This morning, Real Clear Politics gives us our choice of which of 2 roads diverged in a woods you want to take to view the fading foliage:
Maybe we're all running out of steam and continuing to fade. After watching years of this presidential campaign, to be left with these 2 dismal candidates and — knowing they both have terrible problems — to resort to clicking on articles by partisan writers who promise to show readers that the other guy is fading. Pick one. Who do you want to lag behind as the 2 decrepit septuagenarians strain to fail a little less badly than his unworthy competitor?
Here's the link for Victor Davis Hanson — in case you like the orange foliage... verbiage. Sample: "The final question is... to what degree Biden’s suicidal talk of ending fossil fuels and denial of the Hunter Biden evidence that cannot be denied implode his campaign...."
Here's the link for Maureen Dowd — in case you like beige foliage. Sample verbiage: "Now a lot of Americans seem resigned yet relieved to step back in time with a sentimental old-school Irish pol... Back to a time when the president did not rubbish people like an insult comic.... You can only let King Kong.... smash up the metropolis for so long."
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That President only rubbishes crybullies what rubbish him first. If you don't see that by now Maureen I strongly encourage you to consider the orange maple faded road to Canada 🍁.
Protip: Maureen Dowd, a dried out hag, is Worse than Useless... Don't waste your time
Joe Biden called US Chumps yesterday. Previously he called us Dregs of Society...So give me a break about this trash statement... "Back to a time when the president did not rubbish people like an insult comic.... You can only let King Kong.... smash up the metropolis for so long.""
I have yet to hear Trump trash voters on the other side...
Two dismal candidates? Au contraire.
I’ll take the Great One.
And that Dowd headline will make it into the Didn’t Age Well Hall of Fame.
Do NYT readers really like Maureen Dowd? How can people consider themselves to so smart yet enjoy something so dumb?
Ah yes, good 'ol Dowd with the "he's just a really mean guy am I right ladies?" super-duper ultra original mean-girls commentary that we haven't heard for the last 5 years that she (and they) announce as they commiserate behind Trump's back while saying he's fat, cyber-bullying him and trying to get him to develop an eating disorder.
The 'Buh buh he says mean stuff and he's too coarse unlike us with our super sweet smelling vaginas and shit that smells like roses!!!' Attack line.
No civility bullshit tag I see.
VDH = Genius
MD = Bitter old maid who is losing what’s left of a weak mind.
"After watching years of this presidential campaign, to be left with these 2 dismal candidates and — knowing they both have terrible problems"
That's kinda like what the dinosaurs felt about the Sweet Meteor of Death. Me, I'm looking at Sir Lancelot in shining armor skewering the bad guys and chewing gum.
"to be left with these 2 dismal candidates"
Honest question: what's dismal about Trump? OK, he occasionally offends the sensibilities of nice women with uncouth talk, but other than that? He's optimistic, he has resisted a coup attempt, he presided over decent growth, he started no crazy wars, he loves America, most of his policies apart from trade with China are moderate Republican. So, what's dismal?
"a sentimental old-school Irish pol... Back to a time when the president did not rubbish people like an insult comic'
Wait, who are we talking about?
MAGA
It is not, however, the season of the witch. That was supposed to be Fall 2016, but a little old lady got mutilated late that night.
You can only let King Kong.... smash up the metropolis for so long."
Well, not exactly. I'm rooting for King Kong. Metropolis deserved it.
As Instapundit pointed out Hillary was up 12 points this weekend four years ago, increasing her lead +8 points over the week before. Most polls are just part of the FUD campaign against this President.
Actually, for the Bidens, it's the season of a a different Warren Zevon song.. Evergreen song for the party of "America is far too important to let Americans run it."
Comparing the thinking of Victor Davis Hanson to Maureen Dowd is like comparing Bob Dylan to the 1910 Fruitgum Company. (to put it in terms that you can relate to).
I agree that we're all fading from this election year and it's characters, but it probably would not have been as exhausting if we had not had to live through 4 years of waging war in an attempted coup on this President, coming at him from all sides, and led by our 24 hour media machine.
While I do miss autumn and the look of the northern midwest in autumn, I'm here among palm trees and lantana, sitting on my lanai on a sunny morning along the Gulf Coast of Florida. Autumn (and winter) seem from another world and time. Of course, my job this week is to monitor another tropical depression south of us in the Caribbean. Different autumn views.
Once more, with feeling.
"to be left with these 2 dismal candidates and — knowing they both have terrible problems"
I think Trump is great and his 2016 election is the best thing that has happened to our country in a long time and oh yeah, in a few days he's going to win in a landslide. Bubble baby liberals be damned.
