Answer: No, he was not on. But this did give me a chance to test my aversion. I did stop to watch Amy Klobuchar, because, as you may have noticed, 3 days ago, I wrote, "Why aren't the Democratic candidates better? I'm just going to be for Amy Klobuchar." I got about halfway through it. Here's the transcript and video, so you can check my work. But I completely lost hope that she could be the nominee. This was precisely the occasion for her to show her stuff. This was an easy showcase, at exactly the right time, with a made-to-order Democratic Party issue: A court found the what's left of Obamacare unconstitutional, and people with pre-existing conditions are threatened with losing their health insurance coverage.
Now, it was a little unfair that the interviewer — CBS News's Margaret Brennan — was wearing an neon-bright yellow jacket while Klobuchar wore a dull shade of blue, but this was a softball interview, with no challenging questions, no surprising topics. And Klobuchar was mush-mouthed and dull. I was wondering out loud, why doesn't she have that crisp Sarah Palin style of Minnesotan speech? Where's the spirit and style? She seems like a student who shows up prepared and ready to do the assignment, but with no love of the game, no interest in lighting us on fire, nothing. Now, I personally am happy with nothing and would like a boring President. I don't need lighting up. I don't like political fervor. The main reason I don't watch these news shows is I hate the fervor. But you've got to look alive. You've got to come across as a real person who seems to be saying the words that are coming out of you. There's an art to being successfully boring.
Let me quote the place in the transcript where I lost hope:
MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator Barrasso who was just here said that he does think there's room for legislation to protect preexisting conditions, one of the things that would get thrown out with this ruling if it's upheld. Would you--Klobuchar has a law degree (from the University of Chicago), but she spoke so unclearly about law. Brennan had just spoken about what might happen "with this ruling if it's upheld." Then Klobuchar said "It will be upheld" when she meant that Obamacare will be upheld. When you say that a ruling goes up on appeal, the word "upheld" should mean that the court below was affirmed. Not the opposite! I could see what she meant, but I was so disappointed by the garbling when she had every reason to be absolutely prepared to nail this interview.
SEN. KLOBUCHAR: But I just mentioned a number of other things that would also have to be done. So the best thing here--
MARGARET BRENNAN: But is there room for Democrats to work on those sort of issue specific things with Republicans?
SEN. KLOBUCHAR: There's always room to work on things but the best way - and what I believe will happen - is this will be stayed in court. So it continues to take effect. Then it will go up on appeal. It will be upheld.
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148 comments:
she's from minnesota; ever meet anyone intelligent, from minnesota? They grow FLOUR there, for GOD's sake!
She was a corporate lawyer and Hennepin County Attorney for two terms. I don't think she fancies a climb further up the slippery pole.
...neon-bright yellow jacket...
Repeat after me in a French accent: gilets jaunes
Why anyone would see Klobuchar as a viable presidential candidate totally baffles me.
@Althouse, in 2008 you voted for a man who broke a lot of things that had been working just fine. No sense longing for a “boring” President. We voted for Trump to fix things. He is doing just fine.
AA, I'm sorry for your disappointment in Klobuchar! But, your comment about her "....Klobuchar has a law degree (from the University of Chicago), but she spoke so unclearly about law...?" This comment is so nonsensical? So what, when has she practiced law, what type of law did she practice - ambulance chasing? Who cares what her degree is in, some 30 years ago. She's a damned politician whose only stock in trade is to lie, grab power, and enjoy their narcissism. You reaction to Klobuchar is that of a classic academician - not as a common sense every day American.
When you're a female candidate and liberal on socially issues, and you've lost Althouse - you're done.
The Dems would be much better with Kamala Harris. Klobuchar was on the Judiciary committee - does anyone remember a word she said on Kavanaugh?
Some pols are bland, because they're Low-key. Some are bland because they're dullards.
So you missed Chris Wallace turning Rudy Giuliani into a cartoon character...
You can see it again on the Fox News Channel at 1 pm CT.
If you strikeout on a softball interview, there's not much hope.
The Dems need to nominate another Obama type. A black/Hispanic who is somewhat of a blank slate. People will project their moderation onto them, no matter how liberal they really are.
Plus a black woman would be hard for Trump to attack without losing the dumbo soccer mom vote.
"@Althouse, in 2008 you voted for a man who broke a lot of things that had been working just fine."
I voted for him because he seemed more likely to be able to deal with the financial emergency better than John McCain could. You are looking at a world where that problem was dealt with. Show me what would have happened with John McCain. I continue to believe that McCain was unprepared to deal with the financial system, which was not "working just fine." It wasn't a choice between Obama and the preservation of everything we already like well enough. It was a choice between Obama and McCain in the midst of a financial disaster. You don't know what would have happened under McCain, so you can pretend it would have been great. Totally unconvincing to me.
BTW, I stopped watching these Sunday interviews too. First, 75% of the talking is done by the Journalists, the questioners, and their dumbo "Round tables"
Who cares what Chuck Todd thinks!
And with Trump we have to constantly listen to "Mueller has him now" - Going on 1.5 years and counting.
If you want to reform healthcare, the first people you should want to talk to would be the healthcare providers, i.e. the medical profession, which no one has apparently so far bothered to do.
Obama was the lesser of two evils in 2008.
McCain not only knew squat about finance, his choice for Sec. Of Treasury was Phil Gramm - the corrupt asshole who helped create the 2008 financial crisis.
Oh and McCain probably would've gotten us into 3 wars and given us Amnesty and destroyed the Republican Party.
