Expressed by Josh Marshall ("absolutely cringeworthy"), Andrew Sullivan ("Jindal's entrance reminded one of Mr Burns gamboling toward a table of ointments"), and others.
Why are all these people so confident that they are not manifesting racism? There's just something about this man that doesn't seem right, that you don't care to examine exactly what it is, but you know it deep down in your gut somehow. Seriously. How do you know this is not racism?
ADDED: Andrew Sullivan proffers an answer to my question: "Maybe because there is not a trace of evidence of any kind that we are. Unless comparing Jindal to Kenneth the Page or Mr Burns taps unknown wells of racist hate in my heart. I mean, seriously." I think deeper reflection is needed. Why the urge to paint him as a white white man? Where did that come from? Of course, there are unknown wells inside us all. When you have an instinctive response to a person of another race, why not seek knowledge?
February 25, 2009
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392 comments:
1 – 200 of 392 Newer› Newest»Perhaps it is less racist than simply racial. Perhaps it is a manifestation of the reflexive disgust liberals must feel to find a minority so ungrateful to them as to be Republican.
Good question. My hunch is that their "enlightened" positions exclude even the hint of a latent racial bias to besmirch them, since they are so above that sort of attitude...in their own minds.
This guy is a Republican that was elected governor of Louisiana. Louisiana! That's not supposed to happen.
This guy is also very popular in his state. How is that possible?
This guy is not an old white male Republican. OH OH!
Jane Hamsher & co have spent a great deal of time over the years referring to Jindal by his first name, Piyush.
I'm sure it's just because they like the sound of it.
So what now any criticism of Jindal is racist, yet if Obama is criticized, that is not racist, just an example of political correctness run amok?
First let’s get this straight. I am absolutely convinced that Josh and Andrew are not racists in any meaningful sense of the word. There are however lots of other kinds of pernicious prejudice. I think is extremely likely that what we are witnessing is accurately anti-Catholicism (yes I know Andrew is a Catholic –there is such thing as self loathing). I think a similar phenomena was present in hyperbolic to Sarah Palin's Pentecostal faith
They will never acknowledge their own racism even though it permeates almost every thing they write.
I think that Salamandyr and Joaquin are abolutely right. It's not racism in the usual sense, if it's racism at all. It's that there's a successful non-white Republican. Steve in Toronto may be onto something, as well; I don't know how well-known Jindal's Catholicism is.
Jindal gave a lousy speech. He may be bright and have all the right beliefs necessary to appeal to conservative voters, but the speech was an indicator that he isn't yet ready for the national stage.
There's still time. And there's still Jeb.
it woule be racism only if Jindal were a democrat. The "d" after your name is the ultimate determining factor when measuring racism.
i don't think the speech was a very good one in my view.
"There's just something about this man that doesn't seem right"
Who is saying that? It seems most people (including Fox News commentators) are responding to his worn-out and failed policies in addition to very specific comments about his immature, sing-song delivery. If there's any prejudice at work here it's against Southern-fried Republicanism.
Great question. This is exactly the unintentional "covert" racism that I get made fun of for pointing out when I comment. But now that you've all bought your racism "decoder" you should be all good.
Have we had the cartoon w/ a dead monkey where the monkey assassins say "They'll have to find someone else to counter BHO next time"?
Of course such a cartoon would be a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It would broadly mock the Rs efforts to counter BHO.
I think the negativity is due to the fact that his delivery sucked. He sounded like he was talking down to a kindergarten class. I don't think it was racism at all, and I really don't think much of the Republican criticism of Obama is racist.
This is the "First Imperssion becomes your indentity" Spin Game. That is why Tina Fey is now liberals most honored actress. She did the spin game forever is your identity on Sarah Palin as she somehow lacking something as every one plainly sees, so she is not good enough. That is reputation slander 101. No jury ever recovers from their first impression about a case.The Dems are now master psychologists practicing on their TV networks. The poor repubbies stick to honest assessments while their candidates are lapped and left behind in the dust.This is not mysterious.It's George Soros hardball.
Because a) he's not black or muslim
b)he's not black or muslim and c)he's not black or muslim
Will Barack Obama refer to him as
(R- Punjab)?
One possible race thing is the rarity -- and therefore strangeness -- of hearing a southern accent from a person of Indian descent, particularly for people who live in the Northeast and the West Coast, where there are a lot of Indians who either have Indian accents or have non-Southern accents. It's a problem, since there are plenty of Americans of Indian descent in the South who no doubt have southern accents.
That said, this is a terrible format in which nearly no one gives a good speech, and this was no exception. His entrance was totally goofy, his tone was so aw-shucks as to be absurd, he spent forever talking about himself (which wasn't a rebuttal), and he absolutely looked/sounded like Kenneth the Page, to crib from 500 people on the internet.
No one will remember this speech. Except when they see him. Which is a bummer for him.
Daniel Jindal was born and raised in the US. Why on Earth would anyone assume that he'd have an Indian accent?
BTW,
Why were Jindal and McConnell leading off their talking points w/ references to BHO being black?
Seems like a looser. 1) They are characterizing the POTUS first by his race rather than his actions, this was their lead point. 2) They are blathering about race at the same time some Rs tell libs that focusing on BHOs race is unwise and/or not good, we are told his race is (or should be) irrelevant to his leadership.
The very first thing my wife and I discussed as Mr. Jindal entered the room was; Why in the world would anyone chosen to give such an important response, not button up his suit coat? He looked like someone stopping by for a cup of coffee.
The dramatic contrast between Obama and Jindal had to give pause to many viewers.
To be honest, we both felt a tinge of sympathy for the man.
More evidence of what? Racism?
"There's the white guy."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoo6WgzIFmA
I was really disappointed in Jindal's speech last night because I so wanted him to hit it out of the park. And it fell flat. I respect Jindal so much because of his substantive achievements. Even though he's ten years younger than Obama he's already accomplished more - much more. We need people like him in high office. Last night didn't quite work.
But I'm feeling much better today after seeing the YouTube clip of him with Meredith Viera on the Today show. He was substantive, articulate and even looked better than he did last night. (The lighting and sound were terrible). Viera was dripping with contempt and condescension (my God, can't these people be professional for even five minutes?)and Jindal didn't back down at all. I thought he performed very, very well. So that bodes well for the future.
Clinton's national introduction was a disastrous speech at the Dem. Convention. He recovered nicely and I expect Jindal to do the same. He just needs to work on the style because the substance is there. I'd gladly put himn up against O right now in a debate. O's style is better but Jindal has all the substance that O lacks.
There probably is some subconscious racism at work but most likely it's the very special rage that conservative minorities and women inspire in leftys. It's as if they're apostates who must be destroyed.
I liked Sully's 'GOP thinks every solution is tax cuts'.
Unlike the Democrat solution is 'spend spend, spend.'
Is there a political party that thinks a solid solution would be to cut spending?
Jindal gave a lousy speech.
I could have told you that before the speech. The State of the Union response is always awful -- artificial, poorly staged, and either defensive or irrelevant.
Did you ever see that Star Trek where Kirk and company are trapped on a world modeled after the Roman empire? They end up in the arena, but the arena isn't the coliseum, it's a television sound stage with piped in applause (a rather clever idea actually, a budget saver for the fictional Romans as well as Roddenberry).
The state of the union is Ben Hur in the chariot race. All the pageantry and buzz is there to make any actor seem larger-than-life. The follow-up is Kirk on a sound stage.
