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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2008 / Murder By Faint Praise

Murder By Faint Praise

by John Cole|  July 17, 20087:46 am| 85 Comments

This post is in: Election 2008

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This NY Daily News piece by Larry Hunter is hardly a ringing endorsement of Obama (in fact, it turns the back-handed compliment into high art), but it does go to show how damaged the Republican brand is:

I’m a lifelong Republican – a supply-side conservative. I worked in the Reagan White House. I was the chief economist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for five years. In 1994, I helped write the Republican Contract with America. I served on Bob Dole’s presidential campaign team and was chief economist for Jack Kemp’s Empower America.

This November, I’m voting for Barack Obama.

When I first made this decision, many colleagues were shocked. How could I support a candidate with a domestic policy platform that’s antithetical to almost everything I believe in?

The answer is simple: Unjustified war and unconstitutional abridgment of individual rights vs. ill-conceived tax and economic policies – this is the difference between venial and mortal sins.

***

Or maybe not. But here’s the thing: Even if my hopes on domestic policy are dashed and Obama reveals himself as an unreconstructed, dyed-in-the-wool, big-government liberal, I’m still voting for him.

These past eight years, we have spent over a trillion dollars on foreign soil – and lost countless lives – and done what I consider irreparable damage to our Constitution.

If economic damage from well-intentioned but misbegotten Obama economic schemes is the ransom we must pay him to clean up this foreign policy mess, then so be it. It’s not nearly as costly as enduring four more years of what we suffered the last eight years.

Well played with that permanent Republican majority thing, Mr. Rove.

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Reader Interactions

85Comments

  1. 1.

    jake

    July 17, 2008 at 7:49 am

    This guy isn’t a true conservative! He’s just another Bush in Reagan’s clothing!1

    /fReichtard.

  2. 2.

    El Cid

    July 17, 2008 at 7:54 am

    I’ll take it.

  3. 3.

    4tehlulz

    July 17, 2008 at 8:01 am

    I don’t give a fuck why they vote for the MUP, just as long as they do it.

    Speaking of which, was there this much open disdain for the GOP candidate from Republicans in ’76? Or ’64 for that matter? This seems rather…unprecedented to me.

  4. 4.

    Jake

    July 17, 2008 at 8:02 am

    I just wish “Obamacans” had a better ring to it.

  5. 5.

    Bedlam UK

    July 17, 2008 at 8:09 am

    This seems to be a chance at a really big deal.
    Yes, he sounds like someone is feeding him his own balls and he’s having to say thanks, but can you imagine if others stand up next to him and say ‘ me too’.

    Sometimes it just takes that first one to start the ball rolling….

  6. 6.

    peach flavored shampoo

    July 17, 2008 at 8:12 am

    I guarentee you this guy finds some reason, come October, to change his mind and vote McCain. It’s pathalogical. Republicans for years now haven’t had an identity other than to be Anti-Democrat; there’s no chance this guy can find the stomach to vote for one.

    He’s blowing smoke, period.

  7. 7.

    Elvis Elvisberg

    July 17, 2008 at 8:13 am

    Because Clinton proved that raising taxes kills the economy, and Bush Jr. proved that cutting taxes conquers all. And praise of pharmaceutical companies is his lone specific criticism of Obama’s domestic policy? Seriously?

    Frustrating to read parts of that article, but it’s always glad to see people turning away from the dark side. We’re after a majority, after all, not just every thinking person.

  8. 8.

    harlana pepper

    July 17, 2008 at 8:14 am

    I wouldn’t call it murder, I’d call it ‘death.’ The republicans have hoisted themselves on their own petard of limitless greed, capacity for cruelty against anyone not of their ‘own kind’ and perverse sexual repressions. All republicans should reject their own party to save themselves.

    And, yes, Dem leadership has been complicit, but I have to grudgingly give them a pass right now since they did not hold the reins of power for years, and hope we can do more to whip them into shape come November. As Mr. Hunter points out, too much is at stake.

  9. 9.

    Zifnab

    July 17, 2008 at 8:15 am

    I just wish “Obamacans” had a better ring to it.

    Sounds like an alien race that Star Trek left on the cutting room floor.

    What totally floors me is that Hunter has had his eyes opened to the reckless and incompetently run War on Terror, and recognizes that this was bad. But he completely skims over the GOP domestic agenda – which has been nothing but massive earmarks and hand-outs and welfare for their buddies – and how it looks frighteningly like the Democrats’ domestic agenda circa 1992 minus even a token effort to hide the fact that this is just the government throwing kickbacks at rich people.

    Hunter is either deliberately ignorant of how the GOP has handled the national credit card, or he is tacitly supporting such monstrosities as the ’05 highway bill and the Medicare Part D package and the giant clusterfuck that was Katrina relief.

    There’s something to be said about specs in your neighbors’ eyes being easier to see than planks in your own, I guess.

  10. 10.

    Phoenix Woman

    July 17, 2008 at 8:19 am

    I know a LOT of Republicans who are going to vote for Obama, and they sound a lot like Larry Hunter. Shorter version: Obama has a brain and a set of coherent policies, which not only beats McCain but beats Bush.

