I don’t know what happened to Friedman on his break, but it was a good thing. He is now shrill:
Much nonsense has been written about how Hillary Clinton is “toughening up” Barack Obama so he’ll be tough enough to withstand Republican attacks. Sorry, we don’t need a president who is tough enough to withstand the lies of his opponents. We need a president who is tough enough to tell the truth to the American people. Any one of the candidates can answer the Red Phone at 3 a.m. in the White House bedroom. I’m voting for the one who can talk straight to the American people on national TV — at 8 p.m. — from the White House East Room.
Who will tell the people? We are not who we think we are. We are living on borrowed time and borrowed dimes. We still have all the potential for greatness, but only if we get back to work on our country.
I don’t know if Barack Obama can lead that, but the notion that the idealism he has inspired in so many young people doesn’t matter is dead wrong. “Of course, hope alone is not enough,” says Tim Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics, “but it’s not trivial. It’s not trivial to inspire people to want to get up and do something with someone else.”
But with Hillary, Tom, you get someone who has been lied about for two decades and who is tough enough to lie about her opponents and lie to the American people. Isn’t that what America really wants and needs? And, you know, her baggage has been fully vetted.
Adam
Tom Friedman? Are you kidding me?
John Cole
It is depressing when that idiot is making sense.
PeakVT
Unfortunately, the American people will be able to handle the truth about the same time Friedman stops finding cabbies that give him the exact quotes he wants.
demimondian
No, he’s not kidding you. Friedman was wrong — terribly wrong — about Iraq, but, then again, so was John (and, to share blame where appropriate, so was I).
And he’s right about why Clinton is wrong: I don’t care about the 3am phone call; the person who gets that call isn’t the President, and executes a plan set in motion months earlier. I want a person who can plausibly sit down for a fireside chat and say “OK, here is what we are doing to ourselves. We can’t fix it overnight, but we *can* make it better, one step at a time. Like exercising, it won’t always be comfortable, but it will lead to benefits we’ll be able to see and take pride in, one step at a time.”
Adam
Well, at least it helps with our energy dependence problems — we can run our AC on air pumped in from Hell now.
Andrew
Maybe Hillary can be night time President and Obama can be day time President.
Adam
Maybe Hillary can be night time President and Obama can be day time President.
McCain calls dibs on weekends! We should really just dole it out as a round robin and make everybody happy.
John Edwards can be President of poor people.
Mitt Romney can be President of rich people.
Rudy Giuliani can be President of 9/11.
Fred Thompson can be President on TV.
Joe Biden can be President inside the Beltway.
Mike Huckabee can be President outside the Beltway.
Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd can be co-Presidents of actual, like, boring Presidential stuff.
Dennis Kucinich can be President of Shangri-la.
Mike Gravel can be President of Mars.
Ron Paul can be President of the 19th century and Galt’s Gulch.
Tom Tancredo can be President of Heaven.
Ralph Nader can be President of Hell.
Svensker
God, TWICE in a month I’ve agreed with Freedman. The end times, people, the end times.
calipygian
How many F.U.s until Lil’ Tommy Friedman is urging Obama to tell Iran to Suck. On. This.
Dennis - SGMM
Fucking excellent! I raise my glass to you, sir.
Incertus
I give him two–because that will put us roughly a hundred days into Obama’s first term as President, and he will have already resisted calls to bomb Iran.
null pointer exception
No. Make Tancredo the President of Mexico.
Dennis - SGMM
Bush will preempt him on this. He’ll bomb Iran in early Fall. As a way to wipe off his dick on the drapes on his way out, Bush will also concoct some sort of Triple Secret Emergency Executive Order to allow drilling at ANWR.
nightjar
But the earth is flat and Tommy’s holding on by his rarefied fingernails.
And also most excellent Adam. Although, I nominate Hillary for president of the whole frikkin’ Universe and everything beyond.
xephyr
“We still have all the potential for greatness, but only if we get back to work on our country.” ~ TF
I used to believe that… before I realized how self-serving and resistant folks are to anything that might require a little personal sacrifice or challenge to the intellect. Now I just hope for a miracle… you know, like a virus that compels people to tell the truth or something similar.
myiq2xu
If Hillary walked on water y’all would be wanking that she couldn’t swim.
BTW – Tim Shriver is one of the Kennedy clan. The clan that endorsed Obama but couldn’t deliver Massachusetts or California.
DougJ
The only way he’ll win me back is by starting a column with this:
I have a message for John McCain and George Bush: Suck. On. This.
Until I see him write that, he’s still just an uglier David Brooks.
redterror
The Mustache of Understanding must be really feeling the heat; otherwise there is no way he would be making sense. But I agree with the consensus. He’ll be calling for Obama to bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran within two Friedman Units. Anyway, I hear he has a new book coming out: The World is Shaped Like a Banana Slug Climbing an Olive Tree With a Lexus Parked on a Flat Spot Underneath. I’ve pre-ordered my copy from Nile.com.
