Obama thinks he is a good talker, but he is often undisciplined when he speaks. He needs to understand that as President, his words will be scrutinized and will have impact whether he intends it or not. In this regard, President Bush is an excellent model; Obama should take a lesson from his example. Bush never gets sloppy when he is speaking publicly. He chooses his words with care and precision, which is why his style sometimes seems halting. In the eight years he has been President, it is remarkable how few gaffes or verbal blunders he has committed. If Obama doesn’t raise his standards, he will exceed Bush’s total before he is inaugurated.
And because no post about Hindrocket would be complete without this walk down memory lane:
It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can’t get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.
This whole Palin thing is starting to make more sense.
fuddmain
I don’t know what that dude is smoking, but I need to get me some.
Octavian
Rarely is the question asked, "Is our Republicans learning?"
demkat620
I think some haldol might be needed. Stat.
Nylund
Has he never heard the term Bushism? What kind of bubble must he be in to be so divorced from reality?
Letterman has a whole running gag, "great moments in presidential speeches" devoted to the bumbling words of George W. Bush.
KCinDC
Hindrocket is definitely mixing up Bush and Obama. People are constantly (accurately) talking about how Obama hesitates when speaking without a prepared text.
Chuck
This guy has some kind of new, advanced delusion disorder. Take away his keyboard before he convinces someone else that Bush is an amazing public speaker.
Abe Fucking Lincoln
That post has got to win some sort of award for complete denial of reality. Bookmark it.
Keith
Can a blog post itself be classified as trolling?
Good lord, it’s like he truly revels in getting us lefties irate by saying stuff more and more ridiculous. I mean, one of the things Bush is *most* known for is the f’n BUSHISM! How can you possibly be an eloquent, deliberate speaker when there is a term for screwing up a speech named after you?!?!?
boonagain
I certainly hope Obama let some of the Great Ones oratorical skills wash over him today (he can wipe it off back at the Hoel)
Joe Max
Can Assrocket actually believe what he’s typing? If he does, how can this man manage to function in normal everyday life? The sky must be green with pink polka dots in his world.
Can he not be aware of the four volumes (at least) of "Bushisms" in print? Obama would have to talk non-stop 24/7 for the next two months while bashing himself repeatedly in the forehead with a ball-peen hammer to even come near to the eight years of Dubya’s projectile verbal vomit in the public record alone.
But you’re right, John – anyone who could type those words could easily envision Palin as the Leader of the Free World. Gods help us.
MikeL
Speaking of Palin, this is apparently not a photoshot job.
Interesting times are interesting.
ET
The police need to search his house for whatever illegal substances he is using. Truly I cannot fathom those comments without factoring in a substantial amount of mind-altering drugs. Of course his could just be so delusional that a family member needs to have him committed.
I mean really.
fuddmain
@Chuck:
I read somewhere recently that this disorder is called rectal-cranial inversion.
Objective Scrutator
I thought that this was a brilliant insight from Mr. Hinderaker. John Hinderaker is a national treasure, a man who has singlehandedly stopped Islamofascists by showing unprecedented support for President Bush’s vital Patriot Act. One cannot fathom the vast amount of lives he’s saved by defending President Bush.
Thus, one feels a bit underwhelmed at the Hinderocket’s acclaim for President Bush, when President Bush would probably not be alive today were it not for John Hinderaker.
God bless this man, and may the useless Fourth Amendment be overturned!
Spotty
Another Minnesotan, Garrison Keillor, said that George Bush’s mouth is where the English language goes to die.
KCinDC
MikeL, is that the Alaska governor’s mansion?
Jennie
Bring them on.
LiberalTarian
Good grief.
neil
Jesus Christmas. I hope Assrocket is emblematic of the mental acuity of the rest of the Republican population. In that case, 2010 and 2012 will be a breeze.
Did Republicans all eat leaded paint chips as children, or what?
El Cruzado
Dinner, meet laptop screen.
And I didn’t even need the commentary.
I really shouldn’t eat in front of the internets.