Not even William Shatner himself would look good giving the SOTU response.
What's Jindal's crime? He doesn't wave the big gummint banner? He isn't authoritarian enough? He doesn't say "Kiss my feet and you'll be saved?"
I've watched Jindal over the past decade, and I don't like him. I don't like his policies, I don't like his social conservatism, I don't like his "I'm the smartest little boy in the room" wonkiness, I don't like his shallowness. I don't give a flying fuck about his ethnicity.
I don't like Palin's social conservatism, either, but there will always be people who decide that I don't want to vote for her because she's pretty. Those people need to stop living at the junior high lunch table.
Althouse, did you watch Jindal's speech? Anything substantive to offer, other than deciding those of us who have chosen not to vote for him are racist?
Clinton's national introduction was a disastrous speech at the Dem. Convention. He recovered nicely and I expect Jindal to do the same. He just needs to work on the style because the substance is there. I'd gladly put himn up against O right now in a debate. O's style is better but Jindal has all the substance that O lacks.
I'm not seeing how this is a recipe for Jindal to succeed on the national stage. He only won against a pretty openly racist Democratic campaign in Louisiana because the Democrats discredited themselves with rampant corruption and incompetence. I expect Obama's administration to be something like Harding come again on that score, but I'd be pretty surprised if Obama is personally tainted by his sleazy associations. If it hasn't happened by now, it's not going to happen.
Before he really moves into national politics, I think Jindal needs to, ah, fill out a little more. He simply looks too nerdy at the moment. Looks a little stooped sometimes too (that's probably the source of the Mr. Burns thing).
Is there a political party that thinks a solid solution would be to cut spending?
Libertarian
Can anybody explain why Jindal would specifically mention that the stimulus plan includes $8 billion for high-speed rail projects involving a line from Las Vegas to Disneyland?
The stimulus plan does no such thing; In fact, it does not allocate any high speed rail money for specific projects, and any money that would eventually be used for any high speed rails would be allocated by the transportation secretary...Ray Lahood—a Republican.
And then, even with what we now know about the bungled performance of the Bush administration in the lead up to, and aftermath of Katrina, Jindal actually says it "proved that citizens should trust Republicans more than Democrats"??
And if you think this is just another "liberal" bad mouthing Mr. Jindal, here's what one of the most conservative blog sites on the internet had to say:
ACE OF SPADES:
"Awful. He walked out like an earnest dork and has a weird inflection, trying to sound upbeat and sunny when it's clearly not his natural metier. It sounds false, and he looks false.
I don't care how much of a star Jindal is, America doesn't elect somewhat-off dorks as president."
Ace
Beth, methinks you doth protest too much on both Palin and Jindal, leading me to seriously believe that a) you actually don't like Palin because she's pretty, and b) you don't like Jindal simply because he's the "smartest little boy in the room."
It's okay. I was an ugly salutatorian too, so I can sympathize.
Hoosier Daddy said..."I liked Sully's 'GOP thinks every solution is tax cuts'. Unlike the Democrat solution is 'spend spend, spend.'"
Well, if that's the case, maybe you can explain how the Republicans, holding the White House for the past 8 years, and a majority in Congress for 6 of the last 8 years...ran up more debt than all of the previous administrations combined.
It's rather disingenuous (and flat out stupid) to hear people like yourself whining about "spending" after we've poured a trillion dollars into the Iraq sinkhole (and still spending 1-2 billion a month), had billions literally stolen by dishonest contractors, wasted a surplus left behind by Bill Clinton, and left Obama with the massive task of righting the economic ship of state.
Why would you think the negative reaction is racist? You offer no evidence to support that hypothesis. The speech has been panned across the political spectrum. And I think its hard to watch the speech and not find it odd, both for the corny stories, lack of substance and the patronizing intonation.
C'mon. Racist? Really? Jindal sucked last night. It isn't a crime to suck. Like everyone is saying, the format is terrible. I'm sure that if anyone took the time, they could find similar comments made by Josh or Andrew about a dems' "response" over the last 8 years. Would that "prove" anything about whether people are racist for not liking a bad speech, delivered poorly? Pretty weak, Althouse. Pretty weak.
I see Althouse applying an emergency tourniquet to try to stop the bleeding. I'm sure a Drudge siren is coming fer sure.
rocketeer, methinks you're kind of overthinking things.
Methinks my joking doesn't come across too clearly in text, and I apologize.
Bird Rock said: "I'd gladly put him up against O right now in a debate."
This is why I lean towards Jindal or Romney as the 2012 nominee over Palin.
Palin gives a great speech, but
debating skills are more important in a campaign than oratorical skills. The debates (and TV interviews) have a lot more impact on how people vote on Election Day, than anything read off the prompter at the convention.
Just once, I'd like to see the GOP candidate win the debates, on substance. When did that last happen? I don't think it's ever happened in my lifetime. Reagan won vs. Carter and Mondale, but that was based on style and rehearsed one-liners. I think you have to go back at least to Nixon, to find an election where the Republican came across as being at least equally as informed and articulate as the Dem.
I really could care less whether Jindal is Indian or whatever, it's not like nobody was aware of his heritage, but the speech was almost impossible to watch.
I listened to a Fox News roundtable discussing the speech and even they thoroughly panned every aspect of the speech.
That's when you REALLY know he blew it.
Joseph Hovsep said..."Why would you think the negative reaction is racist? You offer no evidence to support that hypothesis."
Oberon said..."C'mon. Racist? Really? Pretty weak, Althouse. Pretty weak."
Ann doesn't really care about whether it was racist or not. She just throws out crap like this so she can get the "local wingnuts" revved up.
Anybody who thinks the reaction to his speech is somehow related to race is grasping at political straws.
madawaskan said..."It really is a shame that America has been dumbed down to the point that we expect the guy or gal in our living room to comfortably approximate the pretty Talking Head in the news room."
That's not the point.
If you're going to have someone deliver the response to the President of the United States, regardless of who he or she might be...it would be in your best interest to make sure they can do so effectively.
Jindal took a massive step backwards in his Presidential aspirations last night...and race has absolutely nothing to do with it.
Jindal praises race-profiling lawman
Can't Jindal think of any less controversial conservative heros?
I agree with Joacquin.
Dems & libtards hate minority members who dare to be conservative. They view them as traitors to the libtard cause.
You can't be a real minority unless your a Dem. It's always open season on everyone else.
The left share among themselves with pride their revulsion at just the sight of conservatives, you can see it on their faces during interviews.
Joy Behar shows one of the greatest examples of that disgusted face that is put on in the presence of members of the right.
With Jindal, as with Steele, this feeling is more pronounced because of their race. Because everything is feelings with the left, it manifests itself in an extreme way.
If confronted with this observation, they will fall back and explain that it is because they are repulsed by how a gay man or woman, Black person, Latino, woman, etc has been co opted and exploited by the evil white men of the right.
In a massive swerve to a topic that has been bugging me; this was the State of the Union Address last night, correct? The same SOTU that every president gives once a year to Congress.
Why all the press calling it "Obama Addresses the Nation" and such. I haven't seen it referred to as the SOTU once. It seems like yet another instance of celebritizing the Presidency.
I just heard David Schuster on MSNBC musing whether the scathing reviews for Jindal's speech last night will put the brakes on a 2012 run.
So that's what this is about.
If you listen to Jindal, it's clear he's read the stimulus bill and understands it. That's more than can be said of most congressmen or Obama. So Jindal must be shot down, and fast.
