Putting aside the idiocy of the entire media created “100 days” nonsense, I have now read no fewer than three pieces and two polls looking at the President’s first hundred days in office, and we haven’t even hit 100 days yet.
We seriously have too many pundits.
Fencedude
Pundits seem to be, sadly, recession proof.
Zifnab
Remember when the media was so ADD it could only fixate on one event a week? That was during a “heavy” news cycle.
Clearly, there just isn’t enough to talk about. Now pass me the lotion, I’m getting a bit raw with all this wanking.
schrodinger's cat
but not enough kittehs, especially the mighty Tunch. Time for new Tunch photos!
JK
John,
I don’t think we have too many pundits. I think we have too many LAZY, STUPID pundits.
The Other Steve
Two words: Personal Lubricant!
Dennis-SGMM
Because most of the pundits are still calloused from beating off over G.W. Bush I’d guess that comparisons between his first 100 days and Obama’s first 100 days are dead out.
Cris
Other than this fascination with Presidential terms, is 100 days apropos of anything? Christmas has 12 days, Lent has 40, a fiscal quarter is 90 days, a pregnancy is 265… who came up with this first 100 days thing?
TenguPhule
Occasionally the herd must be thinned to keep them from destroying their habitat.
Brachiator
@JK:
The whole point of being a pundit is to indulge laziness and stupidity. It’s now a perverse badge of honor not to actually have to go out and cover the news, and to be able to pass off opinion as well-considered wisdom.
JK
@Cris: Chris Matthews said the “100 days” is tied in to the last 100 days of Napoleon’s reign.
Whether or not Matthews is correct, it’s a pretty stupid and meaningless metric for the media to obsess about.
Phil
Hey John!
I see you’re still whoring for your new political masters. I guess I shouldn’t have expected less from a hanger-on and intellectual lightweight such as yourself. Are you still (laughably) calling yourself a fiscal conservative these days John? I know Andy Dandy Sullivan still does.
Kind of ironic since you support a President who is proposing a budget that creates trillion dollar deficits every year for the next 10.
This is what happens when you elect people with no executive leadership experience as the CEO of the free world John.
Did you hear they’re assuming 4 percent growth rates going forward? Think we’re going to see that anytime soon John?
Face it John, the guy you voted for is nothing more than a Sim President. He’s hoping to learn how to be President by continually tapping the A button…and failing miserably. What an incompetent fucking moron. Right now, despite his falling approval ratings, he’s still a LOT more popular than his policies. Rest assured knowing that we fully intend to make sure he’s directly associated with those policies.
All this nonsense about hoping Obama fails is a nice distraction. Obama IS wildly succeeding in getting his agenda passed, and America is failing because of it. It’s looking more and more like Sim President needs to fail in order for America to succeed.
Shame on us for voting in this Sim President merely to assuage white liberal guilt. Let us hope we never make such a devastating mistake again.
Hey look over there – Rush Limbaugh!!!!111!!11!!!1
One more thing John – don’t you fucking dare call yourself a fiscal conservative ever again you America-bankrupting piece of shit.
Shawn in ShowMe
Tweety really said that? In American history I think you’ll only find two presidents where opinion writers made a big out of the first 100 days: FDR, by historians looking back at the emergency measures enacted in that timeframe, and this one. And I don’t think you’ll find any allusions in FDR biographies to Napoleon.
Garrigus Carraig
I guess people can’t count.
.
Wikipedia says FDR met with Congress for 100 days at the outset of his first term. I figured that would be the origin, but it sounds a little vague & even unlikely.
.
Napoleon’s last 100 days, the period between Elba & final defeat, could not be counted until after it was done. That doesn’t seem to be the likely origin either.
The Moar You Know
@Phil: Take your meds, buddy. You seem a little stressed.
Dennis-SGMM
Hey John!
I like pie, John! John I really like pie, John! Pie is the best food in the world, John. John, if you don’t like pie then you’re just worthless John. John, if anyone in the world actually cared about what I think, John, then, John, I probably wouldn’t be so into pie, John.
Cris
@Phil:
stay on target
JK
@Brachiator: I wish the MSM had developed and grown under a different evolutionary path and that a more enlightened, informative, useful, and relevant model would have emerged instead of the current punditocracy superstructure.