Helena Montana
Remember Invasion of the Body Snatchers? Tom Friedman has been taken over by The Pod of Goodness.
Pb
He sounds serious:
Wow, Tom, what’s with the sudden straight talk? Your stock portfolio must have really taken a hit. Afraid Americans aren’t going to be able to afford your books? Or is the Chinese edition not selling well, either?
Genine
Wow, I agree with Friedman, Glen Beck said something sensible, twice and I think the Clintons are completely whack.
My whole world’s been turned upside down.
ThymeZone
When Friedman writes that McCain gets a free ride on every issue, gets a free ride on John Hagee, who makes Jeremiah Wright look like Barney the Dinosaur, and that it’s time to hold McCain to the same standards that every other politician is held to …. then I will listen.
Until then the goddam fool can go fuck himself.
DougJ
His full name is Barney Hussein the Dinosaur and he subsists entirely on arugula and another leafy greens.
The Other Steve
That’s a Lyndon B. Johnson joke. Don’t you have any original material?
I suppose next Hillary is going to be walking softly and carrying a big stick?
The Other Steve
Wait!? Did he finally come out of the closet?
p.lukasiak
gotta love it.
friedman was considered such a joke in the progressive blogosphere that we have what is called the “Freidman unit” — the six month period from today where things will get better in Iraq.
Now that Friedman is trashing Clinton, he’s the font of all wisdom.
Only cultists could not see how ridiculous they look quoting someone like Friedman approvingly.
myiq2xu
Some new McCain ads to see.
They are too funny.
Tom in Texas
A) most here are still mocking Friedman
2) I may not agree with Tom Friedman all the time, but he is at least nominally sane, unlike the drek taylor marsh links approvingly to. mote, plank, eye, etc…
d) we were trashing Friedman for the same reason we trash Clinton — because both naively expect things in Iraq and Iran to work out better if we act tough and threaten global war at any insult towards Israel.
Jake
I would suggest this gas tax issue serves as a means to identify which HRC supporters have a modicum of objectivity left.
I suspect the folks over at TalkLeft think the holiday is 100% fucking Hillary-Clinton-my-fearless-leader brilliant, for example.
calipygian
p. luk – How many more F.U.s from Hillary before she drops out of the race?
nightjar
This is called mocking pluk. At least we’re not quoting GWB like some.
chopper
saying a stopped clock is still right twice a day is hardly calling it ‘the font of all wisdom’.
nice try though, you almost had us liberals pegged.
chopper
hey thanks, tom.
myiq2xu
There was another Democrat who used “hope” in his campaign.
Something like “The man from Hope.” What was his name again?
nightjar
Clenis?
Jake
Can we euthanize myiq2xu? He’s not a dead horse, but he does like to beat it.
Adam
You know what’s really funny? Every single comment prior to yours was mocking Friedman. Every one.
Can’t you guys even bother to pretend not to be trolls? This is so boring.
r€nato
I think it’s time to start referring to her as, Hillary W. Clinton.
slag
Made calls on behalf of Obama today. Twenty-five to NC and 25 to IN. Took about two hours for two people. This must end: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/phonebankmap/!
Adam
Maybe he’ll go blind?
myiq2xu
Has cbear been talking again?
Napoleon
Check out the Huffington Post’s headline story for the breaking story on HRC’s plan to totally blow up the Democratic Party.
Adam
myiq:
You beat off dead horses? That’s pretty fucked up.
PeterJ
I no longer think she’s running for 2012.
I’m now starting to lean towards this explaination:
She stayed with Bill because she wanted to become president. Now she knows that this won’t happen so she’s going to punish those who denied her getting that.
The question now is how long she’ll stay married to Bill.
Wilfred
Until June 2nd:
Friedman will help with the revision.
jrg
The problem with moronic crap like the “Gas Tax Holiday” is that people like Friedman have no choice but to distance themselves from it.
Sure, the liberal blogsphere thinks that Friedman is a joke, but a lot of other people take him seriously. Why should he blow what little credibility he has left defending Clinton’s hare-brained pandering?
What planet are Hillary supporters living on? Why on earth do her supporters think that Democrats will fall in line behind a woman who has bought into the right-wing world view to such a degree she is now parroting GOP identity politics and “policy” proposals?
She is tearing the party apart. All you HRC supporters are doing is digging a hole for Obama in ’08 so that she does not have to run against a Democratic incumbent in ’12. We’re going to get 4 more years of Bush leadership thanks to you all.
She lost. Cope.
KRK
Yeah, not really much of a nuclear option when this is a precondition:
I don’t think Obama needs to worry about Clinton’s nuclear capabilities if this is the worst they’ve got.
Dennis - SGMM
Curveball’s Iranian cousin, Lowball, has spilled the beans on the Iranian nuclear program.