But otherwise he was great.
Television soaks up energy. If one is animated to the same extent as a normal person, it comes across on TV as lacking in energy. You have to amp up the performance, emphasize words, come on strong. Having already been elected to the Senate, Klobuchar should know that. Adding luster to her ideas, on the other hand, takes more than performance skills. (It takes somebody behind the scenes who gives her better material.)
That interview reminded me more of a morning cooking show, where the host tries to spice-up the segment, while the less than telegenic cook Klobuchar simply tries to prepare her favorite Democrat recipe with the right poll-tested ingredients using just the right amounts: Trump hate, CHAOS!, "border security" double-talk, litigation to protect the status quo, conflating healthcare and insurance, more "free" government healthcare...
In his last book, McCain states he was going to run a "Bi-partisan" 1 Term administration.
Top priority - Amnesty. Judges too be appointed based on a "Gang of 14" type panel. Lieberman to be AG. Lindsey to head DoD. Lots of D's to be appointed to other cabinet posts.
McCain to focus on his foreign policy and wars. His true love.
Klobuchar was mush-mouthed and dull. I was wondering out loud, why doesn't she have that crisp Sarah Palin style of Minnesotan speech?
Funny, I was just reading a 2009 AA blog post about the time Obama gave a televised speech to all the school children in America.
A lot of Palin bashing in the comments by Obama worshipers.
Is anyone taken in by the Democrat double talk.
We LOVE border security. NOBODY loves border security more than us Democrats. Anyone who says different is a LIAR!
But we will shut down the Government rather than build a wall, support sanctuary cities and states, want to abolish ICE, and and support unlimited immigration.
But don't say we are against border security.
"A lot of Palin bashing in the comments by Obama worshipers."
The blog comments were full of people who loved Palin in 2008, so what are you talking about?
Of all the things that spiked traffic on this blog, in the entire history of this blog, #1 was the appearance on the scene of Sarah Palin, and the mood in the comments was mostly loving her.
Do you scroll through a DVR?
I myself fast-forward through a DVR.
You make fun of Kristol’s smile *now*, but back when he was using that smile to pimp the Iraq War, such a “burn” never crossed your mind.
"I don't like political fervor."
Ah, yes, as you showed by your reaction to the Kavanaugh fiasco. Boring just means people do stuff you want in the way you want.
"I voted for him because he seemed more likely to be able to deal with the financial emergency better than John McCain could."
See, this is what American politicians, and especially GOPers, are up against.
Here you have an apparently smart, educated person, preparing to vote. She decides Obama is "more likely to be able to deal with" a financial emergency. Because -- well, because. Not because he knew any economics. Not because he had run a business or anything else. Not because the people he hung out with or was likely to appoint would do any better than the mainstream GOPers McCain hung out with or was likely to appoint. And, as it happened, O appointed, wait for it, Timothy Geithner at Treasury--you know, that guy from the New York Fed who had played such a stellar role in preventing the emergency! And, as it happened, O pushed for a stimulus bill, that helped address the financial emergency--well, not at all. And he helped pass a whole bunch of other pieces of legislation that solved the emergency that McCain couldn't possibly have pushed for--like, well, like none at all.
As a politician, what do you do to get through, to facilitate the right rationalization by potential switch voters? If you are not just trying to turn out your own base, that is. O offered one model, Trump another. Oprah can combine them.
I voted for him because he seemed more likely to be able to deal with the financial emergency better than John McCain could.
Obviously never even audited Ec 10 or the equivalent.
Ann, I keep telling you it will be Howard Schultz. Dynamic guy. He regularly handled Wall Street analysts with easy. He made sure every SBX employee had health insurance. Outsider. Great personal story. Very accomplished. Historic too.
I do hope the Dems nominate Kamala Kardashian Harris. Easy win for Trump.
There's nothing more humorous than a Conservative Republican defending McCain.
He hated your guts - conservatives.
Of all the things that spiked traffic on this blog, in the entire history of this blog, #1 was the appearance on the scene of Sarah Palin, and the mood in the comments was mostly loving her.
No disagreement from me, I like her. I was only interested in the coincidence. Looking again I should have said 'a few', not a lot.
LoafingOaf said...
Palin's not that full of herself.
As far as Sarah Palin, this is the woman who spent 60 minutes on the Greta Van Susteran show being interviewed from her kitchen to show us how she makes moose chili and sausages for her family on a daily basis. Oops, except Levi told us the truth about that. Levi states in Vanity Fair that Sarah Palin does not actually cook much at all for her family.
Palin is a phoney.
And Palin can't keep her own kids off oxy contin, btw.
9/8/09, 12:07 AM
I am not throwing rocks at AA for that. The last thing I will forgive Richard Nixon for is that he made me vote for a pair of unmentionables like Humphrey and McGovern. No, I did not - and still don't - think Nixon was a crook, but I had an uneasy feeling that he had personality problems that was not going to end well for him, or us, and it turned out I was right about that.
(And, indeed, I just looked up HMOs on Wikipedia and found that even that began with Nixon. Note Ehrlichmann's comment!)
>>Althouse: "I voted for him because he seemed more likely to be able to deal with the financial emergency better than John McCain could."
That is an amazing statement. It would be really interesting, seriously, to learn why it seemed that way to you. Because I, for one, cannot come up with a vague notion of why Obama would have been expected to be better able to deal with the financial crisis than was McCain. And that is not to suggest that McCain would have done anything wonderful with it. But whatever made you think that the neophyte poser Obama would do better? Please, tell us.