I have to say, the other thing I miss about autumn up north is the smell. Your photo is perfect. I can almost smell the damp leaves on the path and in the air around.
Four years of insanity pooped out a candidate who is a a senile
pervert, racist, and crook. At some point, the resistance should become ashamed of itself.
to be left with these 2 dismal candidates
Trump is dismal how?
Dowd has approximately 1/3 the analytic skills of Victor David Hanson. Clearly Althouse and Dowd enjoy living in the “Augean stables,” as Hanson put it. Well, forget about it. The rest of us don’t want to sleep on manure piles.
I see you are making your choice. VD Hanson vs Maureen Dowd. Hmmmm. Which to choose?
A classical scholar or an old harridan?
"... resigned yet relieved to step back in time with a sentimental old-school Irish pol... Back to a time when the president did not rubbish people like an insult comic."
"Look, Fat", "Dog-faced", "chumps" etc
It's "sentimental" and "old-school" and comforting when a Dem does it.
go fuck yourself, Maureen.
"Now a lot of Americans seem resigned yet relieved to step back in time with a sentimental old-school Irish pol"
Like I said, Biden's running as Frank Skeffington in Edwin O'Connor's The Last Hurrah. Skeffington was based on the "rascal king" James Michael Curley, and on other old-school Irish politicians like John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, JFK's grandfather. Biden's campaign is as backward-looking, nostalgic, personal and sentimental as any old Irish pol's Last Hurrah.
Taylor Caldwell's Captains and the Kings was a less distinguished novel, with a distinctly Bircherite message, but I do recall the JFK figure's grandfather, an aged Irish pol called "Old Syrup" (played by Burl "Big Daddy" Ives in the miniseries). Biden isn't physically like Ives, but hearing him speak, I find myself thinking "Old Syrup" is running off at the mouth again.
When this is all over, if it ever is, someone could publish an Omnibus of Trump's Political Obituaries, available in three volumes at the Althouse Amazon Portal.
Victor Davis Hanson is wrong.
Biden never had steam.
"2 dismal candidates"
Deregulation, improved economy, illegal immigration brought under control, no new wars....Real efforts to bring blacks into the Republican party.That alone is huge.If Trump succeeds in breaking the 'blacks only vote Democrat' narrative it will do far more for ending the racial tension in America than the election of Obama did.For decades Democrats with their media operatives have been fomenting racial division and making baseless charges of racism to keep blacks voting Democrat.If Trump can succeed in breaking that narrative it will be a game changer.So the actual results of Trump's Presidency have been excellent.What I find dismal is how successful the deep state has been at hampering Trump.
If you'd like to continue to enjoy the freedom to publish your weblog, professor, I suggest that you endorse and vote for President Trump.
I saw signs of denial of service attacks on your weblog yesterday. I'm a programmer. I can see what's going on there.
Dowd wants a senile, grifter, groper, Chinese tool in the White House?
Summer is fading down here in Arizona, which means that the people are emerging. The park behind the house is full of people and dogs in the mornings. It's beautiful, 65 degrees, no humidity. We look forward to 8 months of bliss.
More handwringing by the Professor with “two dismal candidates”. I wonder how many Obama / Clinton White female voters will vote for Jo Jorgensen as a way to not have to make a decision, and have the ability to claim plausible deniability. I already know a few. It’s a 1/2 vote for Trump. Let others elect him to get done what I NEED done.
I went to the Waukesha Trump rally last night. 20,000 people. No hassle. No incidents. Nobody leaves trash behind. Everyone listened to direction from secret service and police directing car and foot traffic so it would be easy for everyone. That’s community. Trump supporters aren’t tired. We know we are fighting a deranged ideology, which I’m sure many from the University culture now wish they didn’t have a hand in creating. Especially those watching their communities flush themselves down the toilet; where plywood is the new artistic canvass... like Madison, WI. That’s dismal.
Trump does three rallies yesterday. Speaks to 60,000 people. Biden speaks to ten people. Looses his cool, and calls Western Pennsylvania voters chumps. The moral equivalency argument that they both suck is weak sauce. It’s a run for cover.
Biden used his pedophile drug addicted son as a front man for personal enrichment. There is no comparison between these two men.
You know what ran out of steam? American democracy. All the polls say that we are going to elect our own version Putin, backed by politicized prosecutors, the “intelligence community,” a press so compliant it probably makes Putin jealous, and soon enough Biden will unleash the dogs of war once again, you wait. Maybe he will be talked into it by the CIA, maybe he will blunder into it, but adversaries across the world have to be salivating.
