... it's it interesting to see the National Journal writing like this:
As they form a circular firing squad, Romney stepped back. Rather than engage his GOP opponents, as he's done most of his campaign, he's focused almost entirely on his No. 1 target, President Obama.
Romney has received cover from the primary's unprecedented volatility (at least since 1964), which has sent a bushel of candidates to momentary stardom atop the Republican field only to be torn down weeks later. Attacks from rivals and media scrutiny have followed each of these momentary front-runners...
And it's not as though Romney, his past rooted in blue-state Massachusetts, didn't supply his opponents plenty of ammunition. They have the bullets; they're just not firing them.
IN THE COMMENTS: First, the amusing. Mocks the writing in the National Journal — "This almost veers into
Bullwer-Lytton territory" — Henry says "Why not go all the way?" and pens a rewrite:
While one candidate after another disintegrated like a clay pigeon at an English hunting weekend, former Governor Romney, encircled with the barrage balloons of his plastic bonhomie, so easily avoided the strafing attacks of candidates Bachmann and Cain, not to mention the kamikaze crash of Governor Perry, that the artillery spotters of the media could only wonder if their radios were broken: the guns of Sevastopol fire into the sea; the assassins' bullet bounces off the ghost shirt of the Mormon underwear; even the bloody dagger of professional ridicule fails to find the heart and the smiling to-be-tyrant only exclaims, "Gosh Brute, lovely day, wot?"
Second, the serious. Scott M wrote:
I don't know anyone that was taken in by the calls for a new civility after the AZ shootings. It struck me as just so much more "I want to feel good about something so this is what I'm going to say and assume it fixes the world" bullshit.
SGT Ted — noting that my
"civility bullshit" tag "speaks for itself" — responded:
It struck me that after the AZ shooting that leftists and Democrat Party leadership were just trying to hang it around Republicans necks, when the shooter was a "leftwing pothead" according to his friends.
SGT Ted, Paco Wové said:
You should check out the Althouse comment threads from that day, for example. It took less than 30 minutes for the blame-orgy to start.
I just went back and read that long — 292 comments long — thread, and it's just appalling. 12 minutes after I put up a simple post — "U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords shot, along with at least 11 others, at a political event in Tuscon" — the get-Sarah business started: "Sarah Palin had AZ's 8th district in her gun sights." That came from someone who was taking a distanced attitude about what
other people will be saying —"It would be interesting to follow the conversation on teh Internets today...." But soon it was "Remember, the DHS warned us of the rising threat of violent extremism from the political right" and so on, including much push back from commenters who didn't think we should be talking like that.
Posts
76 comments:
The National Journal needs Madison's football obelisk.
And then a cigarette.
Interesting imagery, Pogo. You should been woken up like I was this morning...then you wouldn't be so pent up :)
I don't know anyone that was taken in by the calls for a new civility after the AZ shootings. It struck me as just so much more "I want to feel good about something so this is what I'm going to say and assume it fixes the world" bullshit.
Repeat as many times as necessary to get it: the left doesn't really care about the things on which they lecture the rest of us.
"You should been woken up like I was"
Heh. I was awakened by the call of ice on the sidewalks. Shriveling!
It's difficult to write about a competition and avoid military or fighting terms.
The soft feminist earth mother winces when there is real violence in the world, and briefly blames it on boys who make guns out of their piece of toast.
But lacking useful words to say what needs to be said, they must ignore the cognitive dissonance between fearing the totemic magic of violent imagery to beget actual violence, and conveying the idea of adversarial struggle.
So they project that discomfort onto their enemies, allowing themselves the freedom to say "kill", but no one else.
@Craig. Really, the left doesn't believe the rules that they apply to others apply to them. Starting with Congressional exemptions.
The left has no clue as to how ironic they are in the larger context.
More so than the gun metaphors, I found the analysis disturbing:
"It's an old story this primary, where Romney has not faced the kind of withering attacks that normally confront a front-runner."
Romney has mainly been the second-place guy and not the front-runner. Mystery solved. Next.
Timing.
No one noteworthy has been shot lately.
The "civility bullshit" tag speaks for itself.