Fencedude
@Phil:
Yuck. He spewed everywhere.
TenguPhule
Look, John Cole has already apologized many times for voting for Bush.
Tax Analyst
Ooh Look…A Flying Squirrel!!
Hey Phil, let me take this opportunity to mock you –
John’s a Fiscal Conservative, Nyah, Nyah, Nyah…and since you “fucking dared him”, he should make it a point to restate that at least once every day from now on.
Maybe next time you should just hold your breath until you turn blue.
Brachiator
@JK:
It can’t be helped. Nature abhors a vacuum, and media abhors an absence of chatter. It doesn’t matter much whether its enlightened or stupid.
JK
@Shawn in ShowMe: @Garrigus Carraig: I don’t think Chris Matthews puts a high premium on accuracy whenever he opens his mouth. He just goes with his gut. It’s the same thing with all the dopey movie references he makes. Who use on God’s green Earth could draw a comparison between the Arab attack on Aqaba and strategy employed in the 2008 presidential campaign?
Phil
Whatever helps you sleep at night buddy. Go explain it to your kids. Take pride. Love it. Live it. OWN it.
This is your legacy.
Joshua Norton
Sheeeyit! The wankers had his first 100 days already summed up (and declared a disaster) on election night.
Pundits are too busy trying to come up with new sports metaphors in the Dems. v. Repugs. Superbowl of US Politics to actually do any meaningful analysis. Their only contribution to any discussion is how much any action will piss off the other side. And what they’ll do to retaliate. And how that will be good or bad. Depending on their own personal prejudices and ideology.
KRK
Sexist!
Fencedude
@Phil:
Yes, it would have been so much better to just let the entire economy collapse.
No one is going “yay! Deficits! I LOVE DEFICITS!” but…do you have a better idea?
Joshua Norton
Perhaps round up all the ChimpCo crooks and make them give everything back. But that would set off the Phil’s of the world into full-throated, high C shrieking so we dasn’t do that.
Phil
“Yes, it would have been so much better to just let the entire economy collapse.
No one is going “yay! Deficits! I LOVE DEFICITS!” but…do you have a better idea?”
Let’s start by not trying to link trillion dollar + deficits in 2018/2019 (their numbers not mine) to a crisis in 2008/9.
TenguPhule
Corrected for accuracy.
Uncle Glenny
But but but… Grandma’s retirement fund is all in Halliburton!
Fencedude
@Phil:
Uhh……why not?
TenguPhule
Phil obviously failed basic math and economics.
Also, let’s hear it for the $5+ trillion Bush pissed away and that we now need to fix with more money. Wheeee!
Joshua Norton
Oh no, can’t do that. It’s the NEW doctor’s fault the patient has cancer, not the old doctor who just completely denied all the symptoms.
The Moar You Know
Don’t interrupt Phil while he’s shitting his pants.
TenguPhule
I understand there is a high demand for well fed GOP stooges in 3rd world countries, they make good eating (or so I heard).
Michael
In Phil’s world of “fiscal conservatism” {guffaw}, nobody should ever pay for three decades of supply side upward directed wealth redistribution.
Nay, we all have to suffer forever, because God Forbid that the top 5% ever have to pay the price for the benefits they received at the cost to the infrastructure and society at large.
Phil
“Oh no, can’t do that. It’s the NEW doctor’s fault the patient has cancer, not the old doctor who just completely denied all the symptoms.”
Like this doctor?
“I think we have an excessive degree of concern right now about home ownership and its role in the economy. Obviously, speculation is never a good thing. But those who argue that housing prices are now at the point of a bubble seem to me to missing a very important point. Unlike previous examples we have had, where substantial excessive inflation of prices later caused some problems, we are talking here about an entity — home ownership, homes — where there is not the degree of leverage we have seen elsewhere. This is not the dot-com situation; we have problems with people having invested in business plans for which there was no reality. People building fiber-optic cable for which there was no need. Homes that are occupied may see an ebb and flow in the price at a certain percentage level, but you’re not going to see the collapse that you see when people talk about a bubble. And so, those of us on our committee in particular, will continue to push for home ownership.”
Thanks for playing.
