Any honest political observer knows that Clinton’s speech was a tour-de-force, and it also makes the Romney campaign’s attempt to buddy up to Clinton look like the stupid strategy that it was. So let’s see what the hacks at the Post’s opinion page have to say, since it’s a pretty good synopsis of how Republicans and/or the DC press are reacting:
That Jennifer Rubin headline gave me my morning chuckle, because even a half-bright Romney venerator like her realizes that Clinton gave a good speech, so she goes with the “highlight of the shitshow” spin. Well played. Gerson proves that he’s the prince of dullness by pushing the Romney boilerplate that Clinton was one of the good ones and Obama isn’t, even though Clinton spent half his speech refuting that tired pantsload. And of course, Milbank can only have one king, so he’s very concerned that Clinton overshadowed Obama.
But, as usual, the woman DougJ has named the post-punk David Broder, Alexandra Petri, is the highlight of the paper with her irony-impaired emission, a long complaint about the length of the speech:
It was too big to fail. It was almost too big to check. It would be like fact checking a century. At dawn tomorrow, I am going to see the factcheckers off on their long voyage into miles and miles of wild, verdant speech. I expect them to write me every month to offer an update on their progress. Perhaps they will return by 2016 with a report.
Then again I only dimly recollect the Clinton era. To me, it was a time of Pokemon and prosperity during which your fifth-grade teacher had to awkwardly explain specific sex acts. But everyone who was there in ’88 assures me that his speech then was easily as long, if not longer.
Translation: Even though I am so very, very young, and therefore must portray myself as having the attention span of a housefly to appease the geriatric Post readership, I’m still not smart enough to use Google to find Clinton’s 88 speech. Also, too: Clenis.
Soonergrunt
Sorry for OT, but not worth a new thread on its own:
ADP Employer Services says US added 201,000 jobs in August.
And back on topic–is there any group of useless pricks as useless or as prickish as the WaPo “writers” stable?
the Conster
Shorter pundits: Are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?
Raven
@Soonergrunt: Is that the “jobs” report or is that tomorrow?
Hunter Gathers
Where the fuck did this shitstain go to school? Miss Haversham’s School For The Tragically Useless? The fact that the American school system got this person placed at any job that pays more than minimum wage makes me weep for the future.
But I’m sure that all her hipster buddies think she’s the shiznit, drinking PBR while waxing poetically about the truths contained in Angry Birds.
Ash Can
I suppose Alexandra Petri is on the WaPo payroll in an effort to pull in younger readers. If so, I’m not sure it’ll pan out; she appears to be appealing to a demographic that can’t actually read.
Comrade Mary
@Soonergrunt: I’m on tenterhooks. I think at least one time recently ADP or someone like them released a rosy report that the official jobs report didn’t back up.
And Petri can bite my ADHD ass.
Raven
Economists polled by MarketWatch expect the U.S. Labor Department to report Friday that nonfarm-payroll employment rose 120,000 in August, compared with 163,000 in July. They also expect that the unemployment rate remained at 8.3%.
Judge Crater
Clenis. If that doesn’t say it all. That the GOP spent eight years trying to destroy the Clintons is now basically forgotten by the MSM. And forgotten by the villagers who now want to sidle up to the successful and powerful couple.
The right-wing impeached Bill Clinton, but Obama is nasty because he want to see Mitt’s tax returns.
Failed media experiment.
debbie
Too long to fact-check? If this is a typical sentiment of “young people,” America is doomed.
Dennis SGMM
It takes a special kind of mental gymnastics to write something like that without noting that the Republicans have offered no facts to check.
Raven
@Comrade Mary: Oh no,”one time recently”! Sounds a lot like SOME SAY!
Elizabelle
But what does The Washington Times say?
Up now: Nancy Pelosi on C-Span Washington Journal.
Being interviewed by Mike Allen of Politico.
At least we’ve got Nancy Smash!
MattF
It really is a catalog of “Why you can’t believe your lying eyes” talking points. Funny, also, that no one noticed the waves of flopsweat emanating from Tampa last week, though not in the ‘ha ha’ sense.