Scott M:
It struck me that after the AZ shooting that leftists and Democrat Party leadership were just trying to hang it around Republicans necks, when the shooter was a "leftwing pothead" according to his friends.
Your first tag really says it all: It was all BS designed to shut up the great unwashed who had the gall to disagree with the Left.
And Pogo really gets it here: "So they project that discomfort onto their enemies, allowing themselves the freedom to say "kill", but no one else."
Freedom, to the Left, is something they allow, not something that is the natural condition of people.
when the shooter was a "leftwing pothead" according to his friends.
Unfortunately, I'm as guilty as anyone for looking to an ideological cause when something like this happens of late. With this particular nutjob, however, I think he was just that...a nutjob.
Attacks from rivals and media scrutiny have followed each of these momentary front-runners...
Our leftist media has used the Republican primaries as a shooting gallery, deliberately (and successfully) sniping at each front-runner in turn, in preparing the battle space for the media's preferred candidate Obama.
He has yet to face a tiny fraction of the 'concern' for his past actions that the media lavishes on Republicans, particularly conservatives.
Think about it: even a political candidate said to be "droning on" has a whole new violent meaning.
After it was shown Loughner was a mental case who wasn't politically motivated, its obvious the leftists want to forget that in all their caterwauling all the really did was show what moronic fools they are.
That journal article desrves an award for cheesy hyperbolic use of metaphor.
Isn't the National Journal full of a bunch of dickless Journolisters? That would account for the penis envy language.
Romney fires at Obama! Romney promotes violence!!
Romney is a killer!!!
And a Mormon!!!!
Romney is a killer Mormon bent on sewing violence and polygamy across America!!!!!
And I don't want Pogo operating on me in the morning when he's all wrought up!!!!!!
After all of the criticism of Sarah Palin for [enter gripe-du-jour here]
Is there anything she wasn't criticized for?
Behind every double standard is an un-confessed single standard.
Leftwing pro-democrat hacks can write the rules, but they don't have to follow them.
Jane Fonda was certain that Jared Loughner visited Sarah Palin's web site. No proof necessary when you are a leftwing asshole.
This almost veers into Bullwar-Lytton territory. Why not go all the way?
While one candidate after another disintegrated like a clay pigeon at an English hunting weekend, former Governor Romney, encircled with the barrage balloons of his plastic bonhomie, so easily avoided the strafing attacks of candidates Bachmann and Cain, not to mention the kamikaze crash of Governor Perry, that the artillery spotters of the media could only wonder if their radios were broken: the guns of Sevastopol fire into the sea; the assassins' bullet bounces off the ghost shirt of the Mormon underwear; even the bloody dagger of professional ridicule fails to find the heart and the smiling to-be-tyrant only exclaims, "Gosh Brute, lovely day, wot?"
Is there anything she wasn't criticized for?
Is there anything she isn't criticized for?
Fixed.
Henry -- double plus good. Sounds you are in touch with your inner Alan Abelson today.
So much violent imagery gave me a flashback.
I picked a bad time to quit drinking whiskey for breakfast.
"... I picked a bad time to quit drinking whiskey for breakfast..."
I knew I wasn't the only one.
;-)
"... I picked a bad time to quit drinking whiskey for breakfast..."
I knew I wasn't the only one.
There must be a cosmic zero-sum number of breakfast whiskey drinkers because, for some odd reason, whilst I was eating my Wheaties this morning, two imps appeared out of nowhere and forced me to drink two fingers apiece.
Yet, a year later, Gabby's husband goes on CNN and expresses his disappointment that Sarah Palin has yet to apologize.
"It struck me that after the AZ shooting that leftists and Democrat Party leadership were just trying to hang it around Republicans necks,"
You should check out the Althouse comment threads from that day, for example. It took less than 30 minutes for the blame-orgy to start.
Whenever Althouse describes something as "interesting" in her political posts (which is most opf the time), you can be sure that she thinks said "interesting" phenomenon reflects badly on Democrats.
But still she challenges the "conservative blogger" label. That is something I find interesting.
Just remember it's only bad if Conservatives or Republicans do it.
Because the Lefties have good intentions, it's always OK.
"reflects badly on Democrats."