She decides Obama is "more likely to be able to deal with" a financial emergency. Because -- well, because. Not because he knew any economics.
Indeed. If you want to decrease the cost of healthcare, you need to either increase supply (maybe by subsidizing education in the health care field) or decrease demand. Obama chose to do the exact opposite - increase demand by subsidizing health insurance.
And Cash For Clunkers was an implementation of the Broken Windows Fallacy.
If I had a dollar for every perverse incentive baked into Obamacare, I could retire.
If Obama had ever bothered to take an economics course, he certainly didn't get a damned thing out of it.
“Why anyone would see Klobuchar as a viable presidential candidate totally baffles me.”
Because she is an almost normal white woman, who graduated from a pretty good law school (I think that after the abysmal job Obama did as President, HLS might well be a disadvantage, and ditto for Yale with Clinton). And then compare her for a moment to Ann. Maybe Ann is a little older, and took somewhat different career paths, but overall similar enough that she could easily get on board. Then think of the alternatives:
- Fake Indian Pocohauntis Warren
- Creepy Joe Biden
- Crooked Hillary Clinton
- Avowed socialist wacko Bernie Sanders
- Fake Hispanic Bobby “Beto” O’Something, born with a silver spoon, and left the scene of a drunk driving accident
- Kamala Harris, Willie Brown’s former mistress
- Several White male billionaires
Etc.
Their bench is very weak, consisting of geriatrics older than Ann, or young kids with little real world experience. Unfortunately though, normal doesnt sell in the Democratic Party.
I also would defend AA on that one on the grounds that though Obama himself was as innocent of knowledge about economics as he was of car insurance, his mentors from the Annenberg Foundation and other associations were not and he would listen to them, while McCain was famous for not listening to anyone other than the voices in his head.
“That is an amazing statement. It would be really interesting, seriously, to learn why it seemed that way to you. Because I, for one, cannot come up with a vague notion of why Obama would have been expected to be better able to deal with the financial crisis than was McCain. And that is not to suggest that McCain would have done anything wonderful with it. But whatever made you think that the neophyte poser Obama would do better? Please, tell us.”
The obvious answer is the sharp crease in his pants, and his ability to read a TelePrompTer.
As long as it's called insurance for pre-existing conditions everybody will be talking moron.
Dull might be popular. A bunch of midwestern candidates for Governor were dull and mushy and generic & they won. WI, Michigan, Minn, Penn.
It's way too early to make an accurate guess. That said, not gonna be surprised if she's the Nominee or VP.
If the issue is cost, then payment reform is the solution. If the issue is pricing, then market reform is the solution. Preexisting conditions were covered before, and will continue to be covered in the future, through personal means, supplemented through private (e.g. charity) and public (e.g. welfare) smoothing functions, and, given the available evidence that the second is the problem, and the first is a symptom, medical care reform, not payment reform (other than inflationary functions), will promote sustainable reform, including affordability at prices commensurate to need, performance, and cost.
The purpose is to bankrupt the medical insurance system, to create de jure single payer. They are about 50% there.
What Klobuchar lacks is the proverbial Fire in the Belly, which doesn't sell well in Minnesota.
Credentialed, not wise.
Now trip had served in surge era Diyala and later fought in Helmand, it made her doubt the purpose of these extended expeditions
Low energy Amy?
I voted for him because he seemed more likely to be able to deal with the financial emergency better than John McCain could. You are looking at a world where that problem was dealt with.
You'd do well to check a chronology of federal policies addressing the financial crisis. Essentially all the actions taken to deal with the crisis happened under Bush. These include propping up Fannie and Freddie, the AIG bailout, and TARP. The Federal Reserve continued to prop up the banking system well into the Obama years, but that was attributable to Bernanke.
Two senators were running for president then, and only one of them gave priority to participating in the negotiations over the specifics of TARP. You favored the guy who blithely stayed on the campaign trail.
Now if you want to talk about policies to get out of the recession caused by the financial crisis, it would be interesting to hear why you thought Obama's economic advisers seemed better than McCain's. (I focus on their advisers bc I think they were both economic illiterates.)
The Dems don't think Trump will be a hard act to follow, but he will.
Karl Denninger: The Bill To Permanently Fix Health Care For All
alternatively:
Mike K: Health Care Reform
I voted for him because he seemed more likely to be able to deal with the financial emergency better than John McCain could.
I thought you once wrote a reason you voted for him was because you thought he’d bring us together.
Because I thought I responded all you had to do was listen to him to know he wouldn’t.
I don't think so, narciso.
I think it basically was a scheme put together by lobbyist lawyers and the large insurance company execs to protect the companies from competition and guarantee them a steady income by having the Federal Treasury cover any losses they might incur from the actual business, and I think these people were not even bright or knowledgeable enough to think through the details of how they were going to actually get the work done if they got what they wanted.
And of course, no one asked the doctors or medical facilities managers what they thought of it.
There was a time when I felt that I learned something from the talk shows, but that has long passed. The format is not conducive to discussion. The hosts are not interested in what the guests have to say, and certainly not interested in finding out what the guests might be thinking about anything not on the message-of-the-week list. The discussions are too short and too unbalanced. The guests are dullards or robots or cover-up-artists. The panels are agenda-driven repetitions of points made elsewhere.
I also enjoyed baseball more when batters did not uppercut on every swing.
Well consider the HMO bill and erisa both didn't include preexisting condition exemption because it would have been cost prohibitive, likely leading to rationing.
