain to lose this election.

I had been thinking that a McCain defeat was the likely outcome ever since the financial crisis began. But that debate was very troubling. I wrote at the time that Obama looked better and sounded better, although both candidates were strangely lackluster. But although I did not write this, I felt that McCain had squandered an important—perhaps a vital—opportunity to reassure people that he was up to the task. His lack of energy and focus on that evening was a very bad sign.

Then it became crystal clear to me late on the night before the election, when the returns from the tiny New Hampshire town of Dixville Notch came in. Continue reading →