Which Democrats are being badly reflected upon here?
"Yet, a year later, Gabby's husband goes on CNN and expresses his disappointment that Sarah Palin has yet to apologize."
Seriously!?!? That's just pathetic. Sarah Palin had less than zero to do with the shooting. Should she apologize for John Lennon, too? What is wrong with people?
After all of the criticism of Sarah Palin . . . Rather than engage his GOP opponents, as he's done most of his campaign, he's focused almost entirely on his No. 1 target
The civility BS tag is right. Romney has on multiple occasions directly attacked fellow Republicans. And more than that, his campaign staff has done so behind the scenes.
Much of the sliming of Sarah Palin came from the Romney insiders. And I would lay down money that it was they who pimped the Herman Cain stories to the press until someone bit.
Perhaps even more than Romney himself, his campaign staff is filled with insider establishment types whose number one priority is not to save the country, but to protect their own sorry personal interests, which means doing being the scenes attacks and snarks against conservatives who threaten them.
Does anyone have any proof that Jared Loughner visited Sarah Palin's web site? Even once.
We do know that Jared Loughner expressed that his favorite reading materials included "The Communist Manifesto". But there is zero proof that Jared was a fan of Sarah Palin or that he spent time visiting her web site.
I thought Gabby's husband was an intelligent man? Turns out that is false too.
.
Gabbys husband should turn his ire on the actual shooter, the leftwing pothead.
He should also see a therapist about his transference issue.
"Seriously!?!? That's just pathetic. Sarah Palin had less than zero to do with the shooting. Should she apologize for John Lennon, too? What is wrong with people?"
Yes, she should apologize for Mark Chapman, and John Hinckley, and Squeaky Fromme, Lee Harvey Oswald, Gavrilo Princip, John Wilkes Booth, and Herod the Great and Brutus while she's at it.
One of the dumbest pearl-clutching moments of the year was the freak out about the targets and the desperate attempt to drag Sarah Palin into the picture. Good people lost their lives that day, and all some wanted to talk about was how Sarah Palin may have somehow caused it.
A close second would be the attempt to make Loughner into some crazy tea partier and the counter-attempt to make him into some unhinged leftist loon. The guy is crazy and his delusions and issues were apolitical.
You should check out the Althouse comment threads from that day
I wonder what I was doing that day. I didn't comment!
They wish it was a real circular firing squad taking down every Republican candidate. The hed should've been "Obama Unopposed".
I had a "friend" on facebook defriend me because I objected to the guy that shot George Tiller as your typical Republican Conservative. And that guy is a local minister. Logic is not their friend.
Anne, you really should do a post about how it is that you decided that Obama would be a better president than McCain. I'm no McCain fan, and I think he would have been bad for the country. But Obama is SO much worse...I look forward to seeing who you endorse this coming year.
A close second would be the attempt to make Loughner into some crazy tea partier and the counter-attempt to make him into some unhinged leftist loon. The guy is crazy and his delusions and issues were apolitical.
Well spoken. Only Democrat campaign volunteers can be truly apolotical.
Insufficiently Sensitive wrote:
He has yet to face a tiny fraction of the 'concern' for his past actions that the media lavishes on Republicans, particularly conservatives.
I don't know why it bothers me, but Obama regularly lies, or misspeaks or whatever, about his early childhood. He keeps saying that his father left his mother when he was two years old (The last time was a speech he gave on Fathers Day):
I grew up without my father around. He left when I was two years old, and even though my sister and I were lucky enough to have a wonderful mother and caring grandparents to raise us, I felt his absence. And I wonder what my life would have been like had he been a greater presence.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/06/18/weekly-address-celebrating-fathers-day
Shortly after Obama's birth in Honolulu (less than a month), his mother took him to Seattle where she enrolled in the University of Washington. Obama Sr. stayed in Hawaii.
If Obama Sr. and Stanley Ann Dunham ever lived as husband & wife after Obama was born, it couldn't have been for more than a few weeks.
It's not a big lie, and it doesn't really matter, but as far as I can tell no journalist has ever asked him to explain why he believes that his father left his family when he was two years old. It doesn't jibe with the historical record.