Tsulagi
I bet Assrocket goes to bed each night serenely secure in his Bush jammies while praying for wet dreams.
gypsy howell
John, I don’t mean this in a snarky way, but what were you thinking at the time of all these verbal blunders? As I recall, you were still in the embrace of Bush’s genius. Did you hear it with different ears than the rest of us heard it? I figure you’re some kind of Rosetta Stone on this sort of thing – you can translate it for us.
Krista
Is he talking about the same President Bush that is still currently in office?
The only explanation I can think of (besides the drugs), is that this man watches no TV and reads no news. Instead, he is living in a dark room somewhere, where he clips out articles from the New York Times, looking for hidden meanings. His only company is a one-legged GI Joe figure that he has named "President Bush", who he thinks talks to him on a regular basis.
Comrade Jake
It is very difficult to read that and not conclude that Hinderaker’s a world-class idiot.
Foxhunter
@Krista:
Don’t forget ‘The Codpiece’. A must have for all Wankers-in-Chief and those that fellate said wankers.
neal peart
So, Hindrocket believes Bush intended to say all the stupid, garbled and awful shit that has left Bush’s mouth the last eight years?
Balconespolitics
Clearly, the goal is to be parody proof.
Comrade Stuck
Came across this article a few days ago. Soon we’ll be rid of "The Creep in Chief"
President Bush and President-elect Barack Obama are probably hoping their meeting Monday goes better than their first get-together, which left a bad taste in the mouths of both men. Four years ago, Obama and other newly elected members of the Senate were invited to the White House for a breakfast meeting with Bush, who pulled the young Chicagoan aside. "Obama!" Bush exclaimed, according to Obama’s account of the meeting in his second memoir, "The Audacity of Hope." "Come here and meet Laura. Laura, you remember Obama. We saw him on TV during election night. Beautiful family. And that wife of yours — that’s one impressive lady."The two men shook hands and then, according to Obama, Bush turned to an aide, "who squirted a big dollop of hand sanitizer in the president’s hand." Bush then offered some to Obama, who recalled: "Not wanting to seem unhygienic, I took a squirt."
The president then led Obama off to one side of the room, where Bush said: "I hope you don’t mind me giving you a piece of advice." "Not at all, Mr. President," Obama told the commander-in-chief. "You’ve got a bright future," Bush said presciently. "Very bright. But I’ve been in this town awhile and, let me tell you, it can be tough. When you get a lot of attention like you’ve been getting, people start gunnin’ for ya. And it won’t necessarily just be coming from my side, you understand. From yours, too. Everybody’ll be waiting for you to slip, know what I mean? So watch yourself."
Bush then noted that he and Obama had something in common. "We both had to debate Alan Keyes," the president said. "That guy’s a piece of work, isn’t he?"
Comrade Darkness
The party is red, our leader is rising.
Alaska has brought forth a Sarah Palin.
She distributes great oil fortune to the people,
Hurrah! she is the North’s great savior.
Governor Palin loves the people,
She is our guide,
To find the Moose,
Hurrah! she flies the helicopter!
The Republican Party is like the sun,
It shines too bright, then burns low in the night.
Wherever there is a Palin Party,
Hurrah! from responsibility, the people are liberated!
Nikki
Obviously, Hindrocket can be fooled again.
Aaron
My favorite Bush phrase: "Awesome"!
A word that a president should only use in the most carefully of crafted speeches that describe a military attack.
Naturally bush uses it for just about everything.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Here’s a much better video from the totally kickass band Elbow. And another.
(I know this is way off topic, but I just want to make y’all happy. Is that so wrong?)
Comrade Jake
How long before Powerline issues a disclaimer, protesting that their website is no joke?
fuddmain
OT: Has Obama Taken Away Our Guns Yet?
tripletee
Hindrocket is to cogent analysis what George W. Bush is to the English language.
Comrade Stuck
When the lights go down
and the end is near
remember Dear Leader
and his backward spin
of love between
fish and men
when history is penned
He shoulda been an OBGYN.
jrg
If I were Hindrocket, I’d be pissed. Colbert makes millions coming up with shit half as asinine.