Trump showed that making peace wasn’t that hard, as long as we were willing to abandon pointless projects of nation building and political interference abroad which mostly served to get our sons and daughters killed in pointless wars, which we are now free to do since we are self sufficient in energy. Well we are until Biden gets his way, the sentimental old fool wants to take us back to the days when we were vulnerable to having our energy lifeline strangled by hostile foreign powers.
Meanwhile, the laptop shows that the Chinese Communist Party had enough kompromat on Biden to put a great deal of personal pressure on him while he was supposed to be negotiating on our behalf with them, negotiations which failed spectacular in every aspect except making the Biden mob richer.
Equally bad? Sure, why not? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Beige versus Orange America? Why not? Red versus Blue was getting tired - except the map could be hard for the color-blind to figure out.
Beige flatters Biden. It's better than gray, the color British PM John Major is forever identified with (more for his lack of personality and dynamism than for the color of his hair).
Victor Davis Hanson is indeed a bright guy. But the way that he joined the rush to war in 2003 leaves me always a little uneasy with him.
Trump has broken the silly parts of Althouse.
Next, he will rebuild her, starting (again) in her literal dreams. All hail OrangeMan.
Out with the old, pedophilic/Satanic progs!
There is somewhat credible evidence that Joe himself sexually abused his own daughter. Given what we know now, all of the creepy pictures with little girls, it doesn’t sound that hard to believe. Another personal failing of Joe's easily exploited by hostile powers.
All of that stuff in the “dossier” was stuff that they assumed was going on because of what they knew about Biden and Clinton. I think it’s not so much “always accuse them of what you are doing” as assuming that everybody does whatever you are doing, and if you dig hard enough, the evidence will come to light.
King Kong isn’t smashing up Metropolis. BLM / ANTIFA / and Democrat Mayors and Governors complicit in the destruction in the hopes of political gain are the Godzilla’s. King Kong had a heart. King Kong was vulnerable. Wanted Freedom. Loved the Woman. At the end of King Kong, the Gorilla is the sympathetic character. Did Dowd not see or understand the movie?
Democrat Godzilla’s let is all go up in flames so the could say “this is Trump’s America”. Sick Stuff. Is Dowd too stupid not to see it, or can’t she admit it? She must be insulated in her Central Park viewing high rise, or just crazy dishonest. Trump can see which King Kong is destroying New York in 2020. If New Yorkers, Chicagoans, and citizens of Madison and Milwaukee want to let Godzilla stomp all over their towns, go ahead. And if the delusion that a woke Biden victory will fix it....they deserve what they have chosen for themselves. Leave the rest of us alone.
If you’re against putting kids in cages you have no recourse. You have a choice between two candidates who are fine with it.
"Trump is dismal how?”
She won’t answer because she knows her view is based on emotion and is probably indefensible and doesn’t want to see her position routed in the comments. But nice try.
dowd isn't really a thing anymore, if she ever was,
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/10/the_miniaturization_of_media_dinosaurs.html
Well, I have to say that Althouse's is one bizarre take on the choice before us here.
In what substantive way can it be claimed that Trump has harmed or compromised the Nation? Has he been fighting constant rear-guard actions to keep personal or administration scandals (real, not imaginary) at bay, like Biden now or the Obama administration before? Has he betrayed our allies and made material accommodations to our enemies? Or has he kept promises to our allies and citizens where he has had the power to do so? Has he not made headway in removing unnecessary red tape and regulations from our economy? Has he not worked like a demon to accomplish more than many, perhaps all Presidents in recent memory, all in the face of opposition, timidity, and arguably even seditious conspiracy in the Washington establishment?
What are you expecting from a President? Are you looking for a father-figure, a giver of emotional hugs and strokes to your yearning heart? A poet or songwriter? A spinner of gauzy visions and word-castles in the air?
Separately, the notion of comparing a scholar like Victor Davis Hanson to a blowsy hack like Maureen Dodd... Well I'll just chalk it up to your having an off-day and phoning it in this time. Let's hope that the fading that that implies turns out to be temporary.
MoDo says that just as Joe rolls out his "you're all chumps" insult.
Trump targets his insults to one person at a time. and yeah - they are stupid. "small hands" "sleepy Joe" whatever. Not that harsh, really.
If I were going to insult Joe Biden it would be - Joe the "Corrupt Government Whore & Liar extraordinaire"
Joe and Hillary and Company hate most Americans. Deplorables and chumps.