Nevertheless journos are doing their best to get Gingrich's quarter-century-old divorce story timelined on the front page of every big city paper in the country.
@Terry
I've never been a truther, but I have to admit the CT SSN bugs me a bit.
Wow, AlphaLiberal really proved to be a complete piece of dogshit that day.
TW: behinju. Lookout behinju, Sarah Palin drew on a map!!
"... Wow, AlphaLiberal really proved to be a complete piece of dogshit that day..."
That day?
Paco Wové said...
You should check out the Althouse comment threads from that day, for example.
Heh. You beat me to it: link
_________
wv = "ciltnesi" -- a dyslexic amphibious linguist.
Wow, AlphaLiberal really proved to be a complete piece of dogshit that day.
A point of order. I don't believe AL has ever been a complete anything before.
Just shows what inhabits the blind spot of a liberal.
wv - cledessi
Dan said...
Anne, you really should do a post about how it is that you decided that Obama would be a better president than McCain. I'm no McCain fan, and I think he would have been bad for the country. But Obama is SO much worse
=========================
No rocket science to the reason why many objective people that could have voted for McCain or Obama decided to go with Obama after seeing McCain during the Presidential campaign.
Obama the untested but glib one. McCain the war-thirsty neocon who wanted new wars involving the US in Georgia and Iran...admitting he knew little about the economy, proposing 300 billion be given to wealthy real estate home flippers..to bail them out. Becoming more angry and incoherent by the week.
Conclusion of the average voter in the middle - McCain would be a bad president. More war, no idea on the economy.
Obama is an untested bullshitter. But so was Clinton to some extent, and he worked out. Obama may be worse than McCain, he may be much better.
That was the thinking. Now we know with Obama having his opportunity...he disappointed perhaps worse than McCain would have. Though if McCain had been elected and had gotten us in more disastrous Neocon follies we might say Mccain was even worse than the dismal Presidency he looked to promise us.
The plus side in this is we know now Obama is bad..but we have saved America from an all-Democrat Congress and McCain holding Nancy Pelosi's hands aloft with his in bipartisan spirit as the McCain-Pelosi Amnesty and Carbon Cap laws were signed into effect. And the Pelosi healthcare plan was signed over McCain's veto once the well-heeled people of Big Pharma and medical insurers lobbyists from K Street met with "key Republicans" with sweeteners for them.
Cedarford said...
Dan said...
Anne, you really should do a post about how it is that you decided that Obama would be a better president than McCain. I'm no McCain fan, and I think he would have been bad for the country. But Obama is SO much worse
==============
Or, put another way, you just sacked a terribly bad field commander named Dubya. A new big battle was coming up. You were surprised when the two replacements came down to select from , thinking they would send LT Romney and LT-Commander Hillary. But you got First Looie Obama and grizzled old warrant officer McCain instead. Seems Romney made the nominators queasy and HQ just didn't like Hillary's baggage, gender, skin color, or her marriage of convenience to some high general elsewhere in the military.
Grizzled old warrant officer McCain was known to be a dimbulb, incapable of leading well. 2nd Looie Obama talked a good game, but would either win the battle or be a bigger disaster than McCain in the next battle until reinforcements arrived or LT Romney convinced others of his worthiness to get a command if the two you were stuck with didn't work out.
So the call was made to go with the one that at least offered the hope of doing well...and the green officer caused a massacre.
Oops, too bad. But the call to try Obama vs. select McCain and fail for sure was the correct decision. Now it is time to cashier 2nd Looie Obama out, and bring LT Romney in.
I would have sworn that the "civility bullshit" tag originated following all of the calls for "civility" (i.e. having conservatives just shut up) following the shooting of Rep. Giffords. I looked, and it had been created nearly one full year before that. Interesting. I wonder how Alpha felt about all of the "civility" shown byu the WI Union protesters and house members, including the jerk who told a Republican "you are dead." Alpha seems to have been a less frequent commenter since around that time. Maybe he's embarrassed.
Reading the comments on the thread linked by chicenlittle, it is apparent that Alpha Liberal thoroughly beclowned himself.
