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You are here: Home / Pretentiousness Update

Pretentiousness Update

by John Cole|  April 16, 20088:40 am| 51 Comments

This post is in: Blogospheric Navel-Gazing, I Read These Morons So You Don't Have To

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I may have to replace the Speaking for me only that I borrowed from Big Tent Democrat at the top of my posts, because Malkin has outdone herself today:

We’ve all had fun with the Snob-ama story the past week (ARUGULA!). The thing is, my friends (as a certain McSnob likes to say), the GOP has a snob problem, too. When Obama derided small-town Pennsylvanians who oppose immigration enforcement, for example, it was nothing compared to the dripping condescension of open-borders Republicans. This is the subject of my latest column. Some of you will not like it.

I give you straight talk. That is my job.

That is so awesome I do not know where to start.

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Reader Interactions

51Comments

  1. 1.

    Zifnab

    April 16, 2008 at 8:46 am

    Lolmalkin!

  2. 2.

    cleek

    April 16, 2008 at 8:47 am

    if there’s one thing Our Lady Of Perpetual Outrage knows, it’s dripping condescension. that whole piece (as are all her pieces) are “superficial but telling glimpses of a condescending core”.

    what a fraud.

  3. 3.

    TheFountainHead

    April 16, 2008 at 8:48 am

    Zomg, has anyone ever seen Malkin and McCain in the same room at the same time!!??

    Maybe they’re the same person!!

  4. 4.

    jack fate

    April 16, 2008 at 8:48 am

    I give you straight talk. That is my job.

    I think a tattoo might be in order.

  5. 5.

    les

    April 16, 2008 at 8:50 am

    I give you straight talk. That is my job.

    In that case, somebody is really falling down on in-service training and performance evaluation. It’s consultant time for OLPO.

  6. 6.

    Emmanuel Winner

    April 16, 2008 at 8:51 am

    Let’s move to Canada – the Right is doomed! The news coming out before November is that John McCain was brainwashed in Vietnam as a POW and has been ating as a deep mole in the US government for 30 years! Now his commie masters are about to trigger his programming to destroy us utterly during his presidency, after which we will be forced to become socialists. And – worse yet – while a POW, McCain was allowed the spiritual comfort of an Islamo-Marxist Imam, as he will reveal when he takes his Presidential vows with his hand on the Koran, then announces his committment to ‘global revolution’ in his inaugural address! We have no choice here! Those who love America must leave it quickly, before catastrophe occurs!

  7. 7.

    nightjar

    April 16, 2008 at 8:53 am

    The odor of elitism is like onion breath: It’s quick to acquire, hard to mask. Try as he might, Barack Obama cannot camouflage the political stink he exhaled when he dissed small-town Americans as “bitter” Neanderthals “clinging” to their guns, faith and belief in strict immigration enforcement. It wasn’t the first time the effete Snob-ama revealed himself.

    Wow! Wingnut poetry at the apex of “bitter” profundity. I’m so excited, I thinks it moved.

  8. 8.

    Snail

    April 16, 2008 at 8:55 am

    Snob-ama! Awesome.

    For folks who haven’t seen it, there’s a very enjoyable refresher on the pillars of the nutosphere here.

  9. 9.

    Jen

    April 16, 2008 at 9:00 am

    I think a tattoo might be in order.

    I’m picturing an Asian Our Lady of Guadalupe/Perpetual Outrage, with “straight talk” underneath in Latin on a banner being held by cherubim…

  10. 10.

    4tehlulz

    April 16, 2008 at 9:02 am

    When I try to imagine Malkin saying “I give you straight talk. That is my job.”, I can’t help but put “,fag” at the end.

    That seems so much more in character for her.

  11. 11.

    4tehlulz

    April 16, 2008 at 9:04 am

    when he dissed small-town Americans as “bitter” Neanderthals “clinging” to their guns, faith and belief in strict immigration enforcement.

    NO I’M NOT PROJECTING! REALLY!

  12. 12.

    TheFountainHead

    April 16, 2008 at 9:05 am

    Americans as “bitter” Neanderthals “clinging” to their guns, faith and belief in strict immigration enforcement.

    See, this is why the Right is dominating the radio talk shows and why their blogs are so much fun to read. They just paraphrase and distort WAY better than we do.

  13. 13.

    calipygian

    April 16, 2008 at 9:18 am

    You gotta admit – she’s got a point with Trent Lott.

    She’s fine with him speaking in front of the Conservative Citizen’s Council, but Holy Shit!, he admits to taking the subway for the first time recently because of the lack of a taxpayer funded car and driver and he cops to not paying for lunch for 30 years.

    Being an out and out racist – eh.