If I call up some relatives I'm right back to some cultural intonations and if I'm in the South I'm y'allin' all over the place. Never thought I'd do that.
I do that too.
My husband can always tell if I'm on the phone with my mom because I all of a sudden acquire (or re-acquire) a Norwegian accent, don't cha know.
No it was not a SOTU address. Those are given only when the current prez has been in office for the entire preceding 12 months.
Why are all these people so confident that they are not manifesting racism?
C'mon Ann,
Now you're concerned about manifesting racism, after your comment board spent over a year telling us how Obama was an Arrogant, Black Radical who hated America and was an Affirmative Action Presidential Candidate. This question might have been ok, if you had say tried a similar post a year ago, but now it just smacks of massive hypocrisy.
At the same time, Jindal was terrible. Walking out like a dork at ComicCon and targeting a speech to Elmo's demographic has little to do with being Indian. The person he's being most compared to is Kenneth the Page from 30 Rock and he isn't ethnic unless Hillbilly is a new ethnicity.
Michael,
Until you started the insults at 1:00 am, you were making sense. I was on the same page as you.
Here's a thought: take your obviously intelligent analytical mind and put it to use provoking thought and substantive debate. We will all benefit.
Re: Michael:
And then, even with what we now know about the bungled performance of the Bush administration in the lead up to, and aftermath of Katrina, Jindal actually says it "proved that citizens should trust Republicans more than Democrats"??
First response in Louisiana was response of the Louisiana government, under Blanco. She screwed up completely, and everyone knew it, which is why she didn't run for reelection.
It's rather disingenuous (and flat out stupid) to hear people like yourself whining about "spending" after we've poured a trillion dollars into the Iraq sinkhole (and still spending 1-2 billion a month), had billions literally stolen by dishonest contractors, wasted a surplus left behind by Bill Clinton, and left Obama with the massive task of righting the economic ship of state.
A trillion dollars in Iraq over more than six years is rather different from a trillion dollars intended to be spent mostly in 2009-2010 (whether that actually turns out to be the case is a different matter).
For one thing, the military spending was distributed over many years. If this stimulus bill doesn't work, or doesn't work quickly enough, does anyone honestly think we're not going to come back next year and pull the same stunt again? Look at Japan -- they tried the same thing year after year for a decade to no effect. Or look at Roosevelt II's policies during the Depression -- massive stimulative spending and makework jobs programs practically every of a decade-long depression (countering, of course, with increased tax rates to suck all the money back out again). I don't think it's realistic to imagine that this is the last we've seen of stimulus spending.
Re: Bird Rock:
But I'm feeling much better today after seeing the YouTube clip of him with Meredith Viera on the Today show. He was substantive, articulate and even looked better than he did last night.
He was better, sure. But not that good. The audio made it sound like he was straining his voice and shouting into the microphone. And his answers were less tightly focussed than I would like -- he meandered a bit, to try and work in generic talking points and self-promotion that, I think, weakened his presentation. When he's speaking publicly, he needs to vary the texture of his speech a little more -- mix short and long sentences, pause between points, vary the pitch/tone of his voice smoothly.
The very very best thing that can happen to Obama is the Jindal is the GOP nominee in 2012.
Barry Goldwater redux.
Just once, I'd like to see the GOP candidate win the debates, on substance. When did that last happen?
Well, it would help if we didn't have the left leaning press composing all of the questions. It would also help to actually have some questions of real substance and the ability for the debators (on both sides) to have the time to respond.
There is no debate in these debates and zero substance in the questions or answers. "If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?" type of questions.
Basically a huge waste of time. After all the "debates" in this last election, we still didn't have a clue about the candidates positions.
Why all the press calling it "Obama Addresses the Nation" and such. I haven't seen it referred to as the SOTU once. It seems like yet another instance of celebritizing the Presidency.
My understanding is that a recently sworn-in president doesn't give a SOTU. Obama's opted to give a major speech to congress but tradition didn't demand it (neither does the Constitution, which is rather vague as to scheduling the thing).
W did not give a SOTU in 2001 and C did not give a SOTU in 1993.
There is no doubt that a "plantation racism mentality" exists among many liberals. The Josh Marshalls have never been able to stomach a Michael Steele or Clarence Thomas: they will always eventually point out the person's deviation from his or her race's "orthodoxies".
Beth -I believe that you disagree with Jindal on policy. But I do not trust Josh Marshall and his ilk because of the added dose of intolerance they so vehemently add in their commentary to those blacks and other minorities who stroll off the liberal racist plantation.
Althouse: "you don't care to examine exactly what it is, but you know it deep down in your gut somehow"
Andrew Sullivan DOES examine exactly what it is he doesn't like, he explains it in the post you linked to.
"How do you know this is not racism?"
The only thing I heard last night that was remotely racist was this:
I'm sure it's been said, but it would be so weird if the 2012 Republican primary turned into a two-way race between Bobby Jindal and Sarah Palin. It would seem so contrived. Here's the Republican Obama and the Republican Hillary.
That was one of YOUR commenters (CAC!), who it would seem only sees Jindal and Obama as "not white" and Palin and Hillary as "women" and therefore equivalent.
There's an awful lot of instinctive revulsion toward Bobby Jindal.
Yes, it's the instinctive male revulsion to The Dork. Or as women call it The Creep.
It hurts Jindal to have to follow Obama because there is simply a higher Dork quotient among Indian males over black males.
That is why despite the legacy of British colonialism Indian males have very little success in international sports compared to black countries who had the same British influences.
The reason is racial - black males are on average far more athletic and alpha dominant than Indian males.
And even a relatively unmasculine, hippy White momma having Barack Obama seems far more alpha dominant than Bobby Jindal could ever be.
Notice the contrast in reactions of the political jock sniffer Chris Matthews - when Obama speaks Matthews imbibes the pheromones of a dominant male and reacts like a woman in heat.
Yet as soon as the Indian dork boy shows up Matthews is already rolling his eyes and OMGing to his BFF.
The Republicans are absolutely pathetic. The ONLY reason they put forward Jindal and Michael Steele is due to race.
Let's not pretend not to know that.
Blame the handlers. I can go with that. Let Jindal be Jindal.
Following the lead of some of the right-wing commenters here, I should follow up charges that critics of Jindal are being racist with the claim that Jindal is the real racist.
"You cannot go to a 7/11 or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking.” -- Joe Biden
It was nearly eleven hundred, and in the RECORDS DEPARTMENT, they were dragging the chairs out of the cubicles and grouping them in the centre of the hall opposite the big telescreen, in preparation for the Two Minutes Hate....
The next moment a hideous, grinding speech, as of some monstrous machine running without oil, burst from the big telescreen at the end of the room. It was a noise that set one's teeth on edge and bristled the hair at the back of one's neck. The Hate had started.
As usual, the face of a non-Democrat, the Enemy of the People, flashed on to the screen. There were hisses here and there among the audience.
The programmes of the Two Minutes Hate varied from day to day, but there was none in which a non-Democrat was not the principal figure.
But the not-white not-Democrat was the primal traitor, the earliest defiler of the Party's purity. All subsequent crimes against the Party, all treacheries, acts of sabotage, heresies, deviations, sprang directly out of his teaching. Somewhere or other he was still alive and hatching his conspiracies: perhaps somewhere beyond the sea, under the protection of his foreign paymasters, perhaps even - so it was occasionally rumoured - in some hiding-place in America itself.
"How do you know this is not racism?"
How do you know you're not crazy? Are you sure?