The best line was a few posts later when it was apparent that Joughner was a nutcase, was by Freeman Hunt: "AlphaLib is probably busy typing a retraction."
As if.
Cedarford,
I agree with you on McCain and spreading freedom through war to the four corners of the earth. But the rest is nonsense. McCain voted against the W. tax cuts and Medicare Part D.
As far as the economy, whatever little McCain knew was more than Obama. McCain would not have pushed through a useless, expensive stimulus. And McCain is not a dumb man. (The only people who were dumb were those for whom Amnesty was a big issue but voted for Obama. The only thing McCain and an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress would agree on is amnesty).
As for Romney, he's acceptable, especially given the crew of candidates he's up against in the primaries and Obama, but he's hardly better than McCain. Romney's a technocrat, which means he thinks he can solve problems and is quite willing to make things worse because of it. Romney's outlook is very much like Herbert Hoover. There is a very good chance that he would be a much worse President than Rick Perry. Perry is not too bright. Which means he is not smart enough to believe that he will solve the puzzles and fix things. Hoover was a brilliant man, but a terrible President.
Patrick said...
Reading the comments on the thread linked by chicenlittle, it is apparent that Alpha Liberal thoroughly beclowned himself.
At least he chose his screen name wisely....
(kinda not fair beating up the guy when he's not here to defend himself)
...oh, well.
You know, people assume that the calls for civility were from the left, but they fail to realize that moderates are as much censorious and manipulative as anyone else. Yes, plenty of "moderates" are just leftists pandering to the center, but there are plenty of genuine moderates and independents who are just as much bastards as anyone else in politics.
mccullough - McCain has a long history of treachery.
McCain carbon taxes, his backstabbing on Amnesty were certain. And him giving Pelosi and Reid 100s of billions for Pelosicare for the uninsured was also highly likely if that was in trade for them giving McCain the new wars he wanted.
On finances, McCain's advisors later said McCain did not understand what had to be done by Bernanke and Paulson, but after the usual McCain speeches about how principled and bound with honor he was and against it - McCain voted the TARP, voted the 1st trench of stimulus,
And he did campaign on giving 300-500 billion to wealthy house flippers stuck with "too much mansion" or even "too many mansions and tracts of land in Nevada" as HIS idea of a bailout. It was insane - outright mass money transfer gifts to the biggest property owners so they could afford their distressed investment's mortages again.
muccullough wrote:
As far as the economy, whatever little McCain knew was more than Obama.
Here is a list of attendees at Obama's 2009 "Jobs Summit":
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-5838545-503544.html
It's all academics, "Green Jobs" scammers, and businessmen who have taken every opportunity to outsource jobs overseas.
The real prize on the list of attendees is Eric Schmidt of Google.
Google employs one third as many employees in the US as the medium-sized computer manufacturer I worked for back in the 1980's.
Plus which, once again, the registration marks Palin used were the standard icons available in Word, etc., that in no way resemble any "crosshair" sights I have ever seen.
Cedarford,
I'm not disagreeing with most of your list of criticisms; it was apparent McCain didn't really want to be President after the financial crisis hit, which shows me that he was a pretty smart guy. There are no hero opportunities in the economy from Sept 08 and for the foreseeable future.
I have to agree with Huntsman about winding these wars down down immediately, but other than Ron Paul no Republicans are saying that. Certainly not Romney. Honestly, to me Obama is better on the military policy than Romney et al. If nothing else, he's been the President for three years. But Huntsman's views about the use of the military and experience with foreign affairs make him a much better candidate than Romney in this area.
So, in the end, Romney will very likely be worse than McCain because his technocratic Hoover outlook on the economy and his unrealistic view of the military and foreign affairs.
Browndog said...
"Yet, a year later, Gabby's husband goes on CNN and expresses his disappointment that Sarah Palin has yet to apologize."
Video? Transcript?
My conspiracy theory for today is that Alpha Liberal has become Dose of (In)Sanity. Rereading AL's fevered vacuities of that day reinforces this feeling. Both spout breathless accusations with zero proof and zero reason.
"Video? Transcript?"