@FullMoon: Palladian by far gave the best put-downs of LoafingOaf. I still miss Palladian.
but this was a softball interview, with no challenging questions, no surprising topics.
It's always a softball interview when Dems are questioned by their propaganda wing buddies.
The toughest question ever asked a Dem POTUS wannabe?
Roger Mudd to Ted Kennedy: Why do you want to be President?
Kennedy could not even handle that one.
Hey everybody! Nine years ago a blog commenter posted something about how Governor Half-Term from Alaska is a bit of a phony. And FullMoon is on the case! He's got that comment, clipped and saved in his archive of irrelevant things - and ready to blast out there in 2018. His terabytes of Althouse "problem" comments shrine. It's a temple of left-wing unkindness.
He also has thousands of samples of his own bowel movements stored somewhere. Space for stuff like that is the new premium feature that developers everywhere are asking contractors to build in their new home construction starts.
McCain made a point of coming off the campaign trail to discuss the financial crisis, then sat at the table and said NOTHING.
Good opportunity to repeat my mantra: never watch television news for any reason other than entertainment.
Speaking of women and reality based thinking ...
I would seriously like to know for sake of grandkids ....
@Hagar and others
How does this hold up from years ago
https://ari.aynrand.org/issues/government-and-business/health-care
If I want news that is relevant to me, then I watch the weather channel.
Agree completely that "television news" is nothing but entertainment.
Without disagreeing with anything you said, I'm not sure how much the ability to sparkle on a talking head show correlates with the ability to govern wisely and well.
President Pee-Pee Tape said... [hush][hide comment]
Hey everybody! Nine years ago a blog commenter posted something about how Governor Half-Term from Alaska is a bit of a phony. And FullMoon is on the case! He's got that comment, clipped and saved in his archive of irrelevant things - and ready to blast out there in 2018. His terabytes of Althouse "problem" comments shrine
Got everything downloaded to my private server.
Even have your boastful comment about 'passing for white"
Wanna see it,silly diminutive Narcissist?
I wish Obama had taken a short walk across the Midway for some economics classes when he was lecturing at the U of C, but he probably thought he was a better economist than they were.
If McCain had won he would've been a President who could've successfully merged the worst political aspects of a Democratic President and of a Republican President into one surly patronizing hair-tempered package.
Then, after his one term was over, we would have President Hillary.
Who would be in her second term now.
And the Media Pundits would be now penning preening pieces of why her not being able to serve a Third Term was a Bad Thing. And probably sexist.
History goes where it goes.
I am Laslo.
You are looking at a world where that problem was dealt with. Show me what would have happened with John McCain.
Let's not rewrite history. Obama did nothing to deal with the financial crisis. That was largely dealt with (for better or worse) by the Fed and the Bush administration in the fall of 2008, between the TARP, the bailouts, and the first round of asset purchases by the Fed. All Obama did was add the ridiculous "stimulus" bill that did nothing but add to the national debt and reward his cronies.
No doubt McCain was financially illiterate, but Obama was no better.
As an aside: I loved the line "Let me quote the place in the transcript where I lost hope:".
Made me think of what someone in a Wes Anderson movie might say.
I am Laslo.
well he actually recommended Andrew Cuomo, who at hud in the late 90s helped create the sub prime bubble,
Ann, I keep telling you it will be Howard Schultz. Dynamic guy. He regularly handled Wall Street analysts with easy. He made sure every SBX employee had health insurance. Outsider.
Keep telling yourself the Democrat coalition of aggrieved parties is going to hand the whole thing over to a charismatic outsider who has paid no dues and doesn't owe favors to the right people.
Keep forgetting these are the same people who worked from within to ensure charismatic "outsider" Bernie Sanders wouldn't beat Hillary Clinton.
Keep thinking any white male has a chance to be the Dem nominee in 2020, when the underlying theme will be: "If you vote for Trump, it's only because you're racist."
No doubt McCain was financially illiterate, but Obama was no better.
The difference would have been how McCain handled GM. As pointed out previously, everything else had been handled by the time the new President was sworn in.
JGE: "McCain made a point of coming off the campaign trail to discuss the financial crisis, then sat at the table and said NOTHING."
That is precisely the sort of behavior that so endeared McCain to the Dem/LLR alliance.
Accept every lefty/LLR premise; advocate for every dem/LLR narrative; seek lefty MSM validation; attack other republicans; Joyfully and with great gusto attack republican voters; in the end, stand mute but in complete alignment with the left.
A LLR Chuck (and Lefty/dem) Dream Candidate.
The difference would have been how McCain handled GM.
Good point, I should have included that in my list of Obama's clusterfucks along with the stimulus (which McCain probably would have gone along with too).
MARGARET BRENNAN: But is there room for Democrats to work on those sort of issue specific things with Republicans?
And give Trump a win? Not a chance.
"that problem was dealt with." O was president. Therefore, O dealt with it. Therefore, I, Ann Althouse, was right to prefer O over McCain.
Mitt Romney was savaged by the MSM, for having written an amazing, wise, prescient, courageous op-Ed for the Times, for which a NYT editor crafted a headline, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.”
Then-Governor Jennifer Granholm, and every Dem member of my he Michigan Congressional delegation said that Romney was out of his mind; cruel; and that no automaker could ever survive a bankruptcy. Not even the kind of government-backed managed bankruptcy reorganization that Romney specifically mentioned.
Less than two years later, the Obama Administration took GM through a managed bankruptcy. With all federally-backed financing paid back, early.