    Being an elitest snob who never takes the Metro or pay for lunch – OFF WITH HIS HEAD!

  14. 14.

    D0n Camillo

    April 16, 2008 at 9:40 am

    Zomg, has anyone ever seen Malkin and McCain in the same room at the same time!!??

    I have the funny feeling I’d be able to tell the difference if McCain wore a cheerleading outfit.

  15. 15.

    Krista

    April 16, 2008 at 9:54 am

    I’m not getting this arugula thing. Are people deriding Obama due to his choice of lettuce? No…c’mon. That’s just a big joke, isn’t it?

  16. 16.

    cleek

    April 16, 2008 at 9:55 am

    McCain in a cheerleaders outfit… yeah, i’d hit that…

    … with a week-old mackerel

  17. 17.

    neil

    April 16, 2008 at 10:05 am

    In Iowa he said “Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula?” Since arugula is a synonym for “San Francisco liberal treasonous faggot”, and since there are no Whole Foods in Iowa because real Americans don’t shop there, this means Obama hates the common man.

    Of course, if he assumed that Iowans didn’t know what arugula was, he would also be proven to be an elitist prig. Basically, (as Hillary has been trying to tell you) he can’t win.

  18. 18.

    cleek

    April 16, 2008 at 10:05 am

    I’m not getting this arugula thing. Are people deriding Obama due to his choice of lettuce? No…c’mon. That’s just a big joke, isn’t it?

    and his choice of diner beverage, and his bowling form, and his middle name, and his last name, and his skin color, and his parents’ history – just like they derided Kerry’s choice of cheesesteak topping, and Kerry’s voice, and Al Gore’s clothes, and his voice, etc..

    but remember, they aren’t elitists. oh no… their condescension, derision and disdainful mockery aren’t rooted in any kind of delusions of superiority; they’re not looking down at anyone. oh no. they’re just telling it like it is – and if you don’t agree, well then you must be too dumb to understand.

  19. 19.

    Bubblegum Tate

    April 16, 2008 at 10:06 am

    ’m not getting this arugula thing. Are people deriding Obama due to his choice of lettuce? No…c’mon. That’s just a big joke, isn’t it?

    Sadly, it is not a joke.

  20. 20.

    libarbarian

    April 16, 2008 at 10:28 am

    I hate Malkin as much as the next guy, but this photo is funny

  21. 21.

    calipygian

    April 16, 2008 at 10:29 am

    ’m not getting this arugula thing. Are people deriding Obama due to his choice of lettuce?

    Malkin derided him for his choice of ham, ferchrissakes!

    At least by making fun of his taste for ultra-tasty Serrano Ham she is tacitly admiting that the whole ZOMG! OSAMA IS A MUSLIM! is bullshit.

  22. 22.

    Cain

    April 16, 2008 at 10:30 am

    I’m not getting this arugula thing. Are people deriding Obama due to his choice of lettuce? No…c’mon. That’s just a big joke, isn’t it?

    It’s reverse condescension.. they think that the poor folk of middle america don’t know what arugula is cuz it’s some kind of special, expensive lettuce that they can’t afford. Some of these media types were joking that they’ve never even heard of arugula. Fucking jokers. I bet every fucking restaurant DC probably serves a salad with arugula in it.

    Jeez.. I hate it when media elites think they’re defending middle america or that they have roots there. If they have, they’ve lost it long ago. I’m talking to you, Russert. A big fuck you to you.

    cain

  23. 23.

    Jon H

    April 16, 2008 at 10:31 am

    For the general, someone needs to find out where McCain eats in Washington. I betcha it’s fancy ‘elitist’ restaurants.

  24. 24.

    Krista

    April 16, 2008 at 10:32 am

    Oh. It’s not a joke.

    /facepalm

  25. 25.

    Krista

    April 16, 2008 at 10:38 am

    Well, looks like the attempt to sink Obama over BitterArugulaGate isn’t working.

  26. 26.

    calipygian

    April 16, 2008 at 10:48 am

    As for no one in middle America has heard of arugula –

    Believe it or not, I remember exactly where I was when I first heard of arugula. It wasn’t on Long Island, that bastion of snobbery where I grew up. It was in a military training school on the West Coast. A friend of mine, who is from bumfuck Southern Illinois and even graduated from SIU clued me into it.

  27. 27.

    cleek

    April 16, 2008 at 11:30 am

    arugula is in every goddamn “mixed green salad” you’re likely to find, anywhere. you get arugula in salads at f’ing McDonald‘s these days.

    the whole right wing is a fraud

  28. 28.

    Jen

    April 16, 2008 at 11:37 am

    Arugulagate is from the Iowa Caucus, which happened 3 1/2 years ago in DemocraticPrimaryTime.

