“…when he picked Sarah Palin, he told the United States of America to go fuck itself.”
Yeah, pretty much.
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?
There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.
Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.
Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.
Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.
Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.
Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.
Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.
We are aware of all internet traditions.
Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.
There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.
Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.
The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.
Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!
Every day Vance writes another chapter in the book called “Worst VP Pick Ever”.
Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.
Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.
Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?
So many bastards, so little time.
Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.
My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.
People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.
I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself. We’re allowed to grow past that.
Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.
Joel
Good lord, that Wieseltier piece is a sophomoric embarrassment–and I agree with him.
Michael D.
I know right? It was a terrible piece. I just liked the quote. And in all fairness, Wieseltier is a literary reviewer.
Brian J
Last night, on KO’s "Countdown," he played the entire exchange between Obama and Joe the Plumber. It was a lot longer than I had originally realized. Not only did it seem fairly descriptive for an on-the-spot sort of question, but it looked like a longer, more detailed answer than Sarah Palin has given about anything to any sort of mainstream news outlet in the country. At the very least, it’s a close call, which is pretty damn outrageous.
SamFromUtah
Wasn’t he the guy that sang "Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy"?
jake 4 that 1
Stinky Whizzleteats.
bobbo
Still and all, what a giant gasbag.
gbear
Minnesota’s favorite republican ex-Governor, Arne Carlson, endorsed Obama today and also tore into Michelle Bachmann. Arne’s one of the few republicans I’ve voted for and he’s a breath of fresh air when he speaks. He absolutely hates the neocon movement and what Pawlenty has been doing as governor. His word carries a lot of integrity in MN.
I’d bet that MN goes over 67% for Obama.
Zifnab
This isn’t the first time a President has made such a play. See: Spiro Agnew, Dan Quayle, Dick Cheney. The difference is that this time the abused wife that is the American voter didn’t stick around to take another beating.
vaux-rien
God I hate TNR, Democratic neo-con warmongers and insufferable snobs to boot.
"Tyrants and génocidaires would sleep less soundly during a McCain presidency," as if Marty Peretz were anti-genocide. I wish they’d just endorse McCain.
Comrade Darkness
The article above that one is more interesting. This is the McCain I used to respect . Starting at the 1/5 mark of the recording. (Before that he b*itchs about Obama having more money and casting doubt on the source of it. Gee, wonder what playbook he got that out of. (And every one of his complaints could be leveled 10x over at his preferred choice of running mate from the 2006 senate campaign.)) But after that he stops whining and sounds more like I imagined he would in his campaign.
passerby
Ugh.
His Wall-o-text format is his way of telling any readers he has to "go fuck yourself".
Seems like a bitter old man who longs for the glory days with Gene. He may be feeling insignificant these days.
Wonder if he was tanked up on scotch when he wrote that…
Litlebritdifrnt
Speaking of Bible Spice, something I picked up in the comments at Tapper’s blog. The RNC said they always intended to donate the clothes they bought Palin to charity after the campaign and they were only being loaned to her for the duration. So does that mean that Palin will not need nice clothes to wear after the campaign? Does the RNC not believe that a nice shiny new female VP will need impressive clothes? Sort of "here wear these, but seeing as you’re gonna get your arse handed to you in November we want ’em back in good condition" Things that make you go hmmmmm.
Tom65
"The sea was angry that day my friends, like an old man trying to return soup at a deli!"
The guy has a point, but for fuck’s sake…
Brian J
Not that I’m in favor of their views by any stretch of the imagination, but is it really fair to group Dan Quayle and Dick Cheney in with Sarah Palin? Around the time she was picked, I remember reading that for all of talk of him being a lightweight, Quayle had a fairly long resume in government before he was picked. The same goes for Dick Cheney. On the other hand, Palin is Palin.
The Moar You Know
@Litlebritdifrnt: It’s much easier for me to believe that this:
Is complete bullshit, which I suspect it is.
dadanarchist
That piece perfectly summarizes everything that I hate about the New Republic and its politics.