I really don't see what "terrible problems" Donald Trump has as a presidential candidate.
*As president he has made great strides toward reducing our involvement in foreign wars and negotiating peace deals that will keep us out of future conflicts.
*He has also renegotiated numerous trade deals so US workers are no longer at such a significant disadvantage in global markets.
*The issues with illegal immigration are not entirely resolved, but he has clearly turned the tide and reduced the number of illegal immigrants, and he offered solutions for those who are already here although the Democratic leadership in congress refused to consider his proposals.
*He has appointed qualified judges to SC and federal courts. I realize Democrats don't like his choice, but that is just politics, not a failure of the candidate.
*He's implemented long needed criminal justice reform and set a foundation for continued improvement.
*Prior to COVID the economy was stronger than it has been for decades and that strength has gone a long way to mitigate the economic hardship of dealing with COVID.
*During COVID he wisely allowed states to set their own policies, while still providing the support of federal resources to help manage the outbreak. In other areas of healthcare his administration worked with drug companies to rein in spiraling drug costs, and set policies to require more transparency in medical billing. The ACA still needs work, but that is largely up to Congress, not the President.
*In other areas- environmental regulations, gun control, abortion, etc. he has held positions that have support from half the country and are opposed by the other half. As with court appointments, taking actions that your supporters approve but your opponents do not is and inherent part of the system.
I don't expect everybody to support DJT or his policies, but what is it in his record that is such a "terrible problem"? The only scandals have been proven false (Russian collusion) or are old, personal issues (he is not a faithful husband- yawn). Lots of people don't like his tweets, but others enjoy them, and that's really just a style issue. I just don't see what is so terrible about his record.
Temujin: "I have to say, the other thing I miss about autumn up north is the smell. Your photo is perfect. I can almost smell the damp leaves on the path and in the air around."
I agree, aside from the incredible golden light, the sweet smell of the fallen leaves is the best thing about the season. Especially on cloudy, moist days, walking in the woods. The perfume of Mother Earth. Makes me feel glad that I'm not dead, as the song says.
After reading the comments up to 9:35 AM it sounds like I'm not the only one who thinks that Althouse really stubbed her toe on this one.
Happens to all of us though, from time to time.
"You can only let King Kong.... smash up the metropolis for so long."
Maureen Sweetie, it's not Metropolis he is smashing. He's smashing a swamp filled with all your favorite people.
Slow Joe has explained how he will win the election.
Right here out of his own mouth.
He and Obama set up "the most extensive and inclusive voter FRAUD organisation in the history of US politics"
There you go.
Dust Bunny Queen said...
You can only let King Kong.... smash up the metropolis for so long."
Well, not exactly. I'm rooting for King Kong. Metropolis deserved it.
How quickly they forget that Trump, as a developer, saved New York City. The money quote:
"Trump waded into a landscape of empty Fifth Avenue storefronts, the dust-bowl mugging ground that was Central Park and a Wall Street area seemingly on its last legs as companies moved out.
Except in Battery Park City, which was then as remote as an offshore island, few other developers built anything but plain-vanilla office and apartment buildings. Trump — almost by force of will — rode to the rescue. Expressing rare faith in the future, he was instrumental in kick-starting the regeneration of neighborhoods and landmarks almost given up for dead.
Many of his brainstorms were ahead of their time. Some — like his struggle beginning in the early 1970s to build what’s now called Riverside South — were so far ahead, it can be hard to connect the dots between Trump’s works and the neighborhood transformations they spawned and inspired years later."
Now compare and contrast what Trump did for New York City with the effects of DeBlasio and Cuomo. The response of these two Democrat tinpot dictators to COVID has led to New York City losing 16% of its jobs (and more being lost daily) while crime surges. So which side is destroying the Metropolis?
Would Dowd liken Obama to King Kong?
"Back to a time when the president did not rubbish people like an insult comic...."
You mean like calling them "bitter clingers" and "basket of deplorables"? That sort of rubbishing?
I think Ann picked this mismatch on purpose. But what was her purpose?
I prefer the days when "verbiage" meant "superfluous words", not just a synonym for "words".
THEOLDMAN
Stunk and White would tell you to not use a two-dollar word when a ten-cent word would do.
I used to occasionally read Dowd and found her kind of amusing. Then I realized that all she really does well is snark. No real analysis or original ideas. I realized that snark is easy and it got tiresome.
Just for the record, I don't do Maureen Dowd, don't do Dowd.