    By the way, even as the Rumsfeld-Cheney “invade our way to energy security” portion of the military mindset is what gets all the big press, there’s another portion that doesn’t get as much press: Namely, the military’s gut-level understanding of Peak Oil and growing devotion to both green power and improving battery technology. This makes me happy: When the military wants something — be it a bunch of Victory Ships in World War II or batteries sufficient to power military jets at peak performance — it not only gets it, but it gets it quicker than any other sector of society could deliver it, and we get the benefits.

  11. 11.

    Bob In Pacifica

    July 17, 2008 at 8:26 am

    This guy Hunter’s best example of “misbegotten Obama economic schemes” is what he calls a “crusade” against pharmaceutical companies. WTF? Is Obama not throwing money at them fast enough? Damn him!

    Ah, the Crusade has started. Me, I decided to put on the armor and mount my horse when I saw that TV ad about the “restless leg” disease that causes you to gamble and have indiscriminate sex. I can only hope that the new Jerusalem is Las Vegas.

  12. 12.

    Jake

    July 17, 2008 at 8:28 am

    When the military wants something—be it a bunch of Victory Ships in World War II or batteries sufficient to power military jets at peak performance—it not only gets it, but it gets it quicker than any other sector of society could deliver it, and we get the benefits.

    I know what you’re trying to say here, but you left off the part about it costing 10 times more than it should, and also that we taxpayers are the ones who pay for it. We ought to be able to find a way to generate that same sense of urgency for things decidedly non-military.

  13. 13.

    horatius

    July 17, 2008 at 8:28 am

    Ah!! The proponents of Reaganomics. When the massive failure of Reaganomics bent them over and cockslapped them till their butts were blue, they still don’t realize what a fucking failure the whole concept is.

  14. 14.

    Zifnab

    July 17, 2008 at 8:35 am

    When the massive failure of Reaganomics bent them over and cockslapped them till their butts were blue, they still don’t realize what a fucking failure the whole concept is.

    Yes, when the strategy of giving money to rich people failed, I’m sure those millionaire pundits cried themselves all the way to the bank. :-p

  15. 15.

    Woodrow "asim" Jarvis Hill

    July 17, 2008 at 8:44 am

    Gotta second Phoenix Woman — this is pretty much what I’m hearing from a number of my GOP friends, and people I met when volunteering for the Obama campaign.

    There was an article, from very early on, where a Conservative commentator who worked with Obama on the Harvard Law Review basically underlined his ability to respect other opinions. She explicitly said she’d not vote from him, but that he was a listener, and he never made the Conservatives on the Review feel shunned (as others, apparently, did). I think some of that is what we’re seeing here, and yes, it’s different that triangulation.

  16. 16.

    calipygian

    July 17, 2008 at 8:46 am

    When the military wants something—be it a bunch of Victory Ships in World War II or batteries sufficient to power military jets at peak performance—it not only gets it, but it gets it quicker than any other sector of society could deliver it, and we get the benefits.

    The military gets it because the bane of militaries since before Alexander has been supply. There is a hoary old chestnut that says, “Amatures talk tactics, professionals talk logistics” and that is 100 percent correct.

    Even millenia ago, the task was figuring out how to carry enough fodder to feed the horses and donkeys that were carrying the supplies for the troops and at what point that supply train became a self-licking ice cream cone. We face the same task in Iraq today, hauling refined fuel in from Kuwait to bases in Iraq.

    A military that consumes 400k bbls/day of oil, the same amount of Greece, would be foolish if they weren’t thinking about ways to save time, money and fuel.

    On a side note – I worked in an office that was down the hall from the Defense Fuel Center and was always tempted to just knock on the door and ask an analyst what they thought the price of oil would be in 1, 5, 10 and 20 years, if they even think that far ahead about it.

  17. 17.

    Big E

    July 17, 2008 at 8:49 am

    I get ‘a scared’ when I hear Republicans sorta talking sense…
    Now, I must go out and buy massive quantities of Bourbon, just in case this was the first of the “7 seals” to break….
    can the ‘Rapture’ be far behind?

  18. 18.

    montysano

    July 17, 2008 at 8:58 am

    Even if my hopes on domestic policy are dashed and Obama reveals himself as an unreconstructed, dyed-in-the-wool, big-government liberal, I’m still voting for him.

    How do people still say shit like this and get away with it? Does $1T-$2T poured down a hole in the Mideast not count as big government?

    As John noted recently, Fox News/Rush/Sean really does make you stupid. On a local talk radio show yesterday, some goober analyzed the mortgage crisis thusly: “Things was just fine until the Democrats took over Congress.” So I had to call in and be the dreary liberal with my elitist facts and research.

  19. 19.

    harlana pepper

    July 17, 2008 at 8:59 am

    Zifnab, as you say, all complicit parties (but not just pundits) have already gathered their loot and are now cutting their losses, although it’s difficult to detect from the msm still trying to demand from the public some amount of respectibility for those who, had they been Dems, would have been all but ritually crucified by now.

    They know their ‘revolution’ is swirling down the toilet, but it paid huge dividends while it lasted. Enormous financial gains with virtually no accountability for the crimes committed in pursuit of profit. It was indeed a ‘grand old party.’

  20. 20.