Ash Can
I suspect a lot of this retconned Clinton love from the pundits and the GOP stems from the likely fact that not only do they know that Clinton was a good president and the nation was doing well under him, they know who fucked it up from there, and how.
scav
poor dears, some have gotten soooo used to having their boilerplate carefully pre-chewed, crushed into little sound-bite tweet-ready pellets and then carefully placed into their beaks that anything else disturbs them. Downy little fledglings of the post-factual world. And if Clinton is such a archaic novelty, Clint must have appeared in a fur suit, grunting in cavemanish to their just-opened dewy blue eyes. Alley Oop Oop!
Suffern Ace
Alexandra Petri is yet more evidence that if the country is to survive as a viable country, we will need to burn down Harvard and the northeast elite schools and find a different place to generate elites.
Wag
“Then again I only dimly recollect the Clinton era. To me, it was a time of Pokemon and prosperity ”
At least she’s honest in admitting both her ignorance and her lack of journalistic curiosity.
hep kitty
@scav: lol, i don’t care if it’s dated and cliche, lol
arguingwithsignposts
Shorter Alexandra Petri: Too many notes.
arguingwithsignposts
@Ash Can:
I suspect a lot of it also stems from the fact that they don’t have to run against him again.
jibeaux
Without reading it, I’d like to know what was so horror show about it. The worst I could come up would be dull in parts. I loved it that they had Cristina, and I loved just hearing the phrase “and now, some employees who lost their jobs when they were acquired by Bain Capital”, and I didn’t hear anything remotely approaching horrible.
hep kitty (who is going to use lol, don't care if it's dated & uncool-deal w/ it-ppl deserve to know when they're funny & sometimes I'm too tired for snark)
@Wag: Oh just STFU! Your elders remember prosperity and good times so shut your piehole, twit.
Mark S.
But was the speech too good?
This is great news for Mitt Romney.
Paul
You might like this from the Shields & Brooks (Sept 5) podcast before Clinton’s speech:
GWEN IFILL: Is it fair to assume, however, that Bill Clinton, part of his job here tonight is also to focus, in the way that a lot of the Democrats who spoke last night did in very overt ways, in less overt ways on Mitt Romney?
DAVID BROOKS: Well, he crystallizes — I actually think the Clinton speech is a little overblown.
GWEN IFILL: Really?
DAVID BROOKS: Because he’s not a great speaker. He’s very popular. But can you remember a great speech he gave while president or a great phrase? I frankly don’t think…
GWEN IFILL: Oklahoma City, David.
DAVID BROOKS: OK. That was a nonpolitical speech, but I give you credit for that one.
gnomedad
Facts are stupid things. Also, arithmetic is hard!
hep kitty (who is going to use lol, don't care if it's dated & uncool-deal w/ it-ppl deserve to know when they're funny & sometimes I'm too tired for snark)
“Arithmetic!”
YellowJournalism
Petri: OMG, guys! Journalism is hard. Listening sucks.
Comrade Mary
@Raven: I think I’m pretty sensitive to concern trolling, if that’s what you’re trying to accuse me of, but I’m not doing that. I cannot remember the name of the group or exactly when it happened, but it was some time this year and I remember Benen discussing the fallout, too.
BTW, Benen reports that the jobless claims report is very good today, showing a significant drop.
I LIKE that ADP is releasing such a positive report, but I have my fingers crossed for the real one coming out tomorrow.
Elizabelle
Gah.
Re Alexandria Petri: was an actual fifth-grader not available?
Note she’s already seen how little heavy lifting you have to do, as a new columnist at a once-respected newspaper.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Soonergrunt:
Hmmmm, lessseee here:
The Usual Suspects on Any Given Sunday Morning “News” Show.
The Usual Suspects on Any Given Faux “News” segment.
Most of NPR (you want an example of that, just listen to Inscreep’s interview of Stephanie Cutter this morning)
I could go on but I think you get the point. :)
Petri at the Kaplan Test Prep Daily is simply another example of the kind of people they’ve had to hire over the last 5 years as they’ve bought out all the actual reporters in order to cut costs.
Dennis SGMM
@Ash Can:
It’s interesting to note that the emmessem conveniently forgets their own parroting of every anti-Clinton talking point during the time he was in office. They didn’t even repeat the allegations of Clinton smuggling drugs or of murdering Vincent Foster, did they?
debit
The mental image I now have of Alexandria Petri is her twirling a strand of her hair around a finger, a vacuous smile on her face, and saying, “Hi! I’m young and stupid! Would you buy me something?”
mai naem
@Comrade Mary: ADP’s pretty much always been quite a bit more positive than the real thing. I heard the explanation for that but I can’t remember. I think it’s got something to do with government being more accurate with jobs lost so the net’s is lower.