I appreciate all the honesty from the true believers here. You are the proud party of trillion dollar deficits, each and every year to 2019 and beyond. Will you run campaign commercials?
If not, we’ll be happy to run them for you.
TenguPhule
Commerical:
Phil: Hi, my name is Phil, I was for deficit spending in wars overseas, but am against them now for domestic spending.
I love to wank on about how Obama’s spending big money, but will completely ignore that is due in large part to him being more honest in what the government actually is spending compared to Bush and the long neglected infrastructure that needs to be repaired because there is no such thing as a free lunch.
This is Phil, and I appove this message. Tax cuts, bitches!
TenguPhule
Except that has nothing to do with the big problem, which is unregulated credit default swaps.
Thanks for playing, “What’s that jackalope?”
You win Ricearoni, that San Francisco Treat.
Free Mandatory Gay Abortion Fetus flavoring on every bite!
Napoleon
It must suck to be Phil and know that not only did your political party completely run the greatest nation ever right into the ground but that view is also held by 60% + of the population and even a higher % among the young that will be voting heavily Democratic for the next 50 years while the most reliably Republican voting cohort is long dead.
Phil
“Commerical:
Phil: Hi, my name is Phil, I was for deficit spending in wars overseas, but am against them now for domestic spending.
I love to wank on about how Obama’s spending big money, but will completely ignore that is due in large part to him being more honest in what the government actually is spending compared to Bush and the long neglected infrastructure that needs to be repaired because there is no such thing as a free lunch.
This is Phil, and I appove this message. Tax cuts, bitches!”
That’s so cute!!!
I do look forward to your sterling defenses of trillion dollar deficits though.
SO WE CAN BUILD BIG AIRPORTS FOR JOHN MURTHA!!!111
TenguPhule
We already have them from Bush. Why are you so surprised just because Obama is reporting the true numbers this time?
NutellaonToast
Pundits pundits everywhere and not a one can think
Adrienne
Check and mate.
All right guys, move it along. Nothing to see here.
Phil
Tenguphule,
You seem a little slow: let’s try again.
These are the actual and projected deficits from 2000 to 2019.
I know there are some smart liberals out there. Unfortunately, they apparently do not frequent this website. I’m reminded of why I don’t come here. John Cole does set the tone after all.
Max
One is too many. Just my opinion.
TenguPhule
Cite a better source if you want to play source games.
If you’re only going to throw a picture on a blog at us and cite it as cut and dried fact, you deserve every bit of mocking you receive here.
J. Effingham Bellweather
The phrase “100 days” was borrowed from French history. It was coined by historians to describe the dramatic events of 100 days in 1815 – from the time of Napoleon Bonaparte’s escape from exile on Elba and his restoration as emperor, to his second abdication of power after his defeat at Waterloo. Even though the Frenchman’s tenure ended in failure, reporters in 1933 – impressed by Roosevelt’s swift legislative campaign and bold steps to confront the Depression – likened the president’s first 100 days to Napoleon’s last
(Source: NationalJournal.com, “Roosevelt: The First First 100 Days,” Jan. 8, 2009)
DRD 1812
The 24/7 need to keep stuffing the cables and intertubes with “content” is the reason.
Life was a lot simpler back when Uncle Walter told us what was up once a day.
Fencedude
@Phil:
Fuck John Murtha
What, you expect us to be defending him or something?
Elie
To me it is less about having too many pundits than about having a news establishment cheapened by years of substituting glitzy “positions” and cheesy news grabbing headlines for substantive discussion of the details of policy alternatives and impacts of various decisions.
We had in depth content and research capabilities within the news organizations turn into Hollywood gossip formatting with whispers and inuendos driving the goal of either titillation or to embarrass public figures — drive by news content. The effect was to turn people away from much of the mass media and probably also the dissuading of many potentially excellent public servants from serving in the political arena – their lives subject to the propagation of half researched rumors, behind the scenes manipulation of facts and totally biased talking heads. It has become very difficult to get real information and to groom our people to be prudent citizens — not blank headed consumers..