The Schuster, Maddow, and Mathews of the world live and breathe to destroy any ascending Republican. That's the way it is. GET-EM before they get too popular!
Jindal happens to be in that position and if he wants to be a 'plaaya' he's going to have to tough it out.
"How do you know this is not racism?"
I can't say, but I know a cheap shot when I see one.
The first recorded reply to a state of the union address was by the great Indian tribal leader Tecumseh who beheaded seven white settlers in response to the speech of President Thomas Jefferson praising the Treaty of Fort Wayne. Tecumseh felt as did most Indians that the government only wanted to take things from them and did not have their best interest’s at heart. Vice President George Clinton was very surprised since all of the Indian’s he had ever met had been hard working store owners who provided grog in oversized tankards to travelers along the road to the Erie Canal. President Jefferson immediately blamed the response of the Indian leader on the fact that he was most likely a Whig which as we all know was the precursor to the Republican Party.
(The State of the Union is all F’d Up, by Doris Kearns Godwin, St. Simons Press 2005)
Beth said...
rocketeer, methinks you're kind of overthinking things.
rocketeer67 said...
Methinks my joking doesn't come across too clearly in text, and I apologize.
Stop saying Methinks. No one talks this way. NO ONE!!! This was brought to you by the letter O and the number 86. Thank you. :D
Jindal's response was terrible, albeit following up Obama's excellent speech was impossible. It's a shame because he (Jindal) is a talented and skilled man.
But there's no doubt that the left is willing to attack minority conservatives in ways they would never accept being done to liberal minorities.
Clarence Thomas is often called little more than Scalia's stenographer (if not worse). There is no way that could be made against Thurgood Marshall (with Brennan) without cries of racism being thrown back at them.
By the likes of Marshall and the absurd Sullivan.
I like Jindal, but I don't think that people not liking him last night is a manifestation of racism.
The Republicans are absolutely pathetic. The ONLY reason they put forward Jindal and Michael Steele is due to race.
Steele, yes, because when it came down to it, the alternative was a man who had for years belonged to a club that didn't let Blacks in. Choosing him would just have been stupid.
Jindal, I don't think so. He's a rising star in the Republican party not only because he's Indian American, but also because he's probably the smartest governor -- quite possibly the smartest politician -- at work in the US today. Rhodes scholar, glittering resume of accomplishment (or something that could be interpreted as accomplishment -- he hasn't really stuck around in any of his jobs particularly long). If he performs well in Louisiana, particularly in the current economy, he's likely to be a standard bearer for the Republican party in the years to come.
...and Smilin' Jack wins! Let's give him a big round of applause!
They will do to him what they did to Palin and Joe The Plumber. If you are a Republican and a non-rich white guy, YOU MUST BE DISCREDITED. STAT.
I, for one, didn't think he was that bad.
Maybe it's not what the right wingnuts are screeching about. But the fact is that Jindal is nothing but a theocratic hack. All he did was spout nonsense cliches last night while Obama looked masterful. The GOP is Dead, Dead, Dead.
Well, as a first generation Indian American (or is it 1.5, I never get these categories right), I'm kind of having fun with the Bobby Jindal thing. I mean, if he has what it takes, yesterday will be a hiccup and if he doesn't, it will be more than a hiccup. Whatevs.
Anyway, you should read the commentary on some of the, er, South Asian American (that's more pc, you know) blogs I read that run 70:30 D:R. It's quite interesting, actually. As in, I like him, I hate him, he's betraying his heritage, no he rocks, yada yada yada.
As for me, I respond to the small gov stuff so any rhetoric directed that way will make me happy. The speech was okay in my book. Also, listening to Obama in the car on the way to work, it occurred to me that he has a sing-song delivery, too. Actually, maybe they ARE more alike than I had initially thought.
Again, whatevs. Given our current crop of politicians (R and L, both) maybe we SHOULD elect some dorks. The criteria we are currently using are not good, my blog commenting peeps.
(It's funny how the guy is a dork until he makes a lot of money and then women I know think he's no longer a dork. Hey, I'm a woman, I can say that).
The reasons why Jindal sucks:
* he's a flat-earther
* he's a dork
* he's a Republican
* he sounded like Mr. Rogers
* all he does is spout nonsense right-wing cliches
No wonder the American people are rejecting the GOP in droves....
Why do I feel the need to start each sentence with I mean, Also, Anyway? Maybe I am betraying my heritage or something.
As someone else put it, it can hardly be called racism when Jindal has most frequently been compared to the whitest character on television today, Kenneth from 30 Rock.
He gave a shitty, tired, useless speech. End of story.
The GOP is Dead, Dead, Dead.
That sounds like a threat.
Beth said I've watched Jindal over the past decade, and I don't like him. I don't like his policies, I don't like his social conservatism, I don't like his "I'm the smartest little boy in the room" wonkiness, I don't like his shallowness. I don't give a flying fuck about his ethnicity.
Beth, substitute Obama and conservatism in that comment and that's pretty much how most conservatives feel about the current president.
Yet a whole lot of liberals felt any opposition equals racism.
Hoosier Daddy - if you RepubliFUCKS stopped with your "Barack the magic negro" business we'd stop thinking ya'll a bunch of stinkin' racists.
Sofa King said...
The GOP is Dead, Dead, Dead.
That sounds like a threat.
11:53 AM
It's not a threat, it's a fact.
He gave a shitty, tired, useless speech. End of story.
11:53 AM
The GOP's epithet! Long live one-part rule!
If conservatism and libertarianism were actually dead, hacks like Alex wouldn't be here spouting shrilly that it is dead.
I don't hear a lot of annoying trolls screaming about the deadness of Ross Perot's party, whatever that was called. I don't hear bleating about the death of the buggy whip industry. Those entities are definitely dead.
Also, whatever happened to hope and change and bipartisanship? How are you ever going to get that, dude, if you go around being a dick all the time?
It's rather disingenuous (and flat out stupid) to hear people like yourself whining about "spending" after we've poured a trillion dollars into the Iraq sinkhole (and still spending 1-2 billion a month), had billions literally stolen by dishonest contractors, wasted a surplus left behind by Bill Clinton, and left Obama with the massive task of righting the economic ship of state.
Oh I see. GOP spend a lot and now its ok for the Democrats to do so as well. Nice job Michael. I see you're still resorting to the 3rd grade retort of 'well he did it too!'.
Sorry but homie don't play that. I'm no more enamored of the GOP that spent like drunken sailors in a Thai whorehouse than the Dems are now doing. I want fiscal conservatism. I don't want to bail out the banks, the dipshit who bought a $400K home on a burger flipping income or Octamom and others like her who suck money out the wallets of people who actually contribute something to society.
I'm a conservative, not a Republican. There is a difference.
Oh and that surplus was purely based upon future tax projections. That's like saying I'll be able to cover my $50,000 debt once I get that $60,000 job I'm applying for.
Seven Machos - I'm rejoicing in the death of selfish libertarianism and the hackish GOP. Good fucking riddance.
My personal favorite line of attack that Michael tries to use is the one about how no one can criticize Obama and his lackeys because they all have such fine pedigrees.
It's hilarious, obviously, because these shrill liberals criticized Bush for eight years -- a man who went to Ivy League schools, was a governor, and owned businesses.
It's just whatever sounds good to these idiots.
"Barack the magic Negro" was started by the L.A. Times, not the Republicans,
The Jindal "revulsion" is just small unserious people being what they are. I'm sure you remember them from grade school making fun of people cause they look a little different. Some just never outgrow it.