    I feel fairly comfortable saying if there were any resonance to this, we would probably see it outside Malkin’s blog by this point.

    I wonder if Hillary is bitter about having dropped 2% per the Gallup poll in Krista’s link…Probably not, having run such a positive campaign, she’d want to keep it that way.

  29. 29.

    yet another jeff

    April 16, 2008 at 11:44 am

    Thanks Jen, I was wondering about that. So much talk about Iowa…guess it didn’t piss off the Iowians (or whatever they’re called) all that much.

  30. 30.

    JackieBinAZ

    April 16, 2008 at 11:51 am

    I hate Malkin as much as the next guy, but this photo is funny.

    It’s hilarious. That they don’t even realize that they’ve morphed into a total and utter parody of themselves is the best part.

  31. 31.

    JackieBinAZ

    April 16, 2008 at 12:00 pm

    I take that back. The best part is that anyone looking at it would say “Oh, that’s arugula? That stuff is pretty yummy!”

  32. 32.

    Zuzu

    April 16, 2008 at 12:14 pm

    I’d like to see the rational part of the blogosphere back up a little bit and remember what Obama actually DID say before acquiescing to the “arugula equals snob” meme:

    Finally, Obama took up the arugula matter. At a July campaign event at a farm in Adel, Iowa, Obama responded to farmers’ concerns about falling crop prices by saying that American farm policy should focus more on supporting the production of specialty foods that are in increasing demand. “Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula?” he said. Several articles in the national press seized on the comment as a sign that Obama was out of touch and too cosmopolitan for Iowa tastes — after all, the articles noted, there are no Whole Foods stores in the state.

    At the fair grounds in Independence on Thursday, Obama was talking again about the need for diversifying crops beyond heavily subsidized staples like corn and cotton — and used the opportunity to confront the grocery gaffe. He recounted the ridicule he’d received, citing it as proof of the media’s pettiness. “They said, ‘Oh, Obama’s talking about Arugula in Iowa. People in Iowa don’t know what arugula is,'” he said, to laughter. “People in Iowa know what arugula is. They may not eat it but they know what it is.”

    WaPo

  33. 33.

    Zuzu

    April 16, 2008 at 12:23 pm

    Hmm, I probably should have just highlighted the part about Obama citing the whole thing as “proof of the media’s pettiness.”

    ‘Cause he hit that nail on the ol’ head.

  34. 34.

    yet another jeff

    April 16, 2008 at 12:23 pm

    Ohhh! Now he’s saying the rubes are too good for the tasty lettuce!

  35. 35.

    horatius

    April 16, 2008 at 12:31 pm

    I am sure the GOP Jackboot squadron already thought about dealing with this contingency. THey’ll probaby send a couple of jack-booted thugs or at least give the crazy one a sharp clit-flick(real or rhetorical) and once having realized her place in the grand scheme of things, like a true conservative, the bitch will roll over and make purring noises.

  36. 36.

    Phoenix Woman

    April 16, 2008 at 12:31 pm

    Wow. A mere Stupid-to-Evil ratio just can’t express the fuckedupitude of Little Lulu. Get us Erwin Schrödinger, stat!

  37. 37.

    Zuzu

    April 16, 2008 at 12:39 pm

    calipygian Says:

    As for no one in middle America has heard of arugula –
    Believe it or not, I remember exactly where I was when I first heard of arugula. It wasn’t on Long Island, that bastion of snobbery where I grew up. It was in a military training school on the West Coast. A friend of mine, who is from bumfuck Southern Illinois and even graduated from SIU clued me into it.

    A friend who grew up in Pennsylvania saw an artichoke for the first time at a Safeway in California back in the ’70s. Thought it was some sort of pine cone. Really.

  38. 38.

    Blue Raven

    April 16, 2008 at 12:47 pm

    A friend who grew up in Pennsylvania saw an artichoke for the first time at a Safeway in California back in the ‘70s. Thought it was some sort of pine cone. Really.

    I grew up in Massachusetts. Moved to California in 1984. My first contact with avocado was… interesting. In the “OMGWTF” sense.

  39. 39.

    The Populist

    April 16, 2008 at 1:02 pm

    She has a job? What job is that? I know the rightie think tanks pay these maroons to “give us straight talk” but c’mon…

    She wouldn’t know what a “job” is if it was looking in her kitchen window.

  40. 40.

    The Populist

    April 16, 2008 at 1:03 pm

    Would Malkin qualify as an elitist? After all, the old adage does say “It takes one to know one” right?

  41. 41.