Genine
Then you can sell it and make loads of cash. Then it will outsell opium, which would really put a dent in poppy seed demand. Once poppy seed demand is low, a major source of Taliban funding will be gone and they will have less men and supplies. That will give our forces in Afghanistan a clear line to victory.
I think Hindrocket is just trying to do his part for the War! On! Terror!
Comrade Jake
@Aaron:
Didn’t he tell the Pope "Awesome speech!" or something?
Josh Hueco
@neil:
Probably, since all the warnings about lead intake being harmful come from science, which is of the devil.
Genine
Then you can sell it and make loads of cash. Then it will outsell opium, which would really put a dent in poppy seed demand. Once poppy seed demand is low, a major source of Taliban funding will be gone and they will have less men and supplies. That will give our forces in Afghanistan a clear line to victory.
I think Hindrocket is just trying to do his part for the War! On! Terror!
*blockquote makes me sad. :-(
Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist
@Octavian: Rarely is the question asked, "Is our Republicans learning?"
Because everybody knows the answer.
DonkeyKong
I call the FoxNews channel, the "Wooby" channel. Righties can suck their thumbs and cling to it.
Joshua Norton
He chooses his words so carefully that he’s still ‘halting’ 2 days after the speech is over.
Th-th-th-that’s all folks!
Joshua Norton
"In the eight years he has been President, it is remarkable how few gaffes or verbal blunders he has committed."
Someone’s reality check just bounced.
jcricket
This kind of thing gives me hope 2010 will be another disaster from the GOP. It’s one thing for the Savages and Coulters of the world to go all bat shit crazy on Obama. It’s another thing for people that are "supposed to represent sanity" (work with me) like Powerline, Instapundit, Kristol, etc acting all Palin-like.
If you have the actual idiots acting crazy, and the "grown ups" also acting crazy, it’s like, I dunno, exponential craziness. Alan Keyes will be the next nominee at this rate.
Munch, munch, much (although too much microwave popcorn causes cancer, dontcha know).
Seriously, isn’t Hindrocket a lawyer? Or some other kind of business professional? Do his clients not know he writes this kind of clap trap?
Objective Scrutator
"Seriously, isn’t Hindrocket a lawyer"
He’s a lawyer, and I think was a consultant for the White House at one point.
Deborah
Nuc-u-lar.
colleeniem
Totally OT, and probably worthy of a Huffpost comment, yet:
I, for one, welcome our Renegade, Renaissance, Radiance & Rosebud overlords.
skippy
mother of god, me am in bizarro world!
Deborah
This kind of thing gives me hope 2010 will be another disaster from the GOP.
Already they’re zeroing in on the message "We are the party of small government that lets people make their own decisions without government interference….with a focus on questions of abortion, traditional marriage, and just eating together as a family once a week." At this rate any hope of their revival in 2010 or 12 is gone–they need a few more resounding defeats before being The Party of Palin is completely exposed as a losing message outside of the inland south and the mormon belt in the west.
Good point that Hindrocket is parody proof.
kommrade jakevich
This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs.
Any questions?
I suspect that every time Fud Missle drools out another paean to Bush several Harvard Law professors want to slit their wrists.
Cruel Jest
You have got to be fucking kidding me. This is on par with taking "Intelligent Falling" seriously. This is Flat Earth territory. If Josh Marshall led the charge for Ward Churchill to run for the Senate, this would still be 4 times stupider.
I think we have finally discovered Absolute Wingnut Zero (AWZ).
Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist
@kommrade jakevich:
Hehehehe. That really is one of the least flattering pictures ever taken of anybody. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Joshua Norton
Seriously. He must buy Haloperidol in bulk.
jcricket
Wow, this helps explain things quite a bit.
With friends like those, we just need to show up, laugh at them a little, and watch the GOP shoot itself in the foot while simultaneously alienating both the Democrats and Independents.
jibeaux
Dude. In a tight race with the American auto market are the publishers of humor calendars. For eight years they’ve been able to make Bushism a day calendars by hiring someone to work five minutes a day to find the quote. Now they face inevitable layoffs, and extremely tedious calendars. If there were ever a time to get into the kitten calendar market, this is it.
kuvasz
would anyone want an attorney so completely stupid? what the hell kind of law firm would hire such a clueless person?
its akin to how the french think about the genius of jerry lewis, you just scratch your head and wonder if its just that they simply ate a big bowl of stupid for breakfast.
charlotte
Guess Hindrocket doesn’t like folks misunderestimatin’ his guy.