I, being a serious large person like him for what he has done and what he believes. I don't care if he looked exactly like Mr. Burns or a magic Indian.
Seven Machoes - let's see. Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review.
McChimpy barely passed his classes and wasn't known for any mental acuity.
No comparison. GOP is over.
A bobby jindal... something out of a sowing machine.
The GOP's epithet! Long live one-part rule!
You didn't perhaps mean to say "epitaph," did you?
Keep pounding that table.
Hey ReJOKEIlicans, keep sending Jindal, Palin at us. The rest of America is laughing our asses off! Hail to 50 years of Democratic rule!
Alex -- How was 1994 for you? And 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004?
Of course, that kind of thing is never going to happen again. Why would it? It's not like people are going to have any reason to be unhappy with Obama. Look at the economy, just for example.
And he did win 80 percent to 20 percent with all the electoral votes, so there's no chance that conservative and libertarian ideas will once again become appealing.
Methinks my joking doesn't come across too clearly in text, and I apologize.
You just hate me 'cause I'm pretty, rocketeer.
Seven Machoes - the American people won't have the wool pulled over their eyes again with all that bullshit trickle-down business. It's OVER for you guys. OVER. Accept it. Better yet, just leave the country.
Sofa -- I didn't catch that. Yep. That's what they call the Republicans: one-party rule.
Say something else, Alex. Let us kick your dumb ass around some more.
DBQ said: "Well, it would help if we didn't have the left leaning press composing all of the questions."
Of course, the game is rigged- but that's all the more reason why Republican candidates should be better at it than their Dem counterparts, in order to compensate. Instead, for some reason, the GOP keeps compounding their disadvantage by putting up guys who are completely outclassed in extemporaneous speaking ability.
Maybe the explanation is that because the debates and MSM interviews are so obviously biased,it's easy for GOP voters to dismiss their candidates' poor performance as not their fault, and therefore fail to seek out more articulate candidates next time. You can't fix a problem until you admit you have one.
The opposition to the government encroachment on the rights of the people was continued in the administration of James Madison and was centered in the person of Tecumseh’s brother Tenskwatawa who was known as the Prophet. A charismatic preacher and dancer of the various native american dances, he toured various tribes to lead the protest against the growth of government. In his famous like a Sturgeon tour, the Prophet lead various shamans in a dance and ritual based on the life of the great lakes Sturgeon which had been fished out of existance by the White Man. He told his followers if they did not resist the Madison administration they too would be destroyed by an intrusive government.His famous theme of oppistion and resistence was centered in his own theme park in Prophetstown which was lated used as the model for Dollywood. Unfortunately as he aged he became increasing interested in his physical conditioning and the sale of Prophet water and lost all of his influence as a leader in oppistion to the government.
(The State of the Union is all F’d Up, by Doris Kearns Godwin, St. Simons Press 2005)
This would have been an excellent opportunity for an Althouse poll. Seems like a lot of the polls here are different flavors of the same underlying theme (is BHO good v. is BHO bad.) And, a lot of these polls run 9 to one on the BHO is bad side.
But, here was an R speaker who was widely unsatisfactory to many right wingers, so it would have been interesting to use this circumstance to get a better handle on the out-of-touch factor for the average Althouse reader.
I would have loved seeing Althouse readers vote 9 to 1 that Jindal was good. Or, who knows, maybe they would have surprised by resisting the knee jerk.
Of course I wouldn't be surprised to see Althouse give her readers an out. She would have included a third (excuse) option suggesting that Jindal was the victim of the (racist against Rs?) MSM or some other cliche R target, so he wasn't bad because he was victimized.
Obviously she couldn't create this post without a built-in excuse, so it's hard to see how she could have kept some sort of a crutch out of a poll. Sensitive readers [yes, that's a euphemism].
I am moving to Canada, Alex. I'm buying Susan Sarndon's old villa.
Man, 2010 is going to be a hoot. Of course, now that the whole world has changed, there's no reason to believe that the party without the presidency will pick up seats in Congress. That only used to happen. But now that Americans hate the party of business and industry, all that has changed.
Say something else, Alex. Let us kick your dumb ass around some more.
I think Alex is another Michaeluckyoldson sock puppet.
As soon as he tells you to blow him, we'll know for sure.
Seven Machoes - let's see. Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review.
McChimpy barely passed his classes and wasn't known for any mental acuity.
No comparison. GOP is over.
If sheer brainpower were the main requirement for a great president, then Hoover, Nixon, and Carter would have been the greatest presidents of the 20th century. Law school dropouts like Franklin Delano Roosevelt wouldn't even be in the running. And yet, somehow history did not turn out that way.
Of course, this also suggests that the story may not end particularly happily for our friend Jindal.
Why can't they let Bobby Jindal be Bobby Jindal?
You're on the right track. Jindal, like Clinton, is comfortable with facts and figures and multi-point plans. I'm still not going to vote for him, because I don't share his political philosophies, and I certainly reject his retrograde social conservatism.
I still don't think Jindal has the qualities to be president. He should be in someone's cabinet, but I don't think much of him as a leader, politics aside. If I shared his philosophies, I'd still be nervous about him as governor, simply because of his style (he's standoffish, doesn't meet with legislators, doesn't give press conferences, hides behind his staff) and his tendency to always be looking at the next job. He's easily bored, and he doesn't see people - he sees numbers. Ultimately, I reject the whole package. Regardless of my stance on Jindal as a candidate, I don't think he'll do well packaged as the warm fuzzy guy. He's a wonk, not a plush doll.
Americans do hate the GOP with a passion now. They let unregulated business out of control and ruined the economy. They will be righteously punished into oblivion! The sooner the GOP dies the better!
Of course, the game is rigged- but that's all the more reason why Republican candidates should be better at it than their Dem counterparts, in order to compensate.
Hard to do that when debates have come down to answering questions from snowmen off of Youtube.
Alex -- You should hang 100 of them in the town square -- rich ones. Use your toughest men.
I doubt this is racism as much as the usual Dem elite snobbery towards conservatives in general and the GOP in particular. Sounds like any number of childish brick brats thrown at Reagan or Bush calling them stupid.
Beth, substitute Obama and conservatism in that comment and that's pretty much how most conservatives feel about the current president.
Except for the decade part, I suppose.
Salamandyr - No, it was not the SOTU Address.
Maybe the explanation is that because the debates and MSM interviews are so obviously biased,it's easy for GOP voters to dismiss their candidates' poor performance as not their fault, and therefore fail to seek out more articulate candidates next time. You can't fix a problem until you admit you have one.
Is it such a problem though? I would have preferred, all things being equal, that Bush had been a little more fluent in his extemporaneous speech. But the tone and flow of our politicians' extemporaneous speech has been in pretty continual descent for decades. Obama gets credit for being a good public speaker, but in extemporaneous situations, he's completely hopeless compared to people like Robert F. Kennedy, who impromtued an effective, high-toned speech with classical references and all shortly after being informed that Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated. And while Kennedy was probably unusual in his fluency in his time, it does not seem to me that his skill would have been unusual in Churchill's generation; still less in the time of Salisbury or Disraeli.
Republican candidates may often be inarticulate, but that's the direction history is taking us.
I would have loved seeing Althouse readers vote 9 to 1 that Jindal was good
It would be interesting to see just how many people actually watched the SOTU speech or Jindal's rebuttal.
