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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2008 / Go, Andrew

Go, Andrew

by John Cole|  August 25, 20086:24 pm| 28 Comments

This post is in: Election 2008, Did You Know John McCain Was A POW?

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Some of you wonder why I read Sullivan. This big giant FU to Jonah Goldberg is why:

This post seems to have struck a nerve. And not to be elitist, of course, but he means “affects” not “effects”. And the sentence, “It is hardly as if it was [sic] a novel insight of mine that the Democrats have had a problem seeming like elitists” requires a subjunctive. I think what Jonah means is that it’s ok to be part of a nepotistic, moneyed elite but not ok if you work your way up from food stamps to editor of the Harvard Law Review. Now that kind of effort is what today’s conservatives really feel contempt for.

What Andrew just said in elite speak was “Blow it out your ass, momma’s boy.”

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Reader Interactions

28Comments

  1. 1.

    Don McArthur

    August 25, 2008 at 6:32 pm

    That should be ‘blow *it* out your ass’, dummy.

    Hahahahaha…

  2. 2.

    John Cole

    August 25, 2008 at 6:34 pm

    Lol. Fixed now.

  3. 3.

    Conservatively Liberal

    August 25, 2008 at 6:44 pm

    “Blow it out your ass, momma’s boy.”

    Thank you for the translation. We non-elites have difficulty translating l33t-speak. ;)

    Ouch. That’s gonna leave a mark. Andrew did a great job of pointing out teh st00p1d, but when he has a target like Goldberg it is like shooting at the side of a barn from point-blank range.

  4. 4.

    Ripley

    August 25, 2008 at 6:47 pm

    I’m sure Jonah has people to blow it out his ass for him.

  5. 5.

    Ted

    August 25, 2008 at 6:47 pm

    John, you’ve got to throw Jonah’s nickname in there somewhere. Google’s only got about 8000 hits for it so far, and it needs to get higher. Not to mention, we know from a Salon interview with the Pantload that it gets under his skin.

  6. 6.

    Nikki

    August 25, 2008 at 6:49 pm

    That’s a point I made at length in the very column Andrew thinks displays my inconsistency which in reality merely explains my position.

    And is clearly central to his point.

  7. 7.

    Jake

    August 25, 2008 at 6:52 pm

    Sully’s great.

    He also picked up on Cindy McCain being sent to Georgia. Ostensibly she’s going to buy another condo.

  8. 8.

    tomjones

    August 25, 2008 at 6:53 pm

    LEAVE JONAH ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE!

  9. 9.

    Rosali

    August 25, 2008 at 6:56 pm

    Mike Barnicle just said on MSNBC something like, “It’s not about race, but many American parents will wonder “How did they get into Princeton and Harvard and my kid can’t get into community college?”.

    Speaking of nepotism, I would think that Luke Russert could afford to buy a good shampoo.

  10. 10.

    Delia

    August 25, 2008 at 7:02 pm

    Sully’s great.

    He also picked up on Cindy McCain being sent to Georgia.

    Golly, maybe she’ll do Hillary one better and free all of South Ossetia.

  11. 11.

    Xenos

    August 25, 2008 at 7:05 pm

    I love how Andy mentions that the sentence requires the subjunctive, but does not state what the correct subjunctive form would be. Let the smarmy arsehole struggle a bit to remember what he should have known already…

    What is the bet that Jonah commits the exact grammar mistake in his next cutting retort? Or will he go into the realm of the comma splice or the oxford comma?

  12. 12.

    Jake

    August 25, 2008 at 7:05 pm

    Mike Barnicle just said on MSNBC something like, “It’s not about race, but many American parents will wonder “How did they get into Princeton and Harvard and my kid can’t get into community college?”.

    Oh the stupid, how it burns.

    Nonetheless, the white resentment meme strikes me as one of the more reasonable ones floating around.

  13. 13.

    SpotWeld

    August 25, 2008 at 7:13 pm

    There are those who become a member of an elite because that is the status where they can accomplish what they aspire to.

    There are those who become a member of an elite because it confers onto them a special status that removes the need for actual accomplishment.

    The members of the latter elites eventually must spend all effort in maintaining the reputation of their elite group rather than risk losing their special status.

    The member of the former group just focus on getting the job done.

    Seriously, is a marine any less of a marine if they are out of uniform?

    But if Jonah Goldberg lost his press “credentials” he’d be just another commenter on LGF.

  14. 14.

    SpotWeld

    August 25, 2008 at 7:17 pm

    “It’s not about race, but many American parents will wonder “How did they get into Princeton and Harvard and my kid can’t get into community college?”

    I’ll answer that. Because they fought. Because the pounded the pavement. Any college recruiter, all other things being equal, will look favorably on the candidate who is willing to put forth that extra effort. They are looking for the student who will make the most of the experience their institution has to offer. A good, but mostly disaffected student may be considered, but they’ll fall to the bottom of the pile like a poorly spelled application letter.