"And Klobuchar was mush-mouthed and dull."
That's our Amy. The more you see of her the more you recognize the dull part. She is a back-bench Senator.
Where's the spirit and style?
The Minnesota spirit and style is alive and well on the (Olympic Champion) US Curling team. (Along with the Wisconsin spirit and style. Long live beer and pizza!)
How many glasses of wine did it take to get you thru that ordeal?????
Bruce (, i think,) makes a compelling argument for a DRAFT ANN ALTHOUSE movement:
And then compare her for a moment to Ann.
- Fake Indian Pocohauntis Warren
- Creepy Joe Biden
- Crooked Hillary Clinton
- Avowed socialist wacko Bernie Sanders
- Fake Hispanic Bobby “Beto” O’Something, born with a silver spoon, and left the scene of a drunk driving accident
- Kamala Harris, Willie Brown’s former mistress
- Several White male billionaires
The Minnesota spirit and style is alive and well
Seriously! They grow Flour there! They drink Grain Belt, Premium; and think it's beer!!!
Mitt Romney: Correct more often than Barack Obama.
Damning with the faintest of praise.
We all do the best we can. Amy is no exception. Like the guy under the bridge near my house.
I now realize that Ann and I may have used the word "dull" with different meanings while referring to Amy Klobuchar. Sadly, both meanings apply.
Blogger glenn said...
"We all do the best we can. Amy is no exception. Like the guy under the bridge near my house."
Say "Hi" to Al Franken for me.
And Klobuchar was mush-mouthed and dull. I was wondering out loud, why doesn't she have that crisp Sarah Palin style of Minnesotan speech? Where's the spirit and style?
When I think of Minnesotan speech, there is only one female to consider, Frances McDormand as Marge Gunderson talking "Minnesota nice." "Yeah, you betcha!"
Got everything downloaded to my private server.
I've never seen a greater plea for help from someone needing a life than this one.
Even have your boastful comment about 'passing for white"
Oh I'm sure you do. Not even sure myself what it means, other than that I'm European, but not northern European? And not interested in categorizing myself in with a label belonging to what is increasingly nowadays becoming a sad grievance group?
But I'm sure your tiny mind will find much meaning in that. It's all it can do; since you don't have a life or anything else to take any pride in.
I was surprised at the McCain support in 2008 and i'm even more surprised now.
Don't any of the Republicans remember his Dumbass behavior during the campaign?
Refused to bring up Obama's "Goddamn America" stuff because "that was yahoos".
Stopped the campaign to go to DC to help solve the financial crisis - and then had nothing to say.
Wanted to make liberal Joe Lieberman his VP (Al Gore fucking VP) but then was finally talked out of it and swiveled 180 degrees and make Palin his VP pick. Then handed her over to a bunch of liberals (Now working for MSNBC) who sabotaged her.
Was a disaster in all the debates, spouting talking points and rambling nonsensically until foriegn policy and Iraq came up.
Next to nominating Jerry Ford in '76 over Reagan, the dumbest thing the Republicans ever did - in my lifetime - was nominating McCain.
Even if he'd won - we would've lost.
Not even sure myself what it means
It obviously means you are not white but can pass for white. So what? Why is that such a big deal for you? Maybe that makes you feel special amongst your family.
I don't know.
Why is that such a big deal for you?
Who says it is? Obviously the person it's a big deal for is you, given your hoarding of the clip and disbursing of it as if it were some sort of very damaging or controversial thing to say, something that you thought you could make me look bad or weird for saying.
You're a strange guy, dude.
And Klobuchar was mush-mouthed and dull.
To paraphrase the well-known quote: Hey, the mush-mouthed and dull have a right to representation in Congress too.
Hagar@12:54 forgets all the speeches and press conferences presided over by Li'l Barry that featured dozens of actors in white lab coats pretending to be doctors so Obama could point to them and claim legitimacy.
The Minnesota spirit and style is alive and well
Seriously! They grow Flour there! They drink Grain Belt, Premium; and think it's beer!!!
12/16/18, 5:00 PM
I don't know where to start, Minnesota is the source of Hamms Beer, from the land of sky blue waters, the best beer made in the US.
The best female Minnesota actress/vocalist of traditional speech pattern was Sue Scott of A Prairie Home Companion. Don't let Garrison's fate taint the show, should John W. Booth's evil act taint Shakespeare?
"Who says it is? Obviously the person it's a big deal for is you, given your hoarding of the clip and disbursing of it as if it were some sort of very damaging or controversial thing to say, something that you thought you could make me look bad or weird for saying. "
Huh? You're the guy who brought it up, not me.
I didn't "bring it up." I mentioned it in a conversation that you were not a party to. that didn't include you. That you don't really have any reason to feel you were in a position to understand.
And yet, you downloaded it on your own personal computer and trotted it out just now. For some reason.
You didn't understand what it meant then and you're probably not sure why you "brought it up" now.
Again, a strange guy.
Again, no one understands what you're trying to convey with the 7:28 PM comment, either. It's a comment from nine years ago about (in part) an unpopular governor that lost an election for VP. And your point in reposting it is....?
JaimeRoberto said...
I wish Obama had taken a short walk across the Midway for some economics classes when he was lecturing at the U of C, but he probably thought he was a better economist than they were.
Hmmm ... and Trump thinks himself to be the best economist in the world ... but he has to learn to spell the word before offering that opinion. He went to Wharton, doncha know? He says he finished first in his class but all we know for sure that is that he was seen slapping Junior in the face in a UPenn dorm. Perhaps that is why their mascot is a Quaker?