    HalfLoop65

    July 17, 2008 at 9:00 am

    I’d like to come across more R’s that feel like this guy, a couple I have talked to are still adamantly voting for McCain. That scares me to no end. WTF? How can they not give a damn about their constitutional rights or more aggression overseas?

  21. 21.

    cleek

    July 17, 2008 at 9:01 am

    can the ‘Rapture’ be far behind?

    nope!

  22. 22.

    harlana pepper

    July 17, 2008 at 9:04 am

    montysano, damn that is one tired old meme. I can’t believe they still have the nerve to trot that one out.

    Still, you can sorta smell the desperation when they have nothing left but a well-worn script, stained in blood.

  23. 23.

    toujoursdan

    July 17, 2008 at 9:06 am

    You can thank the supply siders for this:

    American inequality highlighted by 30-year gap in life expectancy

    A 30-year gap now exists in the average life expectancy between Mississippi, in the Deep South, and Connecticut, in prosperous New England. Huge disparities have also opened up in income, health and education depending on where people live in the US, according to a report published yesterday.

    and…

    Despite an almost cult-like devotion to the belief that unfettered free enterprise is the best way to lift Americans out of poverty, the report points to a rigged system that does little to lessen inequalities.

  24. 24.

    cleek

    July 17, 2008 at 9:07 am

    OMFG… right now on RedState 3.0

    Anyone who reads RedState on a regular basis knows by now that the contributors who lend content to the site aren’t shills for Republicans in Congress.

    And it’s that dogged independence that gives so much credibility to the conservative blogosphere — credibility that simply doesn’t exist on the left, where blogs like the Puffington Host [sic.] and Daily Kos serve as a bulletin board for standard Democratic talking points, and where opposing viewpoints are shouted down from view.

    that’s from congressman Roy Blunt, Jr, who’s apparently never been to RedState.

    RedStaters aren’t shills for Republicans? that’s all kinds of crazy.

    (via Sullivan)

  25. 25.

    Soylent Green

    July 17, 2008 at 9:15 am

    This election: unknown number of Republicans with a conscience who will vote for Obama plus unknown number of racist or Hillary deadender Democrats who will not vote for Obama minus all the people who are just blowing smoke about switching their vote who will back their party as usual.

  26. 26.

    Punchy

    July 17, 2008 at 9:16 am

    YearlyKos changed it’s name to “Netroots Nation”? Who’s the short-bus-riding idjit who coined that lame moniker? Why not “Bitchin’ Bloggers, Bitch!” or “Angry Crackers Whining and Opining” or “YearlySmugfestWithHippiesandMoreBirkenstocks”?

    Cole, why aint you there? You could drive your Abrahms A-1 into the parking lot and crush all the VW vans and drum circles…

  27. 27.

    The Other Steve

    July 17, 2008 at 9:20 am

    RedStaters aren’t shills for Republicans? that’s all kinds of crazy.

    Well it’s true in a sense. They vote these guys in, and then when they fuck up really badly, they claim it’s because they aren’t Republican enough.

    Redstate Republicans are a lot like Communists. It’s all about purity.

  28. 28.

    calipygian

    July 17, 2008 at 9:24 am

    RedStaters aren’t shills for Republicans? that’s all kinds of crazy.

    Uh, Red State is a 527 organization. That makes them by definition a shill.

  29. 29.

    McIckles

    July 17, 2008 at 9:29 am

    re John’s comment about the military:…left off the part about it costing 10 times more than it should, and also that we taxpayers are the ones who pay for it. We ought to be able to find a way to generate that same sense of urgency for things decidedly non-military.

    There seems to be a consensus among Dems & Repubs that anything the government does costs tax payers more than it would if provided by the free market. I would urge Democrats to keep this in mind when advocating single payer health care.

  30. 30.

    John Cole

    July 17, 2008 at 9:29 am

    YearlyKos changed it’s name to “Netroots Nation”? Who’s the short-bus-riding idjit who coined that lame moniker? Why not “Bitchin’ Bloggers, Bitch!” or “Angry Crackers Whining and Opining” or “YearlySmugfestWithHippiesandMoreBirkenstocks”?

    Cole, why aint you there? You could drive your Abrahms A-1 into the parking lot and crush all the VW vans and drum circles…

    I was going to go, but I have a family reunion next week.

    Kinda sucks, because I still have not received my check from Soros and my 72 virgins, and was hoping they might give them to me there.

    Although hoping for virgins at a liberal gathering is probably silly. I am cool with hippy chicks, though, as long as they wash their feet and don’t wear too much pachouli.

  31. 31.

    Heshe

    July 17, 2008 at 9:35 am

    There goes another mentally challenged reich winger again, flip floppin’ all over the place. Everyone: hold a shoe up in the air and vigorously shake it.

    Give him two years of Obama rule (I hope) and he’ll be singing a completely different tune, again.

  32. 32.

    The Moar You Know

    July 17, 2008 at 9:38 am

    Anyone who reads RedState on a regular basis knows by now that the contributors who lend content to the site aren’t shills for Republicans in Congress.

    True. They are shills for the Republican Party. Big difference, as anyone can see.

    And it’s that dogged independence that gives so much credibility to the conservative blogosphere—credibility that simply doesn’t exist on the left, where blogs like the Puffington Host [sic.] and Daily Kos serve as a bulletin board for standard Democratic talking points, and where opposing viewpoints are shouted down from view.