That should be a textbook example of the kind of dithering, insidery handwringing that makes Americans think that Democrats are effete pussies.
oh really
It’s conceivable that one sentence is the only thing Wieseltier has written in several decades that is worth reading and quoting.
Unfortunately, I read more than just that single sentence and I was brought nearly to tears by the realization that the tragedy of all the lousy presidential choices I’ve faced my entire voting life is the burden they have placed on Mr. Wieseltier. He is almost Crist-like in the way he has suffered for all of humanity.
Jon H
"Tyrants and génocidaires would sleep less soundly during a McCain presidency,"
Only because nobody would sleep soundly during a McCain presidency.
aimai
Joel nails it in the very first comment, and I see everyone else feels the same way. My mind, frankly, boggled at how tediously self referentially juvenile the old man’s ramblings were. It wasn’t even worth crossing out the stupidities to try to get to the nubbin. That one line John quotes is the only sane thing in the entire essay, but frankly the rest of the essay kind of calls it into question–does anyone think his teenage grandson snuck in and entered it into the online text while grandpa was snoring?
aimai
gogiggs
My reaction as I read that: "oh yeah, that’s why I never read The New Republic".
Nice to see I wasn’t alone.
Matt
@oh really: He is almost Crist-like in the way he has suffered for all of humanity.
Freudian slip? I know that governing Florida must be tough, but come on…
Marlowe
I skimmed that piece and it only served to remind me why I stopped reading TNR years ago. After reading that he voted for Reagan (!) and views McSame splendily right about the surge (!!), my comment to Wieseltier is go fuck yourself.
wakeupUSA
What must the rest of the world be thinking as they witness this darkest of comedies. Came across a site which is perfect. The buttheads of our time, including the McPalin bunch, nominated to receive a butt on their heads. It’s hilarious – http://www.buttheadpolice.com.
Jim Tourtelott
You know, I was going to suggest that you could have at least warned us that you were linking to a piece of tedious, self-involved gas-baggery. But, after all, you did say the piece was by Wieseltier.
EJ
I’m all in favor of energy independence, so I’m glad to see TNR has discovered a new domestic source of natural gas.
Napoleon
No, it means its illegal for her to keep the clothes. I forget where I read it but basically they can’t pay personal expenses out of the finance kitty, so they have to characterize it as something related to the campaign, so claiming that they give it to charity at the end is part of the rouse that its a legit expense.
Gus
I didn’t vote for Arne, but yes, he was the kind of Republican that Minnesota used to produce, a Rockefeller/Stassen Republican. People like him are why the Minnesota Republican party used to call itself the Independent Republican party. Remember that when he ran for reelection, the state party endorsed a fundie wackjob instead of their sitting governor. The state party was already morphing into its current state. I hope reasonable people like Arne can bring the Republican Party back to a reasonable center.
liberal
@vaux-rien:
Amen!
Napoleon
@Napoleon:
This is a PS to my own comment, per TPM a FEC complaint has now been filed alledging that the spending spree was a use of campaign funds for personal use.
Amit Joshi
Is that what it says? I read the link, and I couldn’t understand it.
Calouste
@Zifnab:
So that leaves as supposedly sane, successfull GOP VP picks in the last 80 years: Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush?
Uh-oh.
HyperIon
thank you. i did not have a name for that format.
It reminds me of Rick the Moron Moran’s writing.
Long, very dense paragraphs.
DonBoy
Since everyone else has hit the negative side, I’m going to go contrarian for a moment and admire the use of "Stockdalesque" for McCain.
priscianus jr
An assemblage of quirky opinions that don’t amount to anything coherent. I also stopped reading TNR, maybe eight years ago.
BladeZero
The choice of Sarah Palin was a major laugh at best. Not since Bush is a political candidate made more fun of. On the internet, in the Irc chat rooms, on Tv, in the newspapers.
Josh
You know, I just realized that Wieseltier writes exactly like the narrator of some Woody Allen and some David Foster Wallace stories. But he seems to be serious. In The New Yorker on a good day, this’d be a "Shouts and Murmurs" parody.