@Full Moon: At that point in time (2008-9) and on this blog, Pee Pee (née Montana Urban Legend) was largely just parroting Andrew Sullivan's Palin-loathing. Sullivan chose to die on that hill as a writer and thinker insofar as he never retracted a single word of his mendacious bile. Sullivan more or less expected the rest of the world to accept his unhinged gum flapping. Pee Pee, ever the loyal sullivanist, soldiers on in parallel.
chickenlittle said...
@Full Moon: At that point in time (2008-9) and on this blog, Pee Pee (née Montana Urban Legend) was largely just parroting Andrew Sullivan's Palin-loathing.
Semi-interesting about PeePee in'08 is that he was occasionally normal.
Reading many of his comments through the years, one can see the descent into insanity. He is unable to acknowledge the influence but it was definately the Obama years that radicalized the little guy.
Semi-interesting about PeePee in'08 is that he was occasionally normal.
Not just that, he's a talented writer. There are some gems of comments left on my blog -- mainly science based -- that are nothing short of brilliant. He and I have long sparred on politics which is a bit of a shame and a waste of time in the long run. I suspect that our political difference will last longer than 10 years and will probably outlive this blog.
To a battle of wits, Amy Klobuchar comes unarmed.
Ann "would like a boring President?" Me, too.
She is dull because she really isn't all that bright. I would guess the Minnesota Senator's IQ is between 100-105.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We had this significant decision out of Texas on Friday with this federal judge striking down Obamacare as unconstitutional and you have tweeted, "now it's on us and the Democratic attorney generals. Let's get to work." What does that mean?
Klobuchar never answered the question about the "attorney generals." Did she? Instead she went into free association, hyper emotional ditzy female mode and avoided the image of a scheming, power hungry Democrat Party. "Over the past two years, the Democratic attorneys general have stepped up their efforts to coordinate, including weekly conference calls to discuss legal challenges against Trump. Over the past 18 months, Democratic attorneys general have filed dozens of lawsuits against Trump, including several aimed at preventing him from modifying the Affordable Care Act." Washington Post and "States sue Trump administration over association health plans" Politico.
She avoided discussing a strategy to prevent a second term by crippling the Trump administration by investigating the Trump organization and every member of the Trump family in every state where there is a Democrat attorney general and Trump has businesses. How does that produce a health care plan? It doesn't. Does anyone still not understand why nothing will get done?
Because the strategy has always been not only to defeat trump but destroy him, as with Nixon if that led to the boat people and year zero those are the breaks.
@Full Moon: At that point in time (2008-9) and on this blog, Pee Pee (née Montana Urban Legend) was largely just parroting Andrew Sullivan's Palin-loathing. Sullivan chose to die on that hill as a writer and thinker insofar as he never retracted a single word of his mendacious bile. Sullivan more or less expected the rest of the world to accept his unhinged gum flapping.
Your penchant for bizarre exaggerations and strange never-ending grudges remains as intact as ever.
Pee Pee, ever the loyal sullivanist, soldiers on in parallel.
You seem not to understand loyalty to clear thinking as opposed to loyalty to people. If you were less of a Trumpist, perhaps you'd understand a little better.
..persuasive abilities.
I admit that persuading housing contractors who believe themselves to be astrophysicists and geophysicists is not high on my list of priorities.
Or humor.
If I had no sense of humor I wouldn't take seriously the idea that FullMoon is a human being, in full command of his thoughts.
Or multiple styles.
Multiple personalities?
FullMoon said...
No one is reading my comments, except you. You are the target, so to speak.
In case anyone wondered what FullMoon's purpose is, its the pride he takes in his inability to attract other readers and ability to simply distract.
IN four-year olds and teenage girls, this is called being an attention whore. But Moon is a housing contractor, you see.
PeePee. In light of your constant denigration of the Caucasian race, I have no idea why you continue to flaunt your whiteness.
That is on you, not me.
Personally, I think it would be best if you dropped the subject.
I'm not the one who keeps harping on it.
But as long as you brought it up, AGAIN, I do note that I can not "denigrate" the proud white nationalists of America any more than their own self-imposed oxycontin epidemic and shortened lifespans (due to the Republican policies they vote for) has denigrated them.
A race that cared about its well-being might decide to change course. But the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting a different result. And you can't change crazy. Although Darwin can.
The Powerline fellows have been on Amy for years. She mouths conventional wisdom, and votes left consistently. She poses as a nice person, but she isn't one.
Most people who go through the U of C Law School learn to spot nonsense, even if they embrace it. There is no evidence that Amy ever learned those skills.
Not just that, he's a talented writer. There are some gems of comments left on my blog -- mainly science based -- that are nothing short of brilliant. He and I have long sparred on politics which is a bit of a shame and a waste of time in the long run. I suspect that our political difference will last longer than 10 years and will probably outlive this blog.
It's a shame that we argue about politics and let it divide everything. But I can't understand why you have so much disrespect for clear thinking when it comes to anything I say about non-science topics. It seems you're often/usually motivated by providing outsized cover for arbitrary traditionalism, and deference to that, and a genteel niceness about it all. But you seem to not want to accept that sometimes people who pretend to be nice, or just plain traditional, are masking other, much less noble motivations if not impacts.
You also take grudges way too far. You are very set in your social/political ideas - oftentimes arbitrary and fictional "truces" that no one agreed to - and almost never in a way that you're willing to reason through.