    PLZ I CAN HAS MONIES FOR SERVERS?

  33. 33.

    John Cole

    July 17, 2008 at 9:38 am

    They are not coping well with the editorial at NewsBusters.

  34. 34.

    b. hussein canuckistani

    July 17, 2008 at 9:43 am

    When the military wants something—be it a bunch of Victory Ships in World War II or batteries sufficient to power military jets at peak performance—it not only gets it, but it gets it quicker than any other sector of society could deliver it, and we get the benefits.

    And if the military wants boneheaded shit, like Sgt Yorks, Ospreys, Windows-powered cruisers and $600 toilet seats, they get them too. And you get to pay for it.

  35. 35.

    The Moar You Know

    July 17, 2008 at 9:48 am

    John Cole Says:

    They are not coping well with the editorial at NewsBusters.

    That posting you link to could be a textbook definition for “butthurt”. I’m amazed the guy just doesn’t break down sobbing at the end.

  36. 36.

    AkaDad

    July 17, 2008 at 9:54 am

    Larry Hunter is clearly a RINO.

  37. 37.

    BH-Buck

    July 17, 2008 at 9:54 am

    peach flavored shampoo Says: He’s blowing smoke, period.

    I think you’re right.

    John Cole Says: They are not coping well with the editorial at NewsBusters.

    Yep. They’re fixing Hunter’s little red wagon, for sure!

  38. 38.

    The Thinking Man's Mel Torme

    July 17, 2008 at 9:58 am

    Johann Hari: We have everything to fear from McCain:

    This is a man who can’t tell his Sunni from his Shia, and who opposed the Northern Ireland peace process as a capitulation to terrorism. And he admits he knows even less about the economy than that. On one occasion, he let his irritation with the subject slip by referring to it as “the credit cunt”.

    Whaaaaat???

  39. 39.

    LarryB

    July 17, 2008 at 10:00 am

    So, one by one, all the Republicans who aren’t completely batshit crazy are defecting to the Democrats. This will swell the Democratic “big tent” to bursting. What will happen after 2008? Will the Republicans clean house and reinvent themselves? Will a Centrist 3rd party arise from the ashes, peeling off the refugees? Or will the Social Democrats (ie, the libruls) split off to the left? I haven’t a clue, just wondering what others think.

  40. 40.

    calipygian

    July 17, 2008 at 10:01 am

    Consequently, we see that Hunter’s overarching problem is the foreign policy issue. He feels that Bush has illegitimately “spent over a trillion dollars on foreign soil – and lost countless lives – and done what I consider irreparable damage to our Constitution.” He thinks that McCain will merely continue Bush’s bad policies and this is enough to make him vote Obama.

    If economic damage from well-intentioned but misbegotten Obama economic schemes is the ransom we must pay him to clean up this foreign policy mess, then so be it. It’s not nearly as costly as enduring four more years of what we suffered the last eight years.

    In this I have to say that Larry Hunter has no clue what the word “suffered” means. Our economy has not “suffered” too badly from the expenditures in Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, this country has scarcely “suffered” at all from the war. Obviously, the war has touched only a small portion of our people and few Americans have been much put out by it. Even the battle deaths are miniscule compared to any of our past wars. (And YES, speaking as a father of one of our soldiers, it is heartrending to lose even one soldier)

    This Newsbusters guy is a fucking douchebag, and Im being kind.

  41. 41.

    RSA

    July 17, 2008 at 10:24 am

    You can thank the supply siders for this:

    American inequality highlighted by 30-year gap in life expectancy

    So the trickle-down effect doesn’t apply to life expectancy. Who’d have thought?

  42. 42.

    Davis X. Machina

    July 17, 2008 at 10:24 am

    Let’s not tell this Larry Hunter guy Obama’s a negro, ok?

  43. 43.

    LanceThruster

    July 17, 2008 at 10:52 am

    Gopper strategery will to leave the Dems to clean up their mess and assign all blame to them (losing the war, any terror attacks, budget and economic woes, etc.) just as they are doing now with high fuel prices.

    Rethuglicans almost always blame others for their own “sins,” so expect the Reich Wing to actively work to thwart any potential Dem success (and expect a substantial number of Dem quislings to help).

  44. 44.

    liberal

    July 17, 2008 at 10:58 am

    McIckles wrote,

    There seems to be a consensus among Dems & Repubs that anything the government does costs tax payers more than it would if provided by the free market. I would urge Democrats to keep this in mind when advocating single payer health care.

    The more important thing to bear in mind is empirical facts, like (a) insurance companies have huge adminstrative expenses which do absolutely nothing to make the provision of medical care more economically efficient, (b) other nations have nationalized health insurance and pay far less per GDP than we do with the same or better outcomes.

    But of course facts never got in the way of free market worship.

  45. 45.

    Phoenix Woman

    July 17, 2008 at 10:59 am

    Actually, much of the reason for military cost overruns is the same for other cost overruns: Paying for something you need RIGHT NOW. It’s why trying to book a flight only a week in advance will cost you more than booking a flight to that destination six months in advance.