    The Populist

    April 16, 2008 at 1:05 pm

    Hey Michelle…were you giving us straight talk when you tried to slander John Kerry on Hardball a few years ago?

    Wow, I’d have to say that was one of the few times Chris Matthews was right on in his outrage.

  42. 42.

    horatius

    April 16, 2008 at 1:12 pm

    Get us Erwin Schrödinger, stat!

    True. Only a 4-variable partial differential equation will solve this mess.

  43. 43.

    calipygian

    April 16, 2008 at 1:14 pm

    Would Malkin qualify as an elitist? After all, the old adage does say “It takes one to know one” right?

    MM lives in Montgomery County, Maryland. That is about the most elitist part of the whole goddamn country.

    Thomas Bucksbaum nee Friedman, of the Bucksbaum billions lives there too. But he talks to cabdrivers all the time, so he’s not elitist.

  44. 44.

    TR

    April 16, 2008 at 1:16 pm

    “I give you straight talk.”

    The only way that sentence could be accurate coming out of Malkin’s mouth is if it applied to homophobic statements.

  45. 45.

    Susan Kitchens

    April 16, 2008 at 1:22 pm

    Fun fact about arugula!

    If you plant arugula seeds, they sprout in record time, like 2 days (I’ve got a kitchen window full of edible seedlings of arugula and other things). If you want to do a total 133t at-home snobby activity with your young uns (because it’s all for the children!), I say, plant arugula seeds. It only takes a coupla days of “wait till tomorrow, honey” before that snobby arugula sprouts bitter wonder for the kids.

  46. 46.

    Tony J

    April 16, 2008 at 1:35 pm

    My vegatarian better-half has just clued me in on the fact that arugula is what we call rocket on this side of Le Pond. It was at this point that my head just about swivelled and fell right off.

    Fucking rocket? Asda/Walmart sells it by the bagful over here. Labelling someone ‘snobama’ because he can namecheck one of the most famous types of lettuce when talking to people in Iowa? WTF?

    Oh, Malkin said it?

    That’s put teh stupid in context. I understand now.

  47. 47.

    John Cole

    April 16, 2008 at 1:36 pm

    The arugula bit is stupidity taken to a level that I can;t even spoof. Here is how “elitist” it is.

    When I was growing up in Bethany, the town had town gardens in the park down by the creek. They would plow it up and break it into acre/half acre plot, you would rent the spot, and everyone had their vegetable garden. We always seemed to share the plot next to Elwood Mitchell and the Schwarzfeggers, and Elwood Mitchell always had the most beautiful tomatoes.

    At any rate, we would plant long rows of corn, multiple types of beans, carrots, potatoes, radishes, cauliflower, broccoli- literally dozens of types of vegetables, including the ELITIST arugula. We would water everything with creek water (my brother, two sisters and I forming a bucket brigade).

    That is how ELITIST it is- poor folks all over the nation grow the shit to survive. All arugula is is a fancy name for lettuce for most people, albeit a bitter type of lettuce like kale. Christ on a crutch this is fucking stupid.

  48. 48.

    Krista

    April 16, 2008 at 1:51 pm

    That is how ELITIST it is- poor folks all over the nation grow the shit to survive. All arugula is is a fancy name for lettuce for most people, albeit a bitter type of lettuce like kale. Christ on a crutch this is fucking stupid.

    They must be pretty damn desperate to find something to stick to him, when they’re twitting him about lettuce.

    Like I said earlier, looking at it from the outside makes me want to go bang my head against a stone wall for several hours. All of the problems and difficulties and issues and really bad situations that you guys are dealing with, and people are getting their knickers in a twist over fucking orange juice and arugula? I swear to Christ.

    In one way, it’s almost funny, because it’s just so ludicrous. But really, it’s more infuriating than anything else. People are losing their jobs and their homes, and your country is losing a war and its moral standing in the world. There are bigger fucking things to think about than lettuce!

  49. 49.

    D-Chance.

    April 16, 2008 at 2:07 pm

    All arugula is is a fancy name for lettuce for most people, albeit a bitter type of lettuce like kale.

    Arugula ain’t lettuce; iceberg is. Everything else is chi-chi elitist crap. No one would ever put arugula on a hamburger… of course, the DQs now use red onion (biggest declining cultural moment of the past decade… red onion over Texas 1015 yellow), so who knows? Good common-folk, REAL American eats ain’t what they used to be.

  50. 50.

    Zuzu

    April 16, 2008 at 5:21 pm

    Arugula ain’t lettuce; iceberg is.

    Iceberg lettuce, the polyester of greens. – John Waters

  51. 51.

    LiberalTarian

    April 16, 2008 at 8:55 pm

    Hm. Arugula sprouts. Handy tip!!

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