I follow the evidence where it takes me. Sometimes two things are both wrong. Or both right. But not just to make people happy.
Case in point: You respect my grasp of historical interests, but not to the point where you allow yourself to confront your own comfortable biases - even when you see me do it to others who are no less prone to prejudice, which everyone is.
When Crack Emcee complains about racism, I acknowledge he's right.
OTOH, when he has trouble accepting what victims of racism sometimes do to worsen their own plight, I point out that he's wrong.
It's a difficult thing for him.
April Apple knows that I hate the corrupt DNC (sometimes), and almost every conservative here knows that I have no problem holding a corrupt leftwing politician to the fire.
Many here hate me, but they at least respect stuff like that.
You are a nice guy, and a smart guy. But you never examine some really strong underlying prejudices that you cling to so strongly - even when it infects your personal relations, and I don't understand it.
When have you ever called out a right wing idea or politician?
You don't, but still pretend and do a good job of seeming to be a fair-minded, down-the-road person. Perhaps because of Wisconsin affability.
Getting along is nice. Being honest is nicer. And we all have to examine our blind spots from time to time to do that. You included.
But you would rather hate or at least feel very let down by me instead. And I can't understand that.
Why do you do that?
LOL!
Five comment removals from 2013 he's harping on.
Unhinged. The guy has no capacity to live in the present or for any other motivation here than his obsession with me and getting me to respond to him.
In the dictionary under "ridiculous" you will see a housing contractor.... A dishonest one.
Yeah, you are proof of that. Same ol' thing since, what?, 2008 or so?
Not sure. As the blog's self-appointed historical records schoolmarm hall monitor, why don't you tell us what sanity is. Other than making the stalking of pseudonymous commenters seem any less creepy than when serial killers and other psychos do it.
You know that everyone here thinks you're a psychopath. When you get into spars with me, as much as I annoy them, they hate you at least as much.
If your aim is to pretend you're doing anything for them (and I know you kiss up to them) it fails miserably. No one wants a psychopath following them around asking if he's doing their bidding well. You are toxic to everyone here. I just annoy the right-wing crazies. But no one here has any respect for you.
Up next, gay, dick, butt jokes. Wife/mother insults? Ver imaginative.
Well, maybe if you didn't keep so many of those cards up your own sleeve you wouldn't find them so unimaginative.
If you behaved decently and like an adult, maybe you'd get spoken to like an adult.
But instead you're just an underdeveloped housing contractor who keeps large files on comments from ten years ago that no one cares about. Even when you repost them you can't figure out what kind of a criticism you're making of them.
You're just creepy. A total creeper. A weirdo. A freak. (Who hates anything "freaky").
You think you're normal now. But I am positive that before you hit midlife you will end up in an insane asylum, homeless or in jail.
CBS is less stupid than the other two networks not to mention CNN and MSNBc.
On Spanish language broadcasts there's Jorge Ramos who is just a polemicist and ambrosio Hernandez hes a professional interviewer.
At 10:50 and 11:03 a shyster contractor repeated his same comment. Because it wasn't worth reading the first time and I pointed that out and it really bothered him.
A dishonest, resentful housing contractor who no one respects here (while cluttering up the comments) feels that he's in an authoritative position regarding creativity and not being an asshole.
That's funny.
Are you a part of the neighborhood niceness patrol watch, also? Issuing self-made citations to anyone caught using a rude cuss word?
I've never run across someone so self-righteous about all the things he was so stupid and talentless about. It's almost like the combination of naivety in him combined with his self-righteousness reaches the pinnacle of Everest.
And yet, he demands that I take him seriously. He's like the Monty Python knight legless and armless on the ground who begs to be thought worthy of fighting.
Too funny.
over excited
Perfectly calm here.
Perhaps my brain works lucidly while yours requires Ritalin vacations.
11;03 was not the same, twas prior deletions and many more added to the list.
Oh ok. Gotcha. So no one cared the first time OR after you clarified that one day back in 2013 that a comment was removed from someone else's blog. (Like that's never happened to you).
You are psychotic. Next he will be photographing gum wrappers that fell from someone's pocket in 1997 and littered a sidewalk and how much he's bothered by that.
Dude, you've got issues. Let it go, Mr. "I'm enjoying sunshine at 9:18 PST cause everything's awesome here and for me!"
You are weird.
Toothless says
Yep. It was funny then and still is now. Meant as irony, which you don't understand as well as you don't understand science.
Now go measure a two by four, carpenter boy!
Shyster contractor has deleted the majority remainder of his "gotcha!" quotes.
When others throw punches and run away it's called being a pussy. But shyster contractor is worse than that. He's an internet pussy.
Run away, shyster contractor! Your fake punches have been pulled! Your unhinged purpose unmasked.
Everyone here knows you're a psychotic coward. You don't win the internet by deleting what you write but by standing behind it.
And you couldn't stand behind a cardboard cut-out of your wife.
Pussy. You deserve to have your ass kicked and probably experience it regularly.
Either that or you're one of the cackling jabberers who goads bullies and then runs away after getting unexpectedly sucker punched by the victim.
Shyster contractor has deleted the majority remainder of his "gotcha!" quotes.
My goodness. If I had any idea that would annoy you I would definately leave them up for posterity. My Bad !
Did it while watching Tv with some friends.
Why? Because you are an ass.
Right. "Friends" who don't read or comment on this blog watch YOU read it and comment on it IRL.
This is a scenario you fantasized. You don't have any friends and anyone who claims their friends sit around watching him go through blog comments sections that they don't comment on is making them up.