    Consider also this: The first known reference to human use of solar energy was as a weapon. Other uses wouldn’t follow for over two millenia afterward. That’s how strong a priority humans have always put on warfare. Only within the last few centuries has this started to change.

    Meanwhile, there is this:

    The military gets it because the bane of militaries since before Alexander has been supply. There is a hoary old chestnut that says, “Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics” and that is 100 percent correct.

    Even millenia ago, the task was figuring out how to carry enough fodder to feed the horses and donkeys that were carrying the supplies for the troops and at what point that supply train became a self-licking ice cream cone. We face the same task in Iraq today, hauling refined fuel in from Kuwait to bases in Iraq.

    A military that consumes 400k bbls/day of oil, the same amount as Greece, would be foolish if they weren’t thinking about ways to save time, money and fuel.

    On a side note – I worked in an office that was down the hall from the Defense Fuel Center and was always tempted to just knock on the door and ask an analyst what they thought the price of oil would be in 1, 5, 10 and 20 years, if they even think that far ahead about it.

    I wish I could find the old article on how generals and other Pentagon brass were among the first to snap up Priuses when Toyota first started importing them.

    Furthermore, since they know Peak Oil is here, they also know that they have to think of a way to fuel their jets and to ease the transition from fossil fuels. Right now, one option while they wait for their battery R&D to bear fruit is synthetic fuels made from low-grade oils and fats from Tyson chicken plants — one such facility is planned for a Tyson plant in Louisiana, and it will provide 75 million gallons (or 1.78 million 42-gallon barrels, the oil industry standard) of jet fuel a year when it is completed at the end of next year. Considering that Tyson has 123 food-processing plants in the US, and that it’s not the only (or even the biggest) food processor in the US, and you can see how the Pentagon would like this sort of thing.

  46. 46.

    Heshe

    July 17, 2008 at 11:04 am

    On one occasion, he let his irritation with the subject slip by referring to it as “the credit cunt”.

    More strong words from the Maverick. Maybe he was thinking about his wife when he let that one go? And maybe he was think about making a deposit? Who knows.

  47. 47.

    The Moar You Know

    July 17, 2008 at 11:04 am

    On one occasion, he let his irritation with the subject slip by referring to it as “the credit cunt”.

    I find the most inconvenient thing is getting the credit c#nt in and out of your wallet when making a purchase. They don’t fit well and the whole package stretches out your pants pocket.

  48. 48.

    Phoenix Woman

    July 17, 2008 at 11:06 am

    The more important thing to bear in mind is empirical facts, like (a) insurance companies have huge adminstrative expenses which do absolutely nothing to make the provision of medical care more economically efficient, (b) other nations have nationalized health insurance and pay far less per GDP than we do with the same or better outcomes.

    Yup. Same goes for Social Security. Overhead costs for our Social Security system are less than 1%. Overhead costs for privatized systems elsewhere run between 14% and 20%. That’s one reason why planners in the UK look enviously at our Social Security system.

    Another reason is that, so long as the economy grows at an average of at least 2.7% per year, Social Security never runs out of money — and bear in mind that the 75-year average from 1929 to 2004, a period that includes the whole of the Great Depression, was 3.6%.

  49. 49.

    Dreggas

    July 17, 2008 at 11:21 am

    horatius Says:

    Ah!! The proponents of Reaganomics. When the massive failure of Reaganomics bent them over and cockslapped them till their butts were blue, they still don’t realize what a fucking failure the whole concept is.

    It’s like people who think communism is a great system…when done their way.

  50. 50.

    The Moar You Know

    July 17, 2008 at 11:28 am

    Actually, much of the reason for military cost overruns is the same for other cost overruns: Paying for something you need RIGHT NOW. It’s why trying to book a flight only a week in advance will cost you more than booking a flight to that destination six months in advance.

    Another reason is that for a lot of what they need, you can’t just go down to Home Depot and buy whatever it is off the shelf.

    The infamous $600 toilet seat is a prime example. Any idea what it would cost to build a custom sized toilet seat? Hint: it won’t be cheap.

    Let’s up the ante: it’s got to fit in a B-1 lavatory, it’s got to be fireproof and withstand up to 15Gs of lateral force. And the guy building it will only make 15 of them and never make another one again.

    $600 was a fair price.

  51. 51.

    Corner Stone

    July 17, 2008 at 11:32 am

    I guarentee you this guy finds some reason, come October, to change his mind and vote McCain. It’s pathalogical. Republicans for years now haven’t had an identity other than to be Anti-Democrat; there’s no chance this guy can find the stomach to vote for one.

    He’s blowing smoke, period.

    Of course he is. This is a transparent ruse Hunter and other “true vetted and documented Republicans” are using to push their candidate in a certain direction. Just as there is no such creature as the oxymoronic “Reagan Democrat”, there is not one possible chance of there being a “lifelong Republican” who will actually pull the lever for Obama in Nov.
    I agree there are several varieties who are currently claiming they will, but there are also cadres of people who claim to have seen the Yeti.
    In fact, I would argue that there is a larger chance the Yeti actually exists than there is of a Republican who will be pulling the lever for Obama this Nov.
    Hunter’s article is also a nice way of floating more tried and true dog whistle code out there, in the guise of faint praise as some may believe.
    Shorter me: Fuck Hunter and all like him.

  52. 52.