  15. 15.

    Ted

    August 25, 2008 at 7:22 pm

    Speaking of nepotism, I would think that Luke Russert could afford to buy a good shampoo.

    He’s a Russert. They’re genetically programmed to look disheveled and unkempt.

  16. 16.

    TR

    August 25, 2008 at 10:19 pm

    You have to have elephantitis-sized balls to have gotten where you were because your rich-and-connected mommy is plugged into the establishment and got you a pity job, and then call someone who worked his way up on his own an “elitist.”

  17. 17.

    NJDave

    August 25, 2008 at 10:30 pm

    But, but, but …
    Sully’s got a Dangling Participle at the end of the quote! Horrors.

  18. 18.

    Ned R.

    August 25, 2008 at 10:53 pm

    Hmm. At one point Jonah says this:

    I think conservatives have become too populist in recent years

    I…could be wrong, but I thought he was Mr. Simpsons/Star Trek fanboy.

  19. 19.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    August 25, 2008 at 11:31 pm

    is hardly as if it was a novel insight of mine that the Democrats have had a problem seeming like elitists

    If you’re going to copy ideas from other people, at least copy ones that aren’t as dumb as a brick.

  20. 20.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    August 26, 2008 at 12:10 am

    There are those who become a member of an elite because that is the status where they can accomplish what they aspire to.

    To expand on that thought, there’s a difference between being “elite” and “elitist”. Obviously Obama is elite (Harvard law review, presidential nomination, etc) but no an elitist. Of course, people like Jonah are so jaw-droppingly stupid they can’t tell the two apart.

  21. 21.

    Koz

    August 26, 2008 at 3:45 am

    Obviously Obama is elite (Harvard law review, presidential nomination, etc)……..

    Really? Obama seems like a nice person and a compelling speaker if he doesn’t have to think on his feet. Otherwise, there’s very little elite about him.

  22. 22.

    Koz

    August 26, 2008 at 3:55 am

    But if Jonah Goldberg lost his press “credentials” he’d be just another commenter on LGF.

    Nepotism has been with us since the dawn of time, but most of these jibes against Jonah are just cheap. Jonah built NRO into a substantial franchise on his own talent. Media-wise, he’s a much bigger deal than his mother.

  23. 23.

    Adolphus

    August 26, 2008 at 4:18 am

    To expand on that thought, there’s a difference between being “elite” and “elitist”. Obviously Obama is elite (Harvard law review, presidential nomination, etc) but no an elitist. Of course, people like Jonah are so jaw-droppingly stupid they can’t tell the two apart.

    I would argue that he knows the difference but chooses to gloss over the fact when he can pick up on a meme to portray a Dem candidate in an unfavorable light.

    You have to have elephantitis-sized balls to have gotten where you were because your rich-and-connected mommy…”

    A little OT but they have a specimen of an Elephantiasis-scrotum at the National Museum of Medicine and Health at Walter Reed. Check it out some time.

  24. 24.

    Koz

    August 26, 2008 at 4:40 am

    I would argue that he knows the difference but chooses to gloss over the fact when he can pick up on a meme to portray a Dem candidate in an unfavorable light.

    I dunno. It looks to me like the D’s are losing this election, at least at the Presidential level. So people want to know why.

    Jonah used the word elitist. I personally don’t think it quite fits, but it’s close. There’s something about Obama that he shares with Kerry, Dukakis, and Adlai Stevenson. Guess what they all have in common? They all lost, and I suspect Obama will too.

    Whether you call it elitism or aloofness or condescension, you gotta give it a name? Otherwise we could just pretend that Kerry won.

  25. 25.

    jake

    August 26, 2008 at 6:21 am

    See you guys are operating with a standard dictionary. You need The Big Book o’ Neo-Con Words. In that book, “Elite” means anyone who has something they shouldn’t have because they are of the wrong class, race, gender or political party.

  26. 26.

    whocoodanode

    August 26, 2008 at 6:52 am

    Koz is bearing false witness. He/She/It must be one of them “Con” Christians.

  27. 27.

    harlana pepper

    August 26, 2008 at 8:55 am

    Kinda sad that someone has to say it at all, though. But, hey, that’s what nepotism’s all about.

  28. 28.

    David Hunt

    August 26, 2008 at 9:55 am

    To expand on that thought, there’s a difference between being “elite” and “elitist”. Obviously Obama is elite (Harvard law review, presidential nomination, etc) but no an elitist. Of course, people like Jonah are so jaw-droppingly stupid they can’t tell the two apart.

    Fortunately for him, he doesn’t have to tell them apart in a political context. The politician have handy elitism codings after their names to tell him whether they are Real salt-of-the-earth everymen or Demonic Elitists. Didn’t you get the memo meme.

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