Dopey Dwarf says:
When others throw punches and run away it's called being a pussy. But shyster contractor is worse than that. He's an internet pussy.
Run away, shyster contractor! Your fake punches have been pulled! Your unhinged purpose unmasked.
Everyone here knows you're a psychotic coward. You don't win the internet by deleting what you write but by standing behind it.
And you couldn't stand behind a cardboard cut-out of your wife.
Pussy. You deserve to have your ass kicked and probably experience it regularly.
Either that or you're one of the cackling jabberers who goads bullies and then runs away after getting unexpectedly sucker punched by the victim.
Ah ! Here we go, the violent retoric and the wife insults. Good job, entirely unexpected.
If I had any idea that would annoy you I would definately leave them up for posterity. My Bad !
No you wouldn't. You know they make you look like "an ass". So it's a catch-22. You're the anti-ass squad who uses ass tactics to get more comments you claim are ass comments, before running away and deleting your own assy comments.
So it looks like what you claim to be against you perpetuate more of. A perfectly expected behavior for psychopaths and uneducated shyster contractors.
LOSER.
Ah ! Here we go, the violent retoric and the wife insults.
It's not violent to step on a cockroach and your wife married a coward - which I think is how she wanted it.
So there's nothing to respect about her, either. No, the fact that you imply she's American doesn't make her desirable either. Plenty of undesirables in your own country.
And Moon wants to marry all of them. WOMEN OF AMERICA: "Full Moon" offers to be the Mormon husband to every last one of you so he can make you all each others' sister wives! No matter how fat or stupid or lacking in basic self-respect you are! After all, HE can relate!
LOL
Shyster contractor is basically in a one-man competition to beat his own ass in a feat of witlessness.
I think in a minute he'll actually announce just that. That he kicked his own ass.
Cool.
Typical observation re PeeWee:(not my comment)
Amazing. Never quite seen the likes of this, TTR/Ritmo destroying an entire thread by their frantic, non-stop, postings of, essentially, nonsense.
9/5/17, 8:51 AM
It seems that's what you want to happen.
Are you trying to get us to destroy the thread together?
For a guy you claim to hate and whom you accuse of doing things you say are so rotten, you sure seem to get a lot more of those things to happen.
Take the Ritalin. Make your doctor happy. It's not like you make anyone else happy.
Ah! Double down on the wife insults.
Knows every word in the dictionary but must resort to the same five or six insults.
Not very scientific, whitey.
Some things, like your wife for instance, are very simple. No science is needed to call out how dis-respectable they are.
Weekly Standard wasn't murdered. It was suicide.
Que? Nobody here but you and me, shorty.
I know that fact gives you a hard-on but the folks you kiss up to here can still think you've ruined a thread that they didn't stick around long enough to comment further on.
I mean, this just takes basic common sense and decency to realize but you lack both of those things. Big time.
No one here has any respect for you. Even the people you want to kiss ass and agree with.
How does that feel? Probably the same as everything in your off-line life.
Rit
Isn't there any thing you can find to do to cool your jets on a Saturday night? All this self-induced stress can't be good for you. Heal thyself, Physician. And then, read a book or something. Take your mind off of these invisible demons.
And don't be so darn reflexive. The mind is about more than just a series of Pavlovian responses, my friend. I'd urge you to ponder that, sometime. Seriously. It'd do you good.
1/16/10, 9:55 PM
Ritmo Brasileiro said...
It's good to know that the stupidest threads are just ripe for the threadjacking. I'll be sure to leave a trail of turds on every one of the brain droppings here that suit my fancy.
10/16/10, 10:28 AM
Life is good.
The hills are alive with the sound of music.
I don't think it really matters who the Democrats nominate, it will be an NPC candidate regardless, someone with no real original thought who mouths the talking points of the Democrat party but looks good and sounds inspiring while saying nothing of substance and being as light on the details as possible.
Why aren't the Democrat nominees better? It is hard to develop politically when their leading candidates are rarely if ever challenged on their ideas. The press for the most part doesn't ask tough questions of Democrats. Democratic activists and donors don't ask tough questions of Democrats. When Democrats challenge each other on policy in a primary, it tends to be a question of who can seem the most progressive rather than that any of them disagree on substance. When Republicans challenge Democrats on policy, the reflexive response is to smear the questioner as a bad person.
And this is how Democrats end up with what looks like a lineup of scripted NPCs for candidates. Is there any national Democrat out there saying something that takes us by surprise or separates them from the rest of the Democratic field? Or does it all seem so predictable, as if the words could be put in the mouth of any generic Democrat? Bernie Sanders is probably the most authentic and agile thinker among the whole bunch for 2020.
The Dems Choice has to be a woman and they have to do it this time around because if they don't Nikki Haley will be the first female President the next time around.
Dems are on the clock. Beto would be a serious mistake.
So you're saying that a completely undistinquished person who gets elected because they came up, in one manner or another, through the party ranks is an unappealing apparatchik? Quelle surprise!!!
cyrus83,
You put "Bernie Sanders" and "agile thinker" into the same sentence, one where the word "NOT" is absent? Surely there must be some mistake...
A socialist planned economy is one of the stalest ideas out there.
Qualifiers are important, the comparison is against the rest of the likely Democrat contenders. Sanders doesn't conduct focus groups or polls to figure out what his message is and he is more honest than almost any national Democrat that socialism is the goal if he gets power.
On Kristol, don't confuse what otherwise could be a big supercilious smile for what is really his obnoxious smirk.
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