    The Moar You Know

    July 17, 2008 at 11:37 am

    horatius Says:

    Ah!! The proponents of Reaganomics. When the massive failure of Reaganomics bent them over and cockslapped them till their butts were blue, they still don’t realize what a fucking failure the whole concept is.

    It wasn’t a failure – the bending over, the cockslapping of the ass, was obviously the end goal. That’s modern Republicanism, right? Two wetsuits and a dildo in every ass!

  53. 53.

    Tsulagi

    July 17, 2008 at 11:44 am

    I just wish “Obamacans” had a better ring to it.

    Sounds like an alien race that Star Trek left on the cutting room floor.

    Umm, that wasn’t my first thought, but then sometimes I have a narrowly focused mind.

    “Cans” is just one of those many euphemisms for a visually delightful and tactile part of the female anatomy that blissfully comes in many shapes and sizes. Not going to go further in deference to the female commentariat here.

    Now that’d be a campaign direction and push I’d like to see: Cans for Obama! Yeah, some men are pigs.

  54. 54.

    NR

    July 17, 2008 at 11:49 am

    Speaking of which, was there this much open disdain for the GOP candidate from Republicans in ‘76? Or ‘64 for that matter? This seems rather…unprecedented to me.

    The Republican establishment hated Goldwater in ’64. Remember that back then, the Republicans were still principally a Northeastern party; it was the Democrats who held sway in the South.

  55. 55.

    Big E

    July 17, 2008 at 11:51 am

    re: News piece by Larry Hunter

    Only took him 7 1/2 years to realize somethings wrong… doesn’t speak highly of his political ‘insight’. Convenient bailing….

    re:

    The answer is simple: Unjustified war and unconstitutional abridgment of individual rights vs. ill-conceived tax and economic policies – this is the difference between venial and mortal sins.

    well no… it’s the difference between having common sense and believing the god told you to kill people.

  56. 56.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    July 17, 2008 at 12:22 pm

    A 30-year gap now exists in the average life expectancy between Mississippi, in the Deep South, and Connecticut, in prosperous New England.

    Chickens coming home to roost. If the only thing that can stop America from destroying itself and big chunks of the rest of the world is large numbers of red-state voters dying young. . .

  57. 57.

    priscianus jr

    July 17, 2008 at 12:22 pm

    This is the sound of a rational, honest human being, who happens to be a Republican, responding to reality. What he’s saying is, he doesn’t agree with Obama about a lot of things, but the people now in power are destroying this country and Obama would not. In other words, there’s something more important than ideology. I hope there are a lot more repubs out there like that.

  58. 58.

    Bubblegum Tate

    July 17, 2008 at 12:26 pm

    Kinda sucks, because I still have not received my check from Soros and my 72 virgins, and was hoping they might give them to me there.

    Have you performed the required number of gaybortions?

  59. 59.

    NR

    July 17, 2008 at 1:08 pm

    A 30-year gap now exists in the average life expectancy between Mississippi, in the Deep South, and Connecticut, in prosperous New England.

    The BBC has a map of the standards of living in each state from that report on their website.

    Check it out. It’s practically a map of the reddest vs. bluest states.

  60. 60.

    rawshark

    July 17, 2008 at 1:23 pm

    The infamous $600 toilet seat is a prime example. Any idea what it would cost to build a custom sized toilet seat? Hint: it won’t be cheap.

    $600?

  61. 61.

    OriGuy

    July 17, 2008 at 1:40 pm

    The BBC has a map of the standards of living in each state from that report on their website.

    They left Hawaii off of that map. See? Even the BBC says that Obama wasn’t born an American!

  62. 62.

    Conservatively Liberal

    July 17, 2008 at 2:01 pm

    Me, I decided to put on the armor and mount my horse when I saw that TV ad about the “restless leg” disease that causes you to gamble and have indiscriminate sex.

    First, you wear armor before ‘mounting’ your horse? Kinky. ;)

    Second, the disease does not cause you to gamble and have indiscriminate sex, the medication does. What they don’t mention is the obvious: It is kind of hard to notice if your legs are restless if you are wandering around the casino or in the throes of sex with some stranger.

    Maybe that is the purpose of the medication? ;)

  63. 63.

    Krista

    July 17, 2008 at 2:20 pm

    The infamous $600 toilet seat is a prime example. Any idea what it would cost to build a custom sized toilet seat? Hint: it won’t be cheap.

    Depends on what you use to build it. The type of wood you use would be your biggest variable. A seat made of African Gaboon ebony could very easily cost that much. One made out of White Pine…not so much. I really don’t think the construction of it would be all that difficult, though. Design your template, cut and router it out, assemble and glue your pieces, sand and stain, and attach your hardware, and Bob’s your uncle.

    So as long as you’re using a reasonably priced wood, then yes…I think $600 is too much to ask for a shitter seat. My custom-made violin cost $1000, and it would have been MUCH harder to construct.

  64. 64.

    Conservatively Liberal

    July 17, 2008 at 2:20 pm

    Your comment is awaiting moderation.

    Grrr…

    I used some (b)ad words? ;)

  65. 65.

    Conservatively Liberal

    July 17, 2008 at 2:32 pm

    So as long as you’re using a reasonably priced wood, then yes…I think $600 is too much to ask for a shitter seat. My custom-made violin cost $1000, and it would have been MUCH harder to construct.