John PM
This Petri woman does not have any hipster friends, unless she went to write for the Post ironically (to borrow a word from Colbert). Otherwise, she is an idiot.
Tom65
In the immortal words of John Houseman:
Miss Petri, here is a dime. Take it, call your mother, and tell her there is serious doubt about you ever becoming a journalist.
Raven
@Comrade Mary: I’m not accusing you of a damn thing.
butler
@Comrade Mary: The ADP is typically off from the “official” report, by an average of 69K in either direction in recent months.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Petri shits in her dish and reads it for a sign. I think she has confused fact checking Clinton with how long it’s going to take the fact checkers to report on all of the lies that RobMe/Lyin’ have been shoveling out. The media has their narrative and despite Clinton, they are going to do their damnedest to stay with it.
They have some time before the election to undo the good work Clinton has done for Democrats and Obama, and they are going to use every minute of it to do so.
After all, it’s what they are paid to do.
Jay C
@jibeaux:
You don’t have to read it, you have only to look at the byline of “Jennifer Rubin” -who, if there were a position of Queen Hacki of the House Of Hack of East Hackistan, would be a shoo-in for the job – to dismiss it as nonsense.
Unless she is trying to reanimate the inane “God and Israel” flap…which is now buried ..
Mudge
The AP “fact checked” Clinton’s speech. The article is an abomination. An example, Clinton said:
“”For the last two years, health care spending has grown under 4 percent, for the first time in 50 years. So, are we all better off because President Obama fought for [ACA] it and passed it? You bet we are.”
THE FACTS: That’s wishful thinking at best. The nation’s total health care tab has been growing at historically low rates, but most experts attribute that to continued uncertainty over the economy, not to Obama’s health care law.
Oh those “most experts”.
The rest is just as bad. And what uncertainty? Since when did any uncertainty cause some business not to raise prices? It is Republican screed.
http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-politics/20120906/US.CVN.Democrats.Fact.Check/?cid=hero_media
Nicole
I clicked through and read the Petri piece, and, while it’s not a good piece, she was actually saying it was a good speech. She took way too long beating the, “It was long!” “How long was it?” “It was soooooo long that…” schtick and used some pretty old metaphors (yes, we all know Ulysses is a long book, dearie), but it was set up for, it was a long speech, but people actually paid attention to it.
And then she continued to try to snark about why people were so enraptured by it, but the end point was no one can make you want to listen to a speech like Clinton can.
But yeah, it’s tedious wading through a columnist basically trying to say, “Look how young I am!” Especially when the most recent example she can think of for a long movie is Return of the King.
Alex
Rubin’s post about Clinton had the title of “Bill Clinton’s long, long speech about the meanie Republicans”
Her most amusing line – “The comparison between the two presidents’ records was obvious, leaving one to consider if Clinton’s mere presence was a reminder of Obama’s weaknesses.”
butler
@mai naem: Different methods. The “official” government is from the current population survey and is estimated from about 60K surveys taken in the middle of the month. ADP is based on a sample of their actual payrolls. So in some ways you could argue that ADP is more accurate, but they also don’t take into account non ADP style businesses. The difference between then is a typically a fraction of a rounding error.
Ash Can
@Dennis SGMM: That was what I meant — that they do remember, and feel guilty about their complicity.
jibeaux
@Nicole: For my money, there will never be a longer movie than Remains of the Day.
kdaug
@Hunter Gathers:
Not the American school system.
Her Congressman father.
Robin G.
I assume Petri tried to write “tl;dr” and then had a tantrum when the production editor told her she had actual inches to fill.
Jay in Oregon
@kdaug:
The meritocracy at work, I see.
Waynski
@Comrade Mary: You’re correct in your recollection. The ADP report tends to be higher than the labor department report. I believe it’s because it only reports private sector payroll growth and doesn’t include any public sector losses. I could be wrong about that, but their report has trended higher than the government’s for awhile now.
bob h
@Soonergrunt:
Thats a pickup from the month before, and suggests Republicans are in for a disappointment on Friday.
They should put out a multi-DVD set containing all the Charlotte speeches. It has been thrilling stuff.
Marc
“Republicