Althouse: "He’s the most strategic, smartest politician out there. He’s very skilled. He’s a very good debater. He has media savvy."

February 27, 2017

"He’s the most strategic, smartest politician out there. He’s very skilled. He’s a very good debater. He has media savvy."

"Internationally, he’s compared to Trump. But with [Geert] Wilders every tweet is thought through, calculated. With Trump it’s emotional."

Said a Dutch political scientist quoted in "Geert Wilders, Reclusive Provocateur, Rises Before Dutch Vote" (NYT).

37 comments:

Sprezzatura said...: I liked all the NYT pics.

But, they may have purposefully picked images that emphasized odd looking folks.

Sneaky libs.; 2/27/17, 9:12 PM
Sebastian said...: "Reclusive," yeah, that's one way to put it. Under permanent guard, protecting him from adherents of the Religion of Peace.; 2/27/17, 9:25 PM
Sebastian said...: If I understand Wilders' line correctly, he isn't even that far right: he supports the welfare state and gay rights. But of course, if you deviate from lefty gospel on Islam, you are "far right."

The article portrays Wilders as pulling the Netherlands to the right. Since the same thing is happening elsewhere, "events, events" seem a bigger reason.

Question: does the NYT ever call lefty rhetoric "divisive"?; 2/27/17, 9:36 PM
JackWayne said...: If Geert wins, that's the end of the EU. Maybe they can get back to realpolitik instead of fakepolitic.; 2/27/17, 9:37 PM
mockturtle said...: He's had a fatwa against him for years. It's only a matter of time.; 2/27/17, 9:45 PM
LYNNDH said...: Understand he has had to curtail his campaign appearances because one of his security guards has been feeding his schedule to a group that has ties to Militant Islam cell. The guard is of Moroccan origins. Figures that they would put an Muslim on his security detail. Must be PC about the Religion of Peace.; 2/27/17, 9:48 PM
YoungHegelian said...: With Trump it’s emotional.

Maybe. Maybe not. That may be part of Trump's schtick.

"Sincerity! If you can fake that, you got it made!"; 2/27/17, 9:50 PM
mockturtle said...: I guess anyone who dares speak up against Islamism in Europe [or the US] is labeled 'far right'.; 2/27/17, 10:03 PM
Luke Lea said...: Have to wonder if NYT characterization of Wilders is any more accurate or fairer than its coverage of Trump. Without any real evidence my guess would be not.; 2/27/17, 10:04 PM
Sprezzatura said...: Dutch is yesterday's news. Now it's Donald.; 2/27/17, 10:15 PM
Mark O said...: That Trump. He's so emotional and stupid that he's President of the United States. What an idiot.; 2/27/17, 10:36 PM
Luke Lea said...: Here is the man himself in his own words on Youtube: https://goo.gl/cKrkgq; 2/27/17, 10:41 PM
themightypuck said...: Was going to point out what Sebastian said so instead I'll plus one. NYT continues to disappoint. Come on NYT. You can do it. You can be journalists. Stretch and breathe. Stretch and breathe.; 2/27/17, 11:54 PM
Achilles said...: Both the EU and the Muslims want him dead. It is only a matter of time before the left gets it's way.; 2/28/17, 12:17 AM
traditionalguy said...: Famously, the Dutch invented toleration of all religions when they had to settle 100 years of fights with the Spanish King's murderous Catholic Army to allow freedom for the Protestant citizens to live and worship.

Which is why Gert has to fight the invasion by the Totally Intolerant Muslims, because they come there to kill every other religion's citizens.; 2/28/17, 12:42 AM
Bob Loblaw said...: If I understand Wilders' line correctly, he isn't even that far right: he supports the welfare state and gay rights. But of course, if you deviate from lefty gospel on Islam, you are "far right."

European right and American right are two different things. You can be for a big welfare state and still be on the right in Europe as long as you're a nationalist.; 2/28/17, 1:32 AM
PB said...: Maybe Trump doesn't have to deliberate over each tweet, because he's smarter about what he's trying to achieve and how the public will react?; 2/28/17, 4:54 AM
rhhardin said...: He's not strictly a good debter unless he can argue either side.

It's easy when you're right.; 2/28/17, 5:45 AM
rhhardin said...: He may be confusing Trump being emotional with his writing for an emotional audience.

It's shiny object narrtive displacement.; 2/28/17, 5:47 AM
George M. Spencer said...: Wouldn't it be something if in 2017 Holland, France, and Italy all followed the path of the US and the UK?; 2/28/17, 6:26 AM
Michael K said...: Under permanent guard, protecting him from adherents of the Religion of Peace.

With a mole in his security detail.

That;s why I hope Trump keeps his own security detail around him. I don't trust the USSS after the Obama years.

Indira Gandhi could not be reached for comment.; 2/28/17, 7:02 AM
Robert Cook said...: "I guess anyone who dares speak up against Islamism in Europe [or the US] is labeled 'far right.'"

What do you mean by "Islamism?" Being a Muslim no more makes one a terrorist or sympathetic to terrorists than does being a Christian or a Hindu or a Buddhist.; 2/28/17, 7:18 AM
mockturtle said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/28/17, 7:24 AM
mockturtle said...: My dear Cookie, Islamism is not the same as Islam. An Islamist is not the same thing as a Muslim.; 2/28/17, 7:25 AM
Quaestor said...: Being a Muslim no more makes one a terrorist or sympathetic to terrorists than does being a Christian or a Hindu or a Buddhist.

Typical Cookie bullshit. He thinks to repeat a lie is to establish its truth, hence the single-minded and never changing "terrorism, what the hell is that?" cha-cha.