I am one of those who believes that the current MSM has brought its financial straights on itself — and even though the cable networks are not in as immediate a problem as the newspapers, they face the same risk and will also receive a business adjustment related to less use if they don’t wise up. More and more people do not want to buy what they are selling
The public needs tools and information to understand and survive our complex world. We do not want to be used or manipulated anymore to help incompetents make their livings. Its ok to have a point of view, but we are tired of the distortion and manipulation that have so distorted our civic landscape that we have actually been hurt both economically and politically by being unable to always see through their lies.
I predict lots of change — lots and a big shift in the old stuff that used to pass so easily. Lets see how long it takes
Michael
@ Phil
Somebody needs to apply a dose of Vagisil to Phil. He’s really irritated, and I hear that might minimize the symptoms.
omen
@Phil:
via mclaughlin group, where buchanan echoed your argument:
MR. BUCHANAN: All right, take a look at the four biggest default states or foreclosures — California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida. They’re Hispanic folks who were put into houses they couldn’t afford with no documents.
[…]
MS. HIRSCHHORN: Pat, I have to come back at you on the Nevada and Florida. That’s all investment properties. That’s where all the defaults are. Those aren’t immigrants. Those are not people’s first homes. Those are people who are more affluent —
MR. BUCHANAN: They’re boomers flipping houses.
MS. HIRSCHHORN: — who thought they could keep going up and keep flipping, yes.
JK
@J. Effingham Bellweather: What do you know? It turns out that Chris Matthews was not full of it after all when he referred to Napoleon’s 100 days.
The National Journal is a great resource. It’s a shame that they have such an astronomical subscription price which makes it impossible for most people to actually read it.
You’re fortunate to be either working for an organization that subscribes to it or independently wealthy enough to afford their $1,800 (give or take a few hundred dollars) annual subscription rate.
omen
@Phil:
You are the proud party of trillion dollar deficits, each and every year to 2019 and beyond. Will you run campaign commercials?
frontline interviewed republican senator judd gregg:
we’re going to be in hock for $8 TRILLION from bush/republican idea of medicare reform – alone.
omen
@JK:
$1,800 (give or take a few hundred dollars) annual subscription rate.
people write it off on their taxes.
RememberNovember
@omen:
figures neo-rascist xenophobe Buchanan points to Hispanics. I’m more inclined to believe it’s the rich REPUBLICANS flipping houses..
can you find the sarcasm in the previous statement? I thought ya could.
RememberNovember
@Phil:
where is this from? It has been cut and pasted into flicker page- where is the data cited that arrives at this ?
Oh right just like the Republican stimulus solution, lots of pictures, no hard facts. Wishing does not make it so and making shit up doesn’t cut it.
Research is a skill gained in later academia, apparently you learn it or you don’t.
RememberNovember
@JK:
if anyone cares, the definition of pundit is a “wise person, a guru” or scholar”
many don’t fit into that category. Sort of like calling a bucket of shite “Humanure”…it’s still a bucket of shite!
Evolved Deep Southerner
Phil, I could have sworn that not that long ago you went on some rant here and swore therein that said rant would be your last post here ever. So why are you back here now, you fucking pussy? No willpower?
Little Dreamer
Is this the reason you’ve reduced yourself to talking about hand lotion in your latest thread?
I’m finding less and less reason to come around here these days. Keep it up, I’ll just find something to replace my BJ fix (which I’ve already cut down on visiting here greatly in recent months).
BJ used to be the best site on the blogging internet, now I’m getting very bored with this place.
Rick Taylor
@Phil:
I don’t have much time to compose a response, so I’ll just point out to make a case using a graph, you need two of them; one with the projected deficits under Obama, and another with the projected deficits if we’d left the previous administration’s policies in place. Otherwise you’re missing context. Yes, the previous administration ballooned the deficit, and at the end we entered an economic emergency, where due to the recession tax receipts are way down. But this implicit argument that everything was going great, and it’s only because Obama became president that suddenly the forecast for future deficits is so dire is disingenuous, to say the least. Also, the president is proposing extra emergency spending because just about every economist agrees we need a stimulus desperately; many of them are saying the one we have is too small. Even Republicans admit a stimulus is necessary, they just want to implement it entirely through tax cats.
Marcel Kincaid
Sorry, Phil, but people here use special devices that allow them to detect your stupidity, which is remarkably large, I must say.