Wow, that was sooo hard to find
For my part, I wouldn't say Browndog's characterization was entirely accurate but what Mark Kelly (and Piers Morgan) were saying still advances the meme that somehow Sarah Palin's map was relevant to the shooting. It, in fact, had less then nothing to do with Jared Loughner developing paranoid schizophrenia, obsessing delusionally about Giffords for four years (pre-2008 election) and finally shooting her because of his mental illness.
They're surprised that she didn't call for a casual chat after being viciously and repeatedly slandered and libeled by their allies? Quelle surprise!
To clarify:
They're surprised that Sarah Palin didn't call for a casual chat after being viciously and repeatedly slandered and libeled by their allies? Quelle surprise!
Haha, good stuff.
douchebag > alphaliberal
Wow I am proud that I did not get drawn into that ugly fray by Alpha Liberal or Eli Blake both of whom were trying to blame Palin and/or talk radio types [at least that is how I interpreted Eli's pleas to hold off on judging anyone].
Also,, I did not realize J has been f-ing up the comments here for a year now.
My conspiracy theory for today is that Alpha Liberal has become Dose of (In)Sanity. Rereading AL's fevered vacuities of that day reinforces this feeling. Both spout breathless accusations with zero proof and zero reason.
Nope. Dose will admit a factual error with grace when it's beyond a shadow of a doubt and has done so on at least two occasions that I can recall. This alone disqualifies any semblance to AL.
Kcom, that CNN transcript was astonishing. When you read it you get the impression that Palin bore some responsibility for the Giffords shooting.
The transcript date is Nov. 25th this year.
CNN host Piers Morgan spoke with Gabrielle Giffords‘s husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, on Wednesday and discussed Sarah Palin‘s controversial crosshair map, which targeted the Congresswoman’s district. Kelly wrote in a new book that the former Alaska governor never reached out to them. “We were never contacted by her,” Kelly said.
“I find that extraordinary,” Morgan exclaimed.
“Yeah, I was surprised too,” Kelly replied. “You know, certainly the targets that she put over Gabby’s and other people’s districts, in our opinion, was not the right thing to do. She is not the first person to do that. And it hasn’t always been Republicans that have done that.”
“Some interesting insights in the book into who, you know, walked to the plate and who didn’t, really, in terms of political colleagues and people that she had worked for and against. Sarah Palin doesn’t come out of this very well, I don’t think, because there was a woman who at the time had been putting these cross hair things on her website and stuff, including Gabby,” Morgan observed. “And in her haste to take responsibility didn’t even bother to pick the phone up, to write, do anything.”
No wonder Limbaugh calls them the "drive-by media".
heh-
I'm glad kcom called me out for my "characterization".
facts:
I left enough in my post for those that cared, to find the interview on their own, and make their own judgement-
Though he was egged on, he did exactly what I said he did..on national tv.
thank-you for taking the time to find and view the interview....instead of taking my word for it.
.....instead of 'driving by'....
BTW-
Due to happenstance, I saw the interview live...
Further, being former USAF, I have, and still do, have deep respect for the man.
However...
This is the part I was talking about Browndog:
Piers Morgan: "I liked your line about it, which is if you had had the chance to talk to her, and you were expecting to, you weren’t going to say that you [Sarah Palin] were responsible," Morgan pointed out. "But you were going to say, you’ve been irresponsible."
Mark Kelly: "Yeah, that’s my plan."
So he specifically acknowledged that he wasn't blaming her for the shooting. He wasn't looking for an apology for that. But he was blaming her (in Piers Morgan's words) of being "irresponsible". That's what he was looking for the apology for. But I still don't see why it shocked him that Sarah Palin, after being slandered viciously and having nothing whatsoever to do with the shooting, should call to apologize.
And there was nothing remarkable about her campaign material. Political operatives talk all the time about "targeting" certain seats in upcoming elections. It's banal, everyday politics. Here's an article where the word is used seven times in references to Republicans. And here's another targeting of Republicans.
And this part, "Wow, that was sooo hard to find" was purely making fun of Simon.
I have my own Althouse tag.
I have arrived.
This is the last chance to have whiskey with breakfast this year.
It would be a shame to let the opportunity pass.
Second, the serious. Scott M
Oxymoron or just moron?
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