Brian J
Word.
Ash Can
Holy shit. This guy is on some serious pharmaceuticals, isn’t he? (Either that, or he SHOULD be…)
handy
Talk about your coded dog whistling. Can this guy be a more obvious racist?
par4
He needs an intervention
Chuck
Come on. It’s not like Hinderocket or whatever the hell his name is called Obama "well-spoken," or commented on an extra ligament. No, his delusions are far greater than any eugenics-based lunacy (those can be disproven. This shit relies on tidal swelling in the frontal lobes of his brain): the man thinks that the president responsible for stating "Let’s make sure that there is certainty during uncertain times in our economy," chooses his words carefully.
This guy is straight-up, no bullshit, all-endorphins-on-deck batshit fucking crazy, and nothing will ever convince him of that, not even a nice, white room with padded walls and a lovely matching jacket that buttons in the back. He’d probably sit in that room, happily drooling into his shirt collar, waggling his fingers in the sleeves, thinking he’s posting clever-as-fuck diatribes about how teh stoopid Obama’s speeches sound.
And somewhere, someone else will fucking agree.
gbear
When do these guys get so stupid that we get to STOP PAYING ATTENTION TO THEM?
Can these guys actually do any damage over the next four years? It’s like keeping an eye on junior high school kids to see that they aren’t planning to wreck something.
I hope Hindrocket’s head explodes when Franken comes out on top after the MN recount. Maybe he won’t be able to live in MN any more? One can hope. I hear OK is nice.
handy
Sorry, not buying the "crazy talk express." I think he’s being totally disingenuous and he knows it. He’s just too much of a wuss to come out out and say, "The nigra dun know howta talk right."
Brian J
Here’s his Wikipedia page. Apparently, he’s "an advisory board member of the North Star Legal Center, the legal arm of the Minnesota Family Council/Institute; the NSLC also is "instrumental in giving definition and professional credibility to the conservative pro-family legal position in Minnesota," but his full time job appears to be with the firm Faegre & Benson. Make of that what you will, but I think it’s possible to be a jackass on the Internet because of your political opinions and then be a competent professional.
I found this e-mail response sent by Hinderaker, which I never knew about because I stopped paying attention to him a long time ago, very, very amusing. In response to some e-mail about Jeff Gannon, he said:
Objective Scrutator
"In response to some e-mail about Jeff Gannon, he said:"
Jeff Gannon is a moral man that has atoned for his past homosexuality. I don’t see what’s wrong with him, and apparently, neither does Hinderocket. Why hasn’t Gannon blogged since Aug 20, though? He knew about the Ayers story before Ayers bashing was cool.
He was wingnut of the year in 2005, though, so it’s pretty obvious that the Leftists hate him… even more than Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Dr. Mike, and Grant Swank! Mr. Hubrisraker is clearly a man of great intellect, and Time made him ‘Blog of the Year’ for a reason: He’s just so smart.
Update: My new favorite is Elaine Donnelly, who blames female troops in Afghanistan for bin Laden’s escape. She has a point; after all, women are inherently inferior fighters, due to spiritual and physical deprivations.
Delia
@Cruel Jest:
Yes, yes. This is it. AWZ. As long as the intertubes span the ether his words shall be emblazoned as the measure by which all future wingnuttery is measured, judged, and mocked.
gbear
If he’s advising the MN Family Council, then he’s an advisory jackass as well and he’s not just playing one on the internets. The people in the MN Family Council make Michelle Bachmann look like a moderate.
I’m going to guess that he’s not doing a lot of pro-bono work at Faegre & Benson.
cmorenc
Actually, many of us have become firmly conviced that Bush IS indeed an amazing public speaker. Our amazement is over how someone with such mangled (and at times incoherent) speech and thought process ever got to be President for eight years.
handy
OK I’m becoming more open to the theory he was dropped on his head, and is in fact simply a whack job.