However, forget Islamism for a moment. What about being sympathetic to women? Or gays? It doesn't take a terrorist to hang a queer from a crane, just a good old fashion Muslim with the Hadith in mind.; 2/28/17, 8:20 AM
Michael K said...: Cookie is going to regale us any day with a list of Christian, Hindu and Buddhist terrorist attacks.

Then those Amish horse bombs.; 2/28/17, 8:24 AM
Fernandinande said...: In the F-MSM a "provocateur" is someone with sensible ideas.; 2/28/17, 8:30 AM
Anonymous said...: Robert Cook: What do you mean by "Islamism?" Being a Muslim no more makes one a terrorist or sympathetic to terrorists than does being a Christian or a Hindu or a Buddhist.

It does make one more sympathetic to Muslim terrorists, who are rather more of a problem in Europe these days than Christian, Hindu, or Buddhist terrorists.; 2/28/17, 8:32 AM
Balfegor said...: Re: themightypuck:

Was going to point out what Sebastian said so instead I'll plus one. NYT continues to disappoint. Come on NYT. You can do it. You can be journalists. Stretch and breathe. Stretch and breathe.

But they just hate Trump so so much! He made them look like chumps! They see his name and the blood just rushes to their head.; 2/28/17, 8:47 AM
Quaestor said...: Cookie is going to regale us any day with a list of Christian, Hindu and Buddhist terrorist attacks.

Quaestor loves to aid the intellectually challenged, and in keeping with his admirable character he will now fill in a few blanks, so to speak, thus lifting a burden from Cookie's remarkably narrow shoulders.

Hindu terrorism: The Tamil Tigers, inventors of the explosive suicide vest. Problematic for two reasons — firstly, nowhere in the Vedas are Hindus enjoined to slay, conqueror, and enslave those who will not submit to Shiva, secondly, the Tamil insurrection in Sri Lanka is more revolutionary socialist rather than religious. The Tiger have more in common with the Democratic Party than Krishna Consciousness devotees.

Christian terrorism: Eric Robert Rudolph, the Olympic Park bomber. Rudolph sought revenge for abortion, which he deemed to be murder. Styling his crime as Christian terrorism ignores the absence of doctrinal sanction.

Buddhist terrorism: Deadly attacks on Christian missionaries in Burma by "Myanmar" paramilitaries. Again, more nationalist and socialist than religious.

All religions, except perhaps the Jains, can inspire violence. However, in reality — here and now, not a millennia in the past — the threat to Western Civilization is Islam. To deny that requires a toxic dose of willful ignorance.; 2/28/17, 9:04 AM
Quaestor said...: They see his name and the blood just rushes to their head.

There's plenty of room for it. 1400cc to be precise.; 2/28/17, 9:06 AM
Drago said...: Quaestor: "Quaestor loves to aid the intellectually challenged, and in keeping with his admirable character he will now fill in a few blanks, so to speak, thus lifting a burden from Cookie's remarkably narrow shoulders."

One would be wise to avoid waking or arousing the ire of The Quaestor.; 2/28/17, 10:17 AM
Drago said...: Robert Cook: "What do you mean by "Islamism?"

Wow.

Crack a book sometime. Preferably one not written by Gary Sick. Try "The Looming Tower" by Lawrence Wright instead.; 2/28/17, 10:19 AM
Robert Cook said...: Qaestor,

Thank you for your assistance in showing that terrorism comes in all ideological/theological flavors and is not unique to Muslims. Too many Americans (and Althouse reg'lars) seem not to recognize this reality. At the same time, Hindus, Buddhists, and Christians are no more likely to become terrorists than Muslims. Which is to say, the vast majority of adherents to all of these faiths are not terrorists or inclined to become terrorists or sympathetic to terrorists. As you suggest, the impulse to terrorism is typically political more than it is religious in nature.

Do you really think Islam is a threat to Western Civilization? Tsk, tsk....; 2/28/17, 10:37 AM
Balfegor said...: Re: Robert Cook:

At the same time, Hindus, Buddhists, and Christians are no more likely to become terrorists than Muslims.

That . . . that just doesn't seem to be true. You can make the point that people from all religions (or from no religion at all) can become terrorists without ignoring the fact that terrorists are disproportionately Muslim, even in the service of nominally secular causes (e.g. Palestinian "liberation"). Hamas, Hizbullah, ISIS, Boko Haram, MILF, Al Qaeda, PLO, Jemaah Islamiyah, all those Chechen terrorist groups, those Uighur terrorists . . . the depth, breadth, and lethality of Muslim terrorist groups is disproportionate to the number of Muslims as a percentage of the world population (they are about 25%), even if the likelihood that any individual Muslim engages in terrorist acts is vanishingly small.; 2/28/17, 11:04 AM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: Geert Wilders is smart, and insightful, and correct...but he's also said non-nice things about people of the Islamic faith, so we know he's really a vicious hateful racist and the future does not belong to him. I mean, sure they were ACCURATE things, but still he shouldn't have said 'em. Nice people don't say such things--nice people welcome giant mob of different people--people with huge chips on their shoulders who see you as weak and have no interest in "assimilation"--with open arms. Wilders didn't do that, so he's basically Hitler.; 2/28/17, 11:50 AM
mockturtle said...: Drago suggests: Crack a book sometime. Preferably one not written by Gary Sick. Try "The Looming Tower" by Lawrence Wright instead.

Excellent book! Should be required reading. Wright looks at Islamism as the Islamists view it---historically.; 2/28/17, 12:24 PM