I confess: the rush of seeing a Democrat make the speech Democrats should have been making for years did make me swoon, and when I swoon I think about..... winning elections. And I do think the twin themes Webb hit - economic fairness/Iraq - are exactly right politically and morally.
Dionne's column today is entitled Reagan Democrat:
In his reply to President Bush's State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, Webb defined the two central moral issues that animate most of the Democratic Party's rank and file: the mess in Iraq and the fact that the fruits of a growing economy are not being shared by all Americans.
Then Webb did something rather astonishing: He didn't fudge on his language or try to take the hard edge off his impatience with the status quo.
All good, but. I sincerely hope that Webb believes what he signaled in his speech, but in my enthusiasm I floated a daydream about a dream team of Obama/Webb as if I was sure that Webb believes what he said, and I'm not. And remember, he is one ill-advised racial epithet from being already forgotten.
In almost every consideration, the 2008 election cannot come soon enough, but in the case of Webb, time is what's needed. Maybe he is what I thought after watching the speech. If he is, he'd be a formidable asset, whether as candidate or in support of the candidate.
* * * * *
I listen, out of morbid curiosity, to Michael Savage every now and then. He's talking to an entirely different audience than Rushsean and Seanrush, who tell the Pantload Pigs what to think.
Savage is talking to that uncle of yours who lives in a house that smells of stored newspapers and gunpowder, who rants against the gas company and the phone company and black football players sleeping with white girls. Savage is talking to the angry mid-50s divorcee, screwed by his ex's lawyer, hated by his kids, whose job was exported to a country full of brown people. He's talking to the bullied twenty year old pulsing with military fantasies of revenge, armed with automatic weaponry, waiting for an authoritarian screamer to transmit the orders to begin the righteous cleansing.
He is talking to people who have the same worldview as the terrorists they proclaim to hate. They are furiously jealous of the terrorists' freedom to terrorize, and they blame everyone, but especially Liberals, for not being permitted to terrorize their enemies - foreign and, particularly, domestic.
They hold the Pantload Pigs in as much, if not more contempt, than we do, btw.
In any case, last night Savage and a guest were debating whether Nancy Pelosi, while sitting behind His dWindleness during SOTU, was blinking madly because she's on anti-psychotic drugs (the guest's position) or was morse-coding marching orders to us clued-in Liberals on our plan to turn over the government to Al-Qaeda. Or maybe sending a signal to Hugo Chavez to send more illegal Mexicans across the border. Savage rants free-form.
This service was provided to remind you that in the Mandatory Seesaw of Balance the MSM must obey, you, who read Liberal blogs, are the morally equivalent up to Michael Savage's down.
posted by Blackdogred 2:59 PMWednesday, January 24, 2007
As of right now, for now, I'm backing Obama.
Obama is aggressively going after Fox News today for pushing that smear-job report claiming that he went to an Islamic “madrassa” school as a child. The report has already been completely debunked by CNN, but Obama isn't letting up. The Senator's office has just emailed out a blistering memo targeting Fox....
His relative inexperience is often cited as a weakness - and it's a valid concern - but paradoxically, his inexperience gives him a position of cleanliness to fight back against the Oink Machine's farts. Because of his inexperience, he hasn't been stenciled with impermeable memes that only show more the more they're fought. HRC could wage a righteous war against her slurrers, which would only, perversely, reincorporate the slurs' stink. Obama can confront the slurs before they've had the chance to set.
And he's fighting back. Never forget that Meme One in Pigbook of Piggy Politics is Democrats are cowards who won't fight even to protect themselves. Obama, in the first test, is fighting back.
Which further convinces me Obama's got good political instincts and chops. And who do you think the RNC wants to face in 2008? Obama or HRC?
* * * * *
Obama/Webb?
And here I would have posted
a youtube of Webb's speech last night,
but blogger.... aargh! Link above.
Populist. Telegenic. Tough. Just saying.
* * * * *
No Kerry 08. Which is a good thing. The country would not be halfway to Bananastan if he'd won, but he's had his chance and been stamped LOSER. See above bullets about the resilience of memes (and think, maybe SOMEBODY - Obama - learned a lesson from the Pig Swifties).
* * * * *
Why would anyone publish Ruth Marcus? Her strongest asset is the consistency of her stupid.