I for one, didn't bother with either. I'm sick to death of Obama being everywhere all the time on the news, on the radio ....everywhere. It hasn't even been a month and I feel like he is "the big giant head" on television.
He bores the crap out me and I don't believe one single word that comes out of his mouth. There is no point in wasting my valuable time listening to a bunch of lies, distortions, talking points, ad nauseum.
We are screwed as a nation and we have no control, no voice, no hope. The entire process is corrupt with ACORN getting billions of dollars to continue to rig elections, register cartoon characters as voters and buy votes with cigarettes and booze. Iran is getting ready to build nukes and possibly give them to terrorists to plant dirty bombs in major metropolitan cities.....and I don't care. Chicago can be the first to go.
Therefore, I spent my time watching 3rd Rock from the Sun reruns, leveling my Blood Elf Palladin and drinking scotch.
Let's have a poll re scotch.
Count me as for.
bagoh20 - I haven't read or heard anyone (at least in the press) saying they felt Jindal "revulsion."
Got a link?
ALSO:
dualdiagnosis said..."The left share among themselves with pride their revulsion at just the sight of conservatives, you can see it on their faces during interviews."
Unlike calling any liberal or independent a traitor or unpatriotic or unAmerican if they didn't support the Iraqi invasion and aftermath?
Get real.
Jindal's academic accomplishments are at least as impressive as Obama's.
Viz.: graduated from Brown with honors, admitted to both Harvard Medical School and Yale Law Schools. Instead, he majored in political science and graduated from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
We are screwed as a nation and we have no control, no voice, no hope. The entire process is corrupt with ACORN getting billions of dollars to continue to rig elections, register cartoon characters as voters and buy votes with cigarettes and booze. Iran is getting ready to build nukes and possibly give them to terrorists to plant dirty bombs in major metropolitan cities.....and I don't care. Chicago can be the first to go.
Debbie Downer!
"Let's have a poll re scotch.
Count me as for"
Yes. Let's do. We can all find some common ground here!
"Debbie Downer!"
I hope you live in Chicago. :-D
Let's have a poll for vodka martinis. Count me in for two.
But there's no doubt that the left is willing to attack minority conservatives in ways they would never accept being done to liberal minorities.
If Eric Holder is correct, to some degree, that we are "cowardly" about race, then no doubt, liberal racism also has to be part of the conversation, I agree. I think several folks have made that point in various forms, and I wanted to acknowledge it. I don't think people are racist for opposing Obama's politics, and vice versa re: Jindal. It's easy enough to go out and find clear examples of racism directed at both men, but I tend to take the position that racism is certainly not the starting point for most of us in responding to a politician in the opposing party.
Not Chicago, DBQ. I strongly disagree. I say wherever you live should be first to go.
Americans do hate the GOP with a passion now.
This doesn't actually seem to be the case, unless Americans have always hated the GOP with a passion. Polling results from early February actually had the GOP doing better than ever before against the Democrats in Congressional party preference. Since then, the balance has reverted to what I understand to be historically normal territory (Democrats usually have somewhat higher party affiliation, but it doesn't show up consistently in elections because their supporters don't always remember to vote).
Darcy, you can have my martini quotient. I'll have a margarita or a caipirinha.
Beth -- I would say that what we have at this point in most of this country is a kind of positive racism. People on both sides are seeking out minorities, so they can say, Hey, look at us, we've got this back guy we're running for president or this South Asian guy we're running for governor of a southern state.
Debbie Downer
TWO MINUTES HATE
Yes, Pogo, Orwell counts now, more than ever.
Americans do hate the GOP with a passion now.
Especially that apparently 30-40% that think they still control Congress.
We can all find some common ground here!
Well, there should be some sort of equivalent option for the Romney/Reid type of Althouse readers.
Jesus, DBQ, WTF? Wishing annihilation on an American city? Not cool. In fact, unhinged.
Maybe a little prozac instead of scotch...
LOL. All the bitching and moaning over Obama (seen in the comments of this blog day in, day out) wasn't racism, but now the criticism of Jindal might be!
My feelings about Jindal have more to do with the creationism thing, and oh yeah, the exorcism stuff. But one thing is sure, I want to see his birth certificate!!!1!!1
Beth -- I would say that what we have at this point in most of this country is a kind of positive racism. People on both sides are seeking out minorities, so they can say, Hey, look at us, we've got this back guy we're running for president or this South Asian guy we're running for governor of a southern state.
Haha -- maybe I should run for office and get a sinecure as a minority GOP politician.
seven, I think you're right. Let's hope it's a process, and we get to something more interesting on the other side of it.
Bobby Jindal is no Barry Goldwater.
Goldwater wasn't a theocrat. He was a libertarian and Jindal is not a libertarian.
His speech was bad-that didn't have anything to do with his race. I was expecting him to change into a sweater and slippers. First impressions matter too. Look at Palin's first impression at the Republican convention. She was a rock star and that speech was gold. Personally, I don't agree with her on the issues but I actually like her more than him. The intelligence design must play ok in the deep south but in the rest of the country not so much.
Zach -- I expect better from you. People on the left were definitely saying that nonacceptance of Obama was racist. I am sure they still say it now in the cesspools and hothouses where you generally spend your time.
Isn't Althouse the same one who saw the N word on the kids pajamas in the Hillary 3AM ad? Sounds like the old professor has a few issues.
Alex said...
Americans do hate the GOP with a passion now.
Nonsense--most Americans love all politicians now. The GOP made it easy for them to buy houses they couldn't afford, and now the Dems are going to pay their mortgages for them. What's not to love?
And yet here you are, Muta, reading what she has to say. Really, who is the person with problems?
Jindal is pretty clearly putting on an act. He's insincere and came off pretty badly last night.
He also, as Juan Williams said on FauxNews, "talked in a sing-song" and was patronizing, as if his audience was children. It was a terrible speech and we can criticize him for it.
But, Ann, if you're going to suggest racism, how about having some BASIS for it? Like, some word they spoke or wrote?
Otherwise, this is just more typical attacking on Republican critics. Ya got nothing.
We don't care about academic accomplishments Galbreth and if there is anything in there record with Ivy in it it is worse.
Academics are Bullshit!!!!
You just hate me 'cause I'm pretty, rocketeer.
Smart, actually. But if pretty helps you sleep at night, pretty it is.
Don't believe in or vote for the talented, well-educated Obama?
Racist.
Don't believe in the talented, well-educated Jindal?
Never mind.
Look, the accusations in both cases are mostly nonsense.
But there's a helluva lot more nonsense from the Obama side than the Jindal side (if there is one after that terrible speech last night).
Beth wasn't yesterday Fat Tuesday?
It had to be cause today is Ash Wendesday.
If I was in NOLA I would still be throwing up.
Jeeez Mardi Gra must have sucked this year.
He also, as Juan Williams said on FauxNews, "talked in a sing-song" and was patronizing, as if his audience was children.
My own impression was that he reminded me of Gore.
Not Chicago, DBQ. I strongly disagree. I say wherever you live should be first to go.
No you don't. Your food comes from here.
WTF? Wishing annihilation on an American city? Not cool. In fact, unhinged.
Actually, I don't really wish for this.
I'm afraid that it will happen however, because the people we have in control now are not serious about preventing it. Too busy with their spending spree and giving money to all of Obama's supporters as rewards. Too busy destroying the economy and perverting the free market system into a socialistic system.
Since our government doesn't seem to be concerned or serious about any of this..why should I be?
