Althouse: "This is why [Macron] is a great politician, because that was one of the greatest non-answers I've ever heard. And that's okay."

December 3, 2019

"This is why [Macron] is a great politician, because that was one of the greatest non-answers I've ever heard. And that's okay."

Trump deploys a strategic, sarcastic compliment in the middle of a back-and-forth that you'll want to watch:

24 comments:

Ken B said...: People sayTrump,s English is weird, but it’s way better than that other guy's.; 12/3/19, 10:05 AM
BarrySanders20 said...: Now go away or I will taunt you a second time.; 12/3/19, 10:07 AM
robother said...: Ship all those ISIS fighters to Cambridge. Their criminologists have perfected a way to rehabilitate them. There was a conference on it just last week, near London Bridge.; 12/3/19, 10:07 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Trump reminds me of myself in France, looking at the dudes as women-in-drag, and wondering why they were ever admired by anyone.; 12/3/19, 10:10 AM
Wince said...: If I got the exchange right, obvious retort: if so few captured ISIS fighters are from Europe, why not take them back?; 12/3/19, 10:21 AM
Howard said...: Macron et Fromage; 12/3/19, 10:27 AM
gspencer said...: An immutable Rule of Life - you can never insult French leadership enough.; 12/3/19, 10:36 AM
J. Farmer said...: As usual, Trump's comments are a mishmash of some sensible, reasonable things and some mumbling nonsense. I prefer campaign Trump when he (correctly) described NATO as "obsolete."; 12/3/19, 10:37 AM
Spiros said...: It's the kill or capture debate all over again. Intelligence disrupts terrorist plots. And a principal source of intelligence comes from terrorists who have been taken into custody. But what happens when these bastards have nothing left to tell us?

Just a thought: keep these animals in Syria. When Syria is stable (and the United Nation says it's okay), these men and women will be tried in Syrian courts. Don't the Syrian victims have a right to justice? Isn't immoral to "bring these people home"?!!!; 12/3/19, 10:41 AM
Jupiter said...: Those Isis vermin "from" Europe are actually from Asia. Which is where they should be buried. How do they think they'r going to "get rid of Isis" while housing its army? This isn't the kind of war where you defeated their government so now it's safe to let your prisoners go.; 12/3/19, 10:42 AM
Sebastian said...: ""This is why [Macron] is a great politician, because that was one of the greatest non-answers I've ever heard. And that's okay.""

And this is why Trump has turned out to be an even greater politician: he sees through the other guy's BS and calls him on it , letting him know that no one can pull a fast one on him, always maintaining advantage, shaping any conversation the way he wants, occasionally dropping an actual truth bomb. And that's OK.; 12/3/19, 10:46 AM
bagoh20 said...: """This is why [Macron] is a great politician, because that was one of the greatest non-answers I've ever heard. And that's okay.""

Imagine if all politicians were "great politicians". We wouldn't even need a press to ask questions. The great leaders could just wave at us from the limos.; 12/3/19, 11:08 AM
TJM said...: Trump is smarter than all of the leaders in worthless NATO and the left and the press (but I repeat myself) can't stand it. MAGA!; 12/3/19, 11:11 AM
Jaq said...: Macron looks in good enough shape to strap on a pack and grab a rifle.; 12/3/19, 11:17 AM
n.n said...: To paraphrase the deplorable white male bard: A politician is but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and is heard no more.; 12/3/19, 11:36 AM
Richard Dolan said...: Trump to Macron: You can have as many as you want.

What a hoot. Reminds me of Mao's crack to Kissinger, asking him how many millions of Chinese women the US was willing to take. Like Macron, Kissinger demurred as well.; 12/3/19, 11:40 AM
Narr said...: I've been back for a fortnight from parts of Europe I've never been to before (Berlin, Elbe valley, Czech Republic--places I've lived in in my head since I was in short pants) and I have to say most Americans have no idea of the weight and nearness of History in those places--we have our tinted and framed images of that "hodgepodge of ancestral calamities" [A. Clampitt], Boomers in particular, due in part to the already mentioned (in other threads) media filters
that shaped our perceptions.

Not to say that the Euros don't have their own filters, tints, and frames. We met up with some European friends of my wife's at various points, and the professional guides were as--or more--interesting with their comments about life before 1989 and after as personally lived, as in their (usually pretty accurate) history (ha, I've studied it intensesively for half a century and more).

The Czech perspective in particular was interesting, and helped me see a lot of my own Amurkin assumptions. Definitely going back to Prague and environs some day.

As for Macron, he of course wants to make the problem one of corporate, "allied" responsibility, and of course Trump is going to call BS u.s.w. Macron went too finger-pointy and I didn't catch his last few sentences, but he was manfully trying to play his role; De Gaulle could bring off arrogant asshole in part because France actually needed one at the time, but nobody since has quite managed.

Narr
The Green Vault seemed pretty damn secure when we were there the week before the heist; 12/3/19, 11:45 AM
Yancey Ward said...: Spiros above is correct- the prisoners should be turned over to the countries in which they fought and murdered- the Syrians and the Iraqis. I suspect those governments have a solution to this problem.; 12/3/19, 12:09 PM
Seeing Red said...: Czechoslovakia brrrrr that was a dreary country at one time.; 12/3/19, 2:05 PM
readering said...: Trump could not follow the heavily accented English or he would be more passed.; 12/3/19, 3:17 PM
readering said...: Pissed.; 12/3/19, 3:17 PM
narciso said...: hey how have you been narr,; 12/3/19, 3:48 PM
somewhy said...: Trump's "and that's okay" is a speech tick he has deployed regularly since he came to political prominence.

I've always taken it to mean the exact opposite of the literal meaning of the words - he is really saying something like "I'll remember you said that, bide my time, and then stick it to you good and hard for saying that".

The "great politician" slight is just batting away the annoying fly; the real retort will come some day.; 12/3/19, 3:58 PM
Narr said...: Still a lot of leftover Soviet-era dismal in the Czech Republic, but also a lot of construction and from my brief skim of the place I'd say they are going to do OK. We saw throngs of Czechs converging for 30th anniversary celebrations and protests one evening, acting like that's normal--which it is and should be. Friendly people, glad to have the tourists (mostly), but still a place to most people as it was to Neville Chamberlain-- faraway and obscure.

Germany, particularly Berlin where we started, is really booming, at least from what I saw. Between big construction projects and the beginning of barrier placement for their big 30th Fall of the Wall show, not to mention stages and media trucks from everywhere setting up everywhere, we missed some of the bigger museums but we got our fill. We've seen acres of oil paintings in the past anyway . . .

Managed to find the Stauffenberg memorial after dark but before they closed the gate one night; the Nazi era is marked in a lot of different ways, like the little hedged- and walled-off park just steps from the grand buildings-- a pool and some panels describing the development of the extermination program for Roma and Sinti, and on the cobbles of the sidewalks sometimes you will look down and see a small brass plaque a few inches square, with names, dates, and location of death if known--Jewish Berliners.

The small, inoffensive little countries are what Europeans are at their best--at least that's the Czech line and it is truer than most national mythologies.

But too much of travel-talk is dependent on level of interest in particular histories (at least for my part), and I don't want to overshare.

Narr
I did learn (or relearn) that RT is almost as anti-American as the BBC, or even CNN; 12/3/19, 6:32 PM