Dismal? How is Trump dismal? You're never going to get the comfortable liberal bourgeoisie to start taking Politics seriously until they PERSONALLY start feeling some pain. As long as its just *other* Americans being hurt, they'll just go along feeling above it all or voting their emotions.
"King Kong had a heart. King Kong was vulnerable. Wanted Freedom. Loved the Woman. At the end of King Kong, the Gorilla is the sympathetic character. Did Dowd not see or understand the movie? "
QFT
I was gonna do a line by line commentary of Ms Dowd's latest...piece, last night whilst we waited for the comments to post.
But just trying to get through Dowd's ...dreck...made the idea sound less and less fun as I continued reading.
"click on your favorite view of fading"
Based on the posters here, "Biden's Internal Polling" was expected to offered more than once.
King Kong dances like my Mom.
By the way, Maureen, that's not King Kong trashing the Metropolis. It's your Mayor, Bill De Blasio--you know, the Communist that you elected. Bon appetit!
After 4 years of Trump's presidency the only thing dismal is the non-stop TDS. Trump has done a lot better than I expected, and he did it while under constant attack from opponents who are scary in their hatred, lust for power, and embrace of corruption.
A Trump administration will never be allowed to become as corrupt as a Biden or Harris one. Trump gets my vote in early voting tomorrow, w/o reservation.
The wrength lives loudly in MoDo.
Unfortunately she speaks for many, including mi esposa and her friends--none of her pals around the world like Trump; Hidin' Joe Biden, the Occluded Candidate, is largely irrelevant to her, except as a route to getting a woman inaugurated eventually.
Narr
I'm voting anti-D(oom)
@michael k. 10:30 am
Incredible. If Trump said something like that it would be everywhere by now. Slo joe will get a pass for letting the truth slip out.
"Now a lot of Americans seem resigned yet relieved to step back in time with a sentimental old-school Irish pol“
Is old school Irish Pol a racist code phrase for a corrupt pol on the take? Like Tammany Hall? That would be Biden of course.
MoDo as Fay Wray
“... to be left with these 2 dismal candidates ....”
What is dismal about Trump beyond his personality? Given what was waiting for him during the transition and on Inauguration Day it is asinine to claim he is responsible for the “division” in the country. Other than conceding the election to Crooked Hillary there was nothing he could have done. Nobody who knows Trump agrees that he is a racist or white supremacist and his presidential actions belie the claim.
So let’s score him: Pre-Covid economy, A; foreign policy, A; judicial appointments, A; patriotism cheerleading, A; VA fix, A; taxes, A; environment, B; overcoming seditious adversity, A; immigration, B; public safety, B (Democrat hindrances factored); military, B; Covid management, C (based on worldwide comparisons - goes up if vaccine found this year); healthcare, C; debt management, F.
Biden is probably the most dismal candidate ever on many fronts as EVERYBODY knows.
Modo, you ignorant slut... Victor, you pompous ass
As an irredeemable deplorable still bitterly clinging to my guns and religion, I also look forward to a President who doesn't rubbish people like an insult comic. You dog-faced pony soldier.
"Victor, you pompous ass"
VDH is about as humble as it's possible to be.
What if AA put up her comments just to see the reactions? I don't think she actually believes VDH and Dowd are in the same category, or Trump and Biden. After all, intelligence consists in knowing "Which one of these things is not like the others."
I say "Do not go gently into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
>>Biden's running as Frank Skeffington in Edwin O'Connor's The Last Hurrah.
Never read the book, but the movie's always puzzled me. Maybe I don't pay enough attention, but I've never seen anything foreshadowing the (spoiler alert!!) final election loss. Nothing suggesting that Skeffington isn't still on top of his game.
--gpm
Dowd has the wrong monster comparison going here. Trump isn't King Kong, besotted by the first blonde bimbo he ever met, rampaging across the metropolis to be with his inamorata, knowing his own inevitable death awaits him in an inescapable steel and concrete jungle. Trump is Godzilla, King of the Mosters, savior of the innocent and less powerful populace. Trump fights the giant evil monsters openly and willingly, to protect that which is worth defending, even though doing so smashes up a few city blocks.
But this is Dowd. Everyone understands Dowd is so far past her "sell by" date that the fungal growths seen through the plastic packaging seem worth trying, because who knows, that rotting fish might have sprouted something interesting and new to science. Give Dowd a try. Don't mind the smell. The maggots just add protein.
What if AA put up her comments just to see the reactions? I don't think she actually believes VDH and Dowd are in the same category, or Trump and Biden.
I think she’s writing what she really believes.
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