    Yes, but your violin maker will be making more than 1 (or 15) violins. Plus your violin does not have to meet endless bid specifications and pass endless testing. The military does not just order stuff and deploy it once it is made, first it is thoroughly researched and specifications are set. These specifications far exceed any similar item that the general population may use. The vendors have to use specified materials and build to specified dimensions and tolerances, and the item has to be built for abuse.

    There is a reason for Mil Spec, and the vendors who supply the military bid accordingly. While there is no doubt that there have been many boondoggles and cost overruns, these are generally on huge contracts, not so much on the smaller ones. If the contract called for 15 Mil Spec toilet seats, $9,000.00 is pretty reasonable IMO.

    NASA and the military have given us much of the technology we enjoy today. It is an investment that has paid off for both us and the rest of the world in some pretty positive ways.

    I sure enjoy the results of ARAPNET to this very day, as I am sure you do. ;)

  66. 66.

    Pb

    July 17, 2008 at 2:34 pm

    Cole, why aint you there?

    I was going to go, but I have a family reunion next week.

    Ahem. Netroots Nation in Second Life. In fact, there’s a RL-SL meetup going on there (and in Austin) starting in half an hour. Then there’s the keynote. And a panel in SL with Cliff Schecter, Jesus’ General, McJoan, and Jay Ackroyd. And way more where that came from. There may even be a few Balloon Juice users there. :)

  67. 67.

    Bob In Pacifica

    July 17, 2008 at 2:48 pm

    Yeah, military spending. That’s why we as a country are in such good shape today, spending more than the rest of the world combined.

    Hip hip hooray!

  68. 68.

    Fledermaus

    July 17, 2008 at 2:49 pm

    On a side note – I worked in an office that was down the hall from the Defense Fuel Center and was always tempted to just knock on the door and ask an analyst what they thought the price of oil would be in 1, 5, 10 and 20 years, if they even think that far ahead about it.

    I’m reading “Black Swan” right now about how we suck at predicting anything and the author said one agency employee that in 2004 they were forcasting $27 a barrel oil for the next 25 years.

  69. 69.

    Catsy

    July 17, 2008 at 2:54 pm

    Krista, you’re not just paying for the materials and short production run, you’re paying for the R&D. Sure, your custom-made violin cost $1000, but I will almost guarantee you that the functional elements of that instrument did not deviate meaningfully from thousands of years of luthiery. They didn’t have to invent solutions to the engineering challenges of building a violin from scratch and making it sound correct, they either went to school or apprenticed to learn how to do it. The tolerances in building stringed instruments are exacting, but they are part of a known body of knowledge in which there are common formulas.

    A toilet seat in a military aircraft, where tolerances are minute and every gram of weight is scrutinized, where the materials and construction must withstand forces of physics you can’t even visualize, and where you’re largely making it all up as you go along–yeah, it’s going to cost a bit more.

  70. 70.

    seamonkeyking

    July 17, 2008 at 3:13 pm

    Wow. Awesome! I’m hearing the same thing from my parents, who are in their 70’s. They were fairly conservative until the late 1990’s, but efforts to privatize Social Security and the disastrous Bush years have turned them around completely.
    From your lips to everyone’s ears!

  71. 71.

    gypsy howell

    July 17, 2008 at 3:42 pm

    When the military wants something—be it a bunch of Victory Ships in World War II or batteries sufficient to power military jets at peak performance—it not only gets it, but it gets it quicker than any other sector of society could deliver it, and we get the benefits.

    God forbid we should question whether we actually need any of this stuff. We could cut our military spending by 80% and still be spending way too much on it. Wouldn’t it be nice to direct all that spending, research and effort on something that actually benefits humankind, instead of throwing billions and billions down the rathole of the death-and-destruction industry?

  72. 72.

    TenguPhule

    July 17, 2008 at 3:50 pm

    Another reason is that, so long as the economy grows at an average of at least 2.7% per year, Social Security never runs out of money

    The Republican Theory of Economics wants to prove this the hard way.

  73. 73.

    TenguPhule

    July 17, 2008 at 3:57 pm

    Wouldn’t it be nice to direct all that spending, research and effort on something that actually benefits humankind, instead of throwing billions and billions down the rathole of the death-and-destruction industry?

    In all fairness, military research has produced many nifty civilian gadgets.

  74. 74.

    Blue Shark

    July 17, 2008 at 4:05 pm

    And, yes, Dem leadership has been complicit, but I have to grudgingly give them a pass right now since they did not hold the reins of power for years, and hope we can do more to whip them into shape come November. As Mr. Hunter points out, too much is at stake.

    …I find it curious that the Republicans in the Minority can stop every piece of legislation because they have 40 votes…but when the Dems were in the minority they could do nothing.

    …Now they are in the majority and …hey they can still do nothing? WTF

    …What it is, is they fail to use the power they have. For that there is no pass and no excuse.

    …unless you consider a sternly worded letter to BushCo syndicate members equal to inherent contempt charges.

    …I wanna see these bastards frog-marched.

    …don’t we all?

  75. 75.