As to Jindal. I know next to nothing about the man and have zero opinion about him. If he is nerdish, as everyone says, I sort of take that as a good thing. Revenge of the Nerds so to speak.
We don't care about academic accomplishments Galbreth and if there is anything in there record with Ivy in it it is worse.
I tend (tend now, calm down) agree.
But those who trump Obama's academic credentials as evidence of his abilities need to apply that same measure to Jindal.
Yeah, Jindal has some troubling views (intelligent design, creationism, et cetera). I'm less sure that it's sincerely held as much as it is political opportunism.
In that regards, he's a lot like Obama and Rev. Wright.
Don't believe in or vote for the talented, well-educated Obama?
Racist.
That's a hysterical invention of the right wing and doesn't reflect the thinking or statements of the vast majority of Obama supporters.
And, it's pathetic, because the only ones you convince are each other.
People on the left were definitely saying that nonacceptance of Obama was racist
The fuck we were. Why don't you post a few examples if they were so abundant?
Because you can't. You guys just make this stuff up.
Bearing false witness: a conservative specialty.
That's a hysterical invention of the right wing and doesn't reflect the thinking or statements of the vast majority of Obama supporters.
Right, there weren't stories after stories after stories by liberal journalists that the only reason Obama would lose was because of racism.
Josh Marshall, noted above, made this claim.
You're the classic example of a liberal without history.
Galbraith:
Right, there weren't stories after stories after stories by liberal journalists that the only reason Obama would lose was because of racism.
Good. We agree then.
I'm tempted to say you're too lazy to back up your accusation but I know it can't be done. So I won't say you're lazy.
Alpha -- I am not here to be your research lackey. You should to to Google, though, and do a search to prove that there are no such examples.
Furthermore, dude, what happened to hope and change and bipartisanship? I would think a saintly minion such as you, who of course would never bear false witness, would be diplomatic and tactful now. I mean, what with the shiny new era.
Jindal seemed testosterone-deficient. He needs to hit the weights.
I live outside of New Orleans. I often post on New Orleans forums. When Jindal was elected, the clearly racist posts came 90% from the regular leftist posters.
Calling him Pinyush (his real first name) and mocking the celebratory dancing in his family's Indian hometown was common.
If seeing a cartoon drawing of an ape makes your brainpan immediately think of President Obama, you might be a racist.
/foxworthy
Racism? Perhaps. In Sullivan's case I think it's the latest example of the man's maniacal hatred for genuine conservatism and those who would question the infallibility of our divine leader. He really has become a parody of himself.
"dramatic contrast between Obama and Jindal"
"...gave a lousy speech."
And this is how we ended up with the current disaster of a President because yahoos think that pretty words and well rehearsed shows are more important that actually experience and governing ability.
Only the most idiotic are still impressed with Obama's shtick.
Perhaps the best legacy of the Obama mistake will be that America will start looking at actually ability instead of speeches and slogans.
People on the left were definitely saying that nonacceptance of Obama was racist.
Well, of course they were. And that's because some of it was. Duh.
Is it navel-gazing to point out that the response to the not-quite State of the Union given by the son of a Kenyan immigrant was given by the son of Indian immigrants?
What a country.
But the instinctive revulsion toward this darkie Republican straight out of Punjab -- none of that is racist. Right? Right, Zach?
Bobby J. made a poor decision to have this speech be his national maiden voyage. Competing with an Obama speech to a joint session of Congress was a no win effort.
Then there was the entrance. What were they thinking? Presidents can command the moment as they walk slowly to the stage. Governors of Louisiana can't, especially when they grin like Mr. Rogers and walk fast over a short distance.
Plus he looks incredibly young.
Was race a factor in the reaction? Hard to tell. Racism is at base a negative reaction to difference, and Bobby J. seemed a little different. To a liberal he seems very different--a conservative person of color. Certainly he is a victim of liberal prejudice against dark skinned people who are conservative.
Is Clarence Thomas a victim of racism? No, not in the sense we usually understand the word. But he is a victim of prejudice. Same with Bobby J.
Smart, actually. But if pretty helps you sleep at night, pretty it is.
Okay, so we have pretty. And witty.
Don't forget "and gay!"
I feel sorry for any girl who isn't me today.
Trooper,
I had to work today! Last year, they started making us hold classes on Ash Wednesday. My students were bedraggled, but most showed up.
If seeing a cartoon drawing of an ape makes your brainpan immediately think of President Obama, you might be a racist.
Ergo all liberals are racist!!!!!!!
So I tell this story once a year.
I went to a Catholic law school and I guess I didn't know much about Catholicism because on the first Ash Wednesday as a 1L, half my class was covered in soot on their foreheads all day and I thought that something had gone terribly wrong in the world somehow.
I think it has to do with white guilt. Obamania was filled with guilty white people who supported him on the basis of his race alone.
When people feel guilty, they want you of course to empathize with their guilt. If you don't, they don't like you because you aren't feeling sorry enough for them.
Jindal is just too uppity for them. He is not "thankful" enough.
Yeah, Jindal has some troubling views (intelligent design, creationism, et cetera). I'm less sure that it's sincerely held as much as it is political opportunism.
I think it's easy to dismiss troubling views on the part of politicians by assuming they're pandering to the base. That explains, to me at least, how perfectly sane fiscal conservatives convince themselves to vote for the Vitters and Jindals and other true-believer social conservative wingnuts. I'll go ahead and concede liberals do the same thing - nah, he isn't really Marxist!
But I think Jindal is the real deal. His embrace of a mix of fundamentalist Christianity and Catholicism is part of his personal and political journey.
I would like to comment on the speech but when I turned on the TV I just thought it was another guy getting an Oscar for Slumdog Millionarie so I just changed the channel to the Food Network.
They had this great show about cakes.
"If Obama Loses
Racism is the only reason McCain might beat him.
By Jacob Weisberg
Posted Saturday, Aug. 23, 2008, at 12:02 AM ET"
From Slate.com
Google citation, #2.
Elapsed time, .16 seconds.
Satisfaction. Priceless.
Jindal is a funny looking guy. He speaks like a nebish. His ideas are wise and his accomplishments many.
Our President is a handsome man. He speaks like a prophet. Time will tell about the rest.
I prefer the accomplishments of the wise, myself.
Trey
Jindal is just too uppity for them. He is not "thankful" enough.
That's it! It can't have anything to do with his rabid anti-abortion stance (not even for a life-threatening situation, nor in rape or incest cases), nor his support of creationism, nor his adherance to tired old Voodoo economics. He's just an uppity dark man! If only he'd be thankful to whitey, liberals would vote for him!
But the instinctive revulsion toward this darkie Republican straight out of Punjab -- none of that is racist. Right? Right, Zach?
A) It's not "instinctive."
B) It's a reaction to the man, not the race.
C) All you guys have is criticism of a non-white pol.
-----------
As far as accusation of racism against opponents of Obama, such as JOhn McCain, it was based on things they said and did and NOT simply because they opposed Obama. Concrete examples:
- Paris Hilton/britney Spears ad.
- Villification of Rashid Khalidi.
- "That one."
- McCain volunteer's Ashley Todd 'Carved B' (false) accusation and the McCain campaign's role in pushing it, hard, to the press.
- McCain and Palin calling Obama a "terrorist" in campaign speeches.
And here's Josh Marshall on racism in the campaign.
Maybe we should keep tab of all the workers that the Obama supporters here expect to hire over the next four years?
Not other employees hired by their employer or the government agency they work for or contract with, but as private employers themselves operating in the market.