Just how long did the Nuclear Club think that these weapons would remain the exclusive domain of “trustworthy” nations? Israel, Pakistan, India and North Korea have the bomb, it’s only a matter of time until every second tier, and some third-tier nations have them. Declaring nuclear weapons illegal and making any nation that has them a pariah state will never happen. Either everyone has them or no one has them, that’s how the world works.
KRK
Seriously, that “nuclear option” headline and article at Huffington Post is pearl-clutching and/or concern trolling at its worst. It’s not warning of a nuclear arsenal that Clinton has been holding back; it’s simply laying out Clinton’s only, yet extremely unlikely, path to the nomination: hope that everything goes exactly as she needs it to between now and June and then get her backers on the credentials committee to seat the FL and MI delegations in the manner most favorable to Clinton. Not exactly breaking news.
Sure, it’s not mathematically impossible (yet), but this “option” is powered more by sparklers than by nuclear fission, let alone fusion.
KRK
Yeah, but this time it’s credible: they have corroboration by his neighbor’s son-in-law’s barber, Spitball.
nightjar
Me smells a Dick Cheney.
Dennis - SGMM
Not to mention that their midget uncle, Nerfball, has spent the past six months disguised as a FAX machine at Brushehr, Iran.
The Israelis are making a major push to get Bush to bomb Iran because because they know that his successor won’t be stupid enough or crazy enough to do it. Have the Israelis pledged to commit their forces to support American troops should a fighting retreat from Iraq become necessary as a result of bombing Iran? No? So, it’s another case of “Why don’t you and him kick each others’ asses.” Just like Iraq.
D. Mason
I know this wasn’t directed at me but I would like to point out that one of the comments above his was mocking Glenn Beck.
demimondian
Yeah, I read Edsall’s piece. You know what I think? I think that it’s an example of the press trying to explain why it doesn’t throw the Clinton story away like a used a condom. It’s not concern troll pearl clutching, it’s self-serving story pitching. “But, look, there’s this narrative which makes it all as cool as a resurrected missing blonde girl…”
The Clinton story’s over. Edsall knows it — but if he admits it, then he has to explain why he didn’t admit it a month and a half ago, when it was equally over. He has to explain why he was so taken in, he being such a Serious Person.
Of course, he has to do the same thing on Wednesday — all he’s doing is regurgitating the tasty worm that he got fed earlier this weekend, and ignoring the fact that he’d do much better by his readers by saying “I’m mad as Hell, and I’m not going to take it any more. Clinton is just not going to get the nom. I’m sorry, Hillary. It’s not going to happen. The game is over, and you have lost. Feel free to keep running; I’m not going to feed you any more of the attention you need, though.”
jrg
Before one of the Clinton trolls jumps on my post: “so that she does not have to run against a Democratic incumbent in ‘12.” should read “so that there is no Democratic presidential incumbent in 2012“
Notorious P.A.T.
But I thought Hillary got where she is on her own steam and her own abilities.
zzyzx
You know, I’ve been at Jazz Fest in NOLA all week. I’ve been seeing all sorts of music (including a random guest shot of half of Phish at a bar), played a bit in the Quarter, had a bunch of adventures and about once a day I check Daily Kos to see if I’m missing anything.
It sounds like there was some huge roller coaster that freaked everyone out but now has righted itself and I missed the whole thing. Thank you N’awlins!
The Grand Panjandrum
Mike Huckabee! But you already knew that.
demimondian
Dorsey? No joke? FDDD’s grandfather (also an Arkansawyer, but from the northwest part of the state) was also named Dorsey. I’d never seen the name before that.
bernarda
“Of course hope is not enough”. To paraphrase John Lennon’s “Gimme some truth”, “money for rope/money for hope”.
Hope: “A wish or desire accompanied by confident expectation of its fulfillment.” We can hardly have confident expectation that Obama will fulfill his promises. For that matter, what are his concrete promises?
“Hope” is not a political program.
Another definition of “hope”, often “Hope” in Christianity, “The theological virtue defined as the desire and search for a future good, difficult but not impossible to attain with God’s help.”
bernarda
Maybe I should give the actual Lennon lyrics,
“With just a pocketful of soap
Money for dope
Money for rope ” …
“With just a pocketful of soap
It’s money for dope
Money for rope” …
“All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now”
Chinn Romney
At the bar is the best place to see Phish. The worst, of course, is on a stage. They can’t sing, they can’t write a lyric, but they sure can put you to sleep with 95 minute long “songs”.
Bey
bernarda –
That’s old and tired. Very old and tired. Go to barackobama.com/issues and read them for yourself. Pro Tip: you have to press the Continue Reading buttons, and then you have to, you know – read ‘n stuff. And it might require some thinkin’ too, so be careful.
Speaking of songs….
First we got The Bomb and that was good
‘Cause we love peace and motherhood
Then Russia got The Bomb but that’s okay
‘Cause the balance of power’s maintained that way
Who’s next?