    Thomas Jackson

    July 17, 2008 at 4:12 pm

    What a surprise to hear an aide to Bob Dole, the taxcollector for the welfare state to state he loves the ideals of a Marxist. I for one am not comfortable with the comforts of a all knowing self serving welfare state and its charms if I only give but the few liberties and freedoms that the progressives haven’t banned all ready.

    But then again I haven’t abandoned the concept of self reliance, hard work, and integrity. But the lure of the dole is proving a strong come on for slackers and the weak minded.

    Si se puede!

  76. 76.

    b. hussein canuckistani

    July 17, 2008 at 4:25 pm

    God forbid we should question whether we actually need any of this stuff.

    You never know when Stalin might come back from the dead and restore the Soviet Union.

  77. 77.

    bago

    July 17, 2008 at 4:29 pm

    Yeah. GPS is cool, on my new iphone!

  78. 78.

    Shade Tail

    July 17, 2008 at 6:57 pm

    I saw Hunter’s article when Carpetbagger linked to it, and my first reaction was, “What a perfect example of cognitive dissonance.” He’s on board with Obama’s Iraq policy, but he is willing to overlook his economic policy…why? Because Obama is a politician who is probably lying about all that anti-supply-side stuff he’s been saying in order to get elected.

    Uh, Mr. Hunter? If you feel he may be lying about his economic policy, why do you feel you can trust his Iraq policy?

    So yes, this is a pretty big indicator of how broken the GOP is now, that a supply-sider like this guy is rationalizing that away in order to justify voting for the other team.

  79. 79.

    Corner Stone

    July 17, 2008 at 9:02 pm

    So as long as you’re using a reasonably priced wood, then yes…I think $600 is too much to ask for a shitter seat. My custom-made violin cost $1000, and it would have been MUCH harder to construct.

    It’s like the old bad joke the Pharma industry loves to have repeated:
    “Why do these pills cost $10 a piece? Everyone knows it costs them like .05 to produce!”
    Answer:
    “You fool. It costs $2 Billion in R&D to produce the first pill. The second pill off the line cost .05 to produce.”

  80. 80.

    TenguPhule

    July 17, 2008 at 10:42 pm

    But then again I haven’t abandoned the concept of self reliance, hard work, and integrity. Now excuse me while I get back to my wingnut welfare.

    Fixed.

  81. 81.

    Clio

    July 18, 2008 at 9:22 am

    I am cool with hippy chicks, though, as long as they wash their feet and don’t wear too much pachouli.

    Thanks, John. We love you, too.

  82. 82.

    Phoenician in a time of Romans

    July 18, 2008 at 10:20 am

    It’s like the old bad joke the Pharma industry loves to have repeated:
    “Why do these pills cost $10 a piece? Everyone knows it costs them like .05 to produce!”
    Answer:
    “You fool. It costs $2 Billion in R&D to produce the first pill. The second pill off the line cost .05 to produce.”

    How do you say “5 cents” in Chinese, anyhow?

  83. 83.

    binzinerator

    July 18, 2008 at 12:56 pm

    In all fairness, military research has produced many nifty civilian gadgets.

    Too bad we’ll never know what civilain research would have produced with an infusion of trillions of dollars. Dollars that would have stayed in this country, building up our universities, sciences, businesses, economy.

    “Nifty gadget” is the right phrase. GPS is a fun toy for consumers, but not really critical. Ships and aircraft navigated without GPS, hikers found their way just fine with a compass. However, a GPS is necessary for precision weapons like missiles and bombs.

    We traded energy independence for the ability to precisely target weapons that were needed to bully and bring war to the countries that supply us with oil. What a bargain for us!

    What would you rather have had: a nation completely self-sufficient on renewable energy, or the ability to find where you are, down to a meter, are in relation to the nearest Walmarts?

    Think about the implications of having energy self-sufficiency for the past 20 years. Would we really give a fuck about the Middle East? Fuck no. Our foreign policy would be unrecognizable today. You damn well know there would never have been 2 Gulf wars. We’d give a fuck-all what the Iraqis, Iranians, Kuwaitis, Saudi Arabians, Syrians, etc did. We’d look at Israel differently too. Bet on it.

    What would all the assholes of the region use to buy weapons and explosives with if we didn’t buy their oil? Shit all, is what.

    You can’t fund jihadi with sand if oil is worth even less. And Saudia Arabia would come begging to the US for relief for their economy, not the other way around.

    They’re building an entire fucking city of skyscrapers in the desert in Dubai, including an indoor downhill ski resort. Where do you think they got the wealth to do that?

    You paid a whole lot more than you think for that GPS gadget.

  84. 84.

    HRA

    July 19, 2008 at 10:35 am

    Larry Hunter was on Countdown with KO. What I found interesting was his repetition of “other R colleagues feel the same way as I do”. He also alluded to going public as a start to have them do the same.

    I see where some are wary of Republicans actually voting for Obama. I am hard pressed to understand this assumption when there are so many of us who do not hesitate to vote for the candidate rather than the party. Also as much as I would have liked to remain in the Democratic party, I came to the point where I could not take the Clinton years as business as usual. So I bolted to the Republicans and have not found them exactly to my liking either. Should I decide to register Independent? I cannot even fathom it after seeing the blather from Lou Dobbs and others of his ilk.

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