Drum cleans up the poo so you don't have to. Atrios, too.
* * * * *
Chris Hedges on suburban despair and the Christian Right. Cheney still a Dick. The most smackable person in America. Don't forget to vote.
* * * * *
I confess, I see two or three movies a year, max. I don't dislike movies, it's just that when I have free time it doesn't occur to me to go to movies. I enjoy them when I go, though the infrequency with which I do tends to make me over-hate or over-love whatever I see, having little to judge them against, compounded by the taint of novelty.
Last year I saw the second Pirates of the Caribbean, which was the single worst movie I've ever seen (I lost a bet with Planet and payback WAS hell), and Little Miss Sunshine, which I thought wonderful and dark and slightly heavier than slight. I was surprised to see it nominated for Best Picture, and Wolcott explains why that nomination is silly.
* * * * *
Updike reviews new Smiley. Ilse tackles Hemingway and Dickens: their relative suckitude debated. Librarian whine.
posted by Blackdogred 4:11 PMSunday, January 21, 2007
To the surprise of exactly nobody, Hillary's in.
Svcks the air out of the room, doesn't it, just the prospect of Hillary for President. The continuing clvsterfvck in Iraq, the continuing clvsterfvck of Katrina, the impending clvsterfvck of an arms race with China, the continuing clvsterfvcks of this, that, and etc, svctioned to page three of pvblic consciousness by the vacvvm of Hillaryness.
If I'm ambivalent about Hillary the Human, my ambivalence about Hillary the Candidate is multi-polar. Ba'al knows, I've no desire to analyze the implications of her candidacy now, her motives, her chances. If I'd rather another Democrat than Hillary, that doesn't mean I'd rather anyone than Hillary. I know I'd rather her than John McCain, her rather than Sam Brownback, her rather than anyone chosen by Bvsh to be his successor.
That she chose today to announce what's been assumed for six years may have as much to do with campaign logistics as campaign strategy, but she's Hillary Clinton, so all motives diabolical must be considered. She is, whether fair or not, a cartoon, vilified into a brand: is it possible she can change anyone's mind about her, from her admirers to her ambivalents to her loathers?
The Right already has an oozy new strategy: slime Obama and blame Hillary for the slime's origin. And this, regardless of what I think about the prospect of Hillary as the most powerful person on the planet, is what concerns me about Hillary's candidacy: imagine what can be done in relative obscurity by this administration behind the 24-7-365 shitstorms generated by the Right's noise machine over the prospect of Hillary 2008.
Which isn't fair. Fairness isn't the point.
* * * * *
Speaking of the slobbering Right, nobody chronicles it better than Sadly, No!, who's currently asking for nominees for Wingnut Welfare Queens. I sometimes forget the profitability of being a sexist, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, demagogic Obnoxious-unAmerican.
* * * * *
Speaking of uber-tools, smarmy Dinesh D'Souza's latest poop-smear is properly punk-slapped by Alan Wolfe in tomorrow's NYTBR:
Like his hero Joe McCarthy, he has no sense of shame. He is a childish thinker and writer tackling subjects about which he knows little to make arguments that reek of political extremism. His book is a national disgrace, a sorry example of a publishing culture more concerned with the sensational than the sensible.
The General's been corresponding with DD.
PERSONAL NOTE: I didn't have a chance yesterday to comment, but here's my vote for John (and Leftcoast and Groom and Jerry and JA and Josh and the long lost) to continue participating in whatever manner and on whatever subject that incites and excites him.
The sheer relentless grinding mendacity of the current admininstration is both designed process and designed goal. They are betting they can outlast and outgrind the opposition. If we are heading into the greatest Constitutional and national crisis since the summers of Vietnam and assassinations and civil disorder on the streets, we need honest witnesses, we need to document, we need to remain as relentlessly vigilant and oppositional as they are immoral and corrupt.
Ramblin' Guys
Jerry Bowles
J.A. Bartlett
Culture Warriors
Groom Lake
Blackdogred
Political Pundocrity
John McCreery
Josh Hammond
Michael Scott
Leftcoast
Krugies
Webb, Savage
Yadsendewwednesday
24-7, and a Plea
Kabank!
Sunday Massive
Up the Down Escalator
Serge: A How-To
Isolation Stank
Stuffaargh
ThursdayyadsruhT
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