Any?
Hey, Alpha -- How about all that hardcore research your hated righties did today? Hard work, apparently.
Tool.
Well, of course they were. And that's because some of it was. Duh
Sure, and some of it wasn't.
But you need to talk to Alpha Liberal who insists that no supporter of Obama's - no one - make the charge.
Accurately or not.
Nope, no one.
Does anyone here have anything enlightening to say about the accomplishments of Jindal, Obama, and Palin rather than their appearance or speaking talents? The discussion is, after all, about qualifications for President of the United States, not some high school debate club.
Frum -- Perhaps you've hit on the crux of the issue and you don't even know it. None of the people you named is substantively qualified to be president of the United States.
Reagan and Clinton are looking so great now. Even Bush I and II will, one day, when the last vestiges of leftist hate burn out.
Hell, I miss Nixon!
1. It doesn't matter how good Jindal's speaking skills are. The left would respond with ad hominim sneering even if Jindal were the Republican equivalent of JFK. Did you *really* expect words of approval from Josh Marshall and Andrew Sullivan?
2. Jindal's smart and tenacious. He'll be back. If he needs to work on his delivery, he'll do it & do it right.
3. As a former New Orleanian, I was glad he wished everyone a Happy Mardi Gras. Great festival.
Let me know when some lefty comes forward with a story about how some Indian dude knocked her over and scratched a backwards J on her cheek.
Don't fret Beth. Trot signed a minor league deal with the Brewers and should make the roster this year.
Michael asked if anybody can explain why Jindal would specifically mention that the stimulus plan includes $8 billion for high-speed rail projects involving a line from Las Vegas to Disneyland?
I have read it in muliple sources...here's a quote from AP that I found when I did a quick google search:
"In late-stage talks, Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pressed for $8 billion to construct high-speed rail lines, quadrupling the amount in the bill that passed the Senate on Tuesday.
Reid's office issued a statement noting that a proposed Los Angeles-to-Las Vegas rail might get a big chunk of the money."
But the instinctive revulsion toward this darkie Republican straight out of Punjab -- none of that is racist. Right? Right, Zach?
I'm not the authority on this, but thanks for thinking of me. Maybe there is racism being directed at Jindal, just like that Post cartoon of the dead chimp might have been racist. Right? Right, Seven?
Sorry, I just tend to think people who are into castration and exorcism are fucking freaks, but that's just me.
Come on, Peter. I mean, really. That shit happens all the time. Every single time you read a story that somebody is painting swastikas on cars or dormitory doors, you can be sure that it's a leftist nut trying, in some warped way, to act on principle.
Please don't be one of your crazy brethren and demand a link. It's the kind of thing that occurs so much that it's ordinary.
But you need to talk to Alpha Liberal who insists that no supporter of Obama's - no one - make the charge.
Accurately or not.
Nope, no one.
Note how, while never admitting the possibility of error, he has dropped that line and moved on to "well of course they made the charge, because their opponents deserved it!"
Note too the logic:
1. Some Republicans were attacked as racist because they deserved it.
2. We know they deserved it because of the attacks that were made against them.
Irrefutable!
Diane said..."Michael asked if anybody can explain why Jindal would specifically mention that the stimulus plan includes $8 billion for high-speed rail projects involving a line from Las Vegas to Disneyland?"
I have read it in muliple sources...here's a quote from AP that I found when I did a quick google search:
"In late-stage talks, Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pressed for $8 billion to construct high-speed rail lines, quadrupling the amount in the bill that passed the Senate on Tuesday.
Reid's office issued a statement noting that a proposed Los Angeles-to-Las Vegas rail might get a big chunk of the money."
*I never said none of the money might go to a rail line from LA to Vegas. I also noted that whatever money is allocated, would be via a Republican.
If you actually think this kind of snarky inclusion into Jindal's address was worthy...that's your opinion.
I just think it was a waste of his and our time.
Zach -- I think people who join Kill Whitey churches are a little nuts myself. That's just me, too, though.
There's no accounting for taste.
The discussion is, after all, about qualifications for President of the United States, not some high school debate club.
Yeah, but the Althouse blog is more like a high school debate club, except that it's funnier and has more smut.
Alpha seems to have disappeared out of embarrassment. At least he has the moral sense to do that, unlike the trolls who will just carry on with unconscionable inconsistency.
Alpha, I commend you. Sort of.
Why not comment on the content of Jindal's speech? Some of the responses to Jindal have an odor of racism, conveniently applied, like selecting a golf club. The Left is glowing with their embrace of minorities in government and carries itself as if above racism or sexism, but many of the attacks on Palin were shockingly sexist. And how many times have we heard that neoconservatives are Jewish?
Freder wrote:
So what now any criticism of Jindal is racist, yet if Obama is criticized, that is not racist, just an example of political correctness run amok?
Look at the reaction to a cartoon about cops shooting a baboon and linking it the writing of the stimulus and the automatic assumption that it was about Obama and that it was racist in nature. So, there are those on the left already engaging in what you say is not happening.
Also, on MSNBC one of the anchors let out a contemptuous "oh god" prior to Jindal even speaking. There is certainly a vicseral reaction to Jindal (and Sarah Palin before him) simply because they are conservatives, which is bigotry in and of itself.
Seven,
I can provide you with some specific instances of leftist making false accusations:
-Duke Rape Case
-Tawana Brawley
Instinctive revulsion.. oh most certainly.
then there is the non-instictive revulsion brought about by a moron given center stage...perhaps cognitive revulsion...
something of the proverbial turd in the punchbowl. we have an instinctive abhorrance and then, on thought about how it got there, we are repulsed yet anew.
Jayne -- I'm not even talking about those, which are all tied up in race and class issues. I'm talking about the oddball student or professor who paints insults on his own dorm room door and her own car, then goes to the police, demanding that the perpetrators be brought to justice.
rumson Wooters said..."Does anyone here have anything enlightening to say about the accomplishments of Jindal, Obama, and Palin rather than their appearance or speaking talents? The discussion is, after all, about qualifications for President of the United States, not some high school debate club."
Louisiana state government watchdog C.B. Forgotston, former counsel to the House Appropriations Committee who supported Jindal's election in 2007, has expressed disappointment with the governor in regard to the legislative pay raise and other fiscal issues too.
Forgotston, a Hammond lawyer, said he would grade Jindal an A in self-promotion and a D in performance in office.
And then HD House tried to sound profound and said absolutely nothing at all.
I never heard Jindal speak before and was entirely predisposed to like him. But I was appalled at the impression he left--like a brand new junior high school teacher trying to be friendly with the kids the first day of classes. He was so over-prepped he started his speech before he stopped walking. No presence. No sense of the moment. No charisma. No authority or gravity in his voice.
Maybe these things can be learned but for the moment there's no way he can step on a stage with Barack Obama and not be seen as a cipher.
I was hoping to see the new face of the Republican party but he ain't it.
As for the media guy who said "Oh God" when Jindal came walking out he apparently just couldn't contain his disgust that anyone would be allowed to oppose Obama's spending plans.
>>That's it! It can't have anything to do with his rabid anti-abortion stance (not even for a life-threatening situation, nor in rape or incest cases),
From Wikipedia:
[Jindal] does not condemn medical procedures meant to save the life of a pregnant woman that would indirectly cause the termination of the pregnancy.[35][36] In 2003 Jindal was reported to have stated that he did not object to the use of emergency contraception in the case of rape if the victim requests it.[36]
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