Brian J
But what does this necessarily have to do with his professional competence? His bizarre comments described above aside, I think it’s possible for someone to have pretty nutty views on foreign policy, supposedly his big focus on his blog, while not being a big suck at work. Hinderaker’s professional site says he does commercial litigation.
I think it’s best to think of someone you might know who would by all accounts appear average in daily life but, when he goes home, has some sort of bizarre sexual fetish. There’s no connection between the two, just like there isn’t necessarily a connection between Assrocket being a good litigator during the day and a loony toon on his blog at night.
cain
@MikeL:
Jeezus, is that a rictus grin on Palin’s face? She’s scarier than the Joker!
cain
jcricket
No no no. We need to call attention to them. Make them the face of the GOP. Palinites = GOP. Promote Palin for 2012.
I don’t want to just win, I want to crush them and to destroy their chances of winning in the future.
Say what you want about the lizard (carville), but the "throw them a fucking anvil" line is dead on.
jcricket
I don’t think the similarities end there. Joker lies about his past, his present, etc. Joker wants mayhem and power for its own sake. Joker’s insane, but not so insane he can’t get a plan together and fuck shit up. Joker gets people to follow him, but then kills them (like Palin fucks over allies once they cross her a little). Joker’s only in it for himself, and the LULZ.
Sarah Palin is the Joker.
nabalzbbfr
When you listen to Obama’s speeches, you have to keep in mind that he is a skilled practitioner of taqiyya.
Conservatively Liberal
Fixed.
eyeball
Aren’t they (wingnuts) just punking us for blog hits? Kind of a Borat thing. The simplest answer is usually right.
Redleg
How can Hindrocket even manage to speak- what with Bush’s cock in his mouth all the time. I can’t fucking believe that Hindrocket has pretensions to intelligence. What a blind fucking rube.
gbear
@Brian J:
Not quite the same comparison. If he’d keep his fucked-uptitude at home it wouldn’t be so bad, but by working with the MN Family Council, he’s working to limit the legal rights and resources of people in the larger community (as in reproductive rights and recognition of benefits for same-sex couples). When he leaves the office, he is actively working to fuck people over legally.
Maybe he doesn’t do that at his day gig, but at work he can only be as big an asshole as his boss allows him to be. I’m sure he’s holding back.
jcricket
He’s kind of the opposite of the lawyers defending the Gitmo detainees, basically. He’s an anti-lawyer.
Vincent
Brian J, the problem with your analogy is that it ignores the fact that lawyers are supposed to be logical, reasonable people. I defy you to point out any piece of logic in what Hindrocket wrote. Someone can be competent at their jobs and go home and have weird fetishes because their personal and professional lives aren’t connected at all. In this case, being able to comprehend reality is something that’s supposed to transcends that divide.
Jeff
Delete: I have to finish reading posts before I comment on them.
ninerdave
@Vincent:
I disagree wholeheartedly. A lawyers job is to first an foremost defend his client. Whatever that might entail. A lawyer is not required to present __the__ truth…they are required to present _a_ truth. Say it with me: "if the glove don’t fit you must acquit"
Ask any criminal defense lawyer and the only answer they don’t want to hear from their client is if they are guilty or not. In fact most good defense attorneys shun that question. The defense attorney’s job is to defend, not to prove innocence.
bago
Lolcats FTW!
Danielle
Thanks you for this post – I’ve had the flu for a week and I just laughed so hard I think I coughed it right out!
Shalimar
Brilliant. For his next feat of mental gymnastics, Hinderaker can explain how Jimmy Carter was really the world’s foremost expert on hostage negotiations.
Svensker
NoBallsBoffer:
All your white wimmens are belong to us!
sarah in brooklyn
i think that quote proves that the wingnuts don’t really believe what they’re saying – it’s some kind of performance art.
Formica
Let us remember that Hinderaker is a prime example of the people who tried, valiantly, to convince everyone that a couple of assholes in a tent in the desert with a sat phone represented a greater existential threat than Hitler and Stalin combined. To derive from that, that Bush is some kind fantastic orator really isn’t much of a stretch.