If the war in Iraq is so dreadful that it serves as a recruiting tool for terrorists, why is the insurgency there reduced to resorting to Down’s Syndrome suicide bombers?
Sanity Squad: Superbowl, Super Tuesday, Superhatred for McCain
Join Siggy, Dr. Sanity, Shrink, and me as the Squad analyzes all of the above on our latest podcast at Blog Talk Radio.
More McCain: to the Right on many things, and right on the surge
I thought by now I’d be off the topic of McCain, but it seems to have legs.
For my readers who can’t see their way clear to supporting McCain in the general election if nominated, Jeff Jacoby does an excellent job of pointing out why McCain is not only a pragmatic choice for conservatives but a conservative choice:
…on the whole [McCain’s] record has been that of a robust and committed conservative. He is a spending hawk and an enemy of pork and earmarks. He has never voted to increase taxes, and wants the Bush tax cuts made permanent for the best of reasons: “They worked.” He is a staunch free-trader and a champion of school choice. He is unabashedly prolife and pro-Second Amendment. He opposes same-sex marriage. He wants entitlements reined in and personal retirement accounts expanded.
Jacoby points out that McCain’s ratings from conservative groups have consistently been high despite his admitted lapses from elements of the conservative canon. And Romney supporters might want to ponder this: Continue reading →
Conservatives jump the shark: party purity uber alles
Take a look at the comments responding to Ed Morrissey’s post asking whether Ann Coulter jumped the shark when she said she’d be campaigning for Hillary if McCain is nominated. They prove—as if we needed any proof—that the conservative base can be just as emotional, doctrinaire, rigid, deluded, selfish, and self-immolating as any liberal ever was.
Not every comment falls into those categories, of course. There’s a heated back-and forth between those who suffer from McCain Derangement Syndrome and those who are cautioning pragmatism. But there are enough examples of that first group to give one pause.
It’s not that I think they must like McCain; I understand it if they don’t. Continue reading →
Playing the age card against McCain
As Michael Barone points out, the Republican race is coalescing around candidate McCain after an early period of chaos, while the Democratic race is still up for grabs after an early period of seeming clarity.
Nevertheless, McCain remains a polarizing figure for Republicans. Not conservative enough on immigration, taxes, global warming, you name it.
But consider the Democratic alternatives. As McCain’s mother said recently, Republicans should “hold their noses” and vote for him anyway.
If McCain becomes the nominee—which I predict will happen—it might become a very important thing that McCain’s mother is around to say anything. That’s because I also predict that, whoever the Democratic candidate will be, one campaign focus is almost certain to be McCain’s advanced age. Continue reading →
French sales: la difference
The LA Times describes a French shopping phenomenon that seems positively archaic: retail stores only have sales twice a year.
In the US, land of the perpetual discount, this may seem odd indeed. Even in France, there is opposition; Sarkozy, for example, is trying to broaden the rules to allow more freedom in this respect in hopes of giving the stagnant economy an extra boost.
“Broaden the rules?” you may ask. “What rules?”
It’s the law that French sales are limited to two times a year, January and June or July. And all stores must have them at the same time. This makes competition fair, according to French thinking (yes, the French are different from you and me).
But France is not alone. Continue reading →
The art of politics
Gerard Vanderleun has called our attention to a campaign poster of Obama, created by graphic artist Shepard Fairey in his characteristic retro-Soviet style:
It’s really got it all, hasn’t it? The iconic angle of the fearless idealized leader as seen from slightly below — the supplicant’s viewpoint. The soulful gaze directed slightly up and slightly to the his left as if seeing farther and deeper into the future than mere mortals. The punching up of the red, white and blue — a color scheme no candidate can afford to do without. Then finally the large single word that somehow assures and inspires at the same time; the word that motivates as well as palliates: PROGRESS.
And indeed it does have it all, just as described:
But since I’ve been immersing myself lately in images of the 60s, I noticed another thing it’s got: a distinct resemblance to JFK.
The graphic seems to stretch and widen Obama’s face in a way that enhances any likeness he might have to the late President, thus subliminally underscoring the recent endorsements of Kennedy brother Ted and daughter Caroline.
Unless I’ve become unhinged from watching too many You Tube videos of JFK, perhaps you can see what I’m talking about:
Presidential style: policy, press, and the pull of personality
Some people have said that if the Iraq War had been instituted by a Democratic administration, the Democrats would have remained behind it despite the setbacks encountered.
If history is any guide, that’s a false assumption. Once again, the history that guides us is that of Vietnam.
The first act of our most intense involvement in Vietnam—the sending of US advisers and then the wholesale commitment of US combat troops—was planned and executed by two successive Democratic administrations, Kennedy and Johnson. And yet the press and Congress, and then the American people (scroll down for the year-by-year Gallup Poll chart of public opinion on Vietnam), turned against that endeavor, most particularly in 1968 after Tet.
Not only was a Democratic President in office until January of 1969, but the Congress was heavily Democratic all those years (see this for the composition of the House and this for the Senate). And when I say heavily, I mean heavily.
It was a hugely Democratic Congress and MSM that turned on the war even during the years when Democrats were completely in charge of the show. I have a theory about what happened—although, like most theories about history and “what might have been,” it can never be tested. I believe it had at least partly to do with the fact that Lyndon Johnson was never a popular President. Continue reading →
The dropouts: Giuliani and Edwards
Edwards is out of the race, with Giuliani to follow.
There’s no dearth of analysts to explain why, so I’ll be brief in my own offering:
Giuliani never really wanted it all that much, and he didn’t know how to translate his 9/11 appeal into a more generalized appeal.
Edwards wanted it way too much, and he simply oozed with lack of appeal.
Watch out for those women scorned, Ted
The computer screen practically sizzles with the scorching rage of the women of NOW, reacting to Ted Kennedy’s endorsement of Obama, the unkindest cut of all:
“Women have just experienced the ultimate betrayal. Senator Kennedy’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton’s opponent in the Democratic presidential primary campaign has really hit women hard. Women have forgiven Kennedy, stuck up for him, stood by him, hushed the fact that he was late in his support of Title IX, the ERA…
And now the greatest betrayal! We are repaid with his abandonment! He’s picked the new guy over us. He’s joined the list of progressive white men who can’t or won’t handle the prospect of a woman president who is Hillary Clinton…
How can the women of NOW be so tone-deaf as to what their statement sounds like? There’s no need to satirize this one; it creates its own satire. The tone fits the worst cliches of the ramaging woman gone hormonally ballistic, the avenging Fury breathing fire at the Man Who Done Her Wrong.
Why so much rage? Continue reading →
Rhetoric ain’t what it used to be
Bush’s State of the Union message last night was the usual Rorschach test that people tend to view according to their previous conceptions of Bush and his policies. His basic message: Iraq’s doing relatively well, we need to cut pork.
As far as the speech itself went—well, President Bush is hardly known for his oratory. But I can’t think of anyone lately, with the possible exception of Tony Blair, who is.
Reagan had the delivery and the spirit, and some fine turns of phrase, but even he was hardly Churchill or Lincoln. But then again, who could be? Styles have changed, and the idea of “statesman” has morphed into the far more plebian “politician.” Continue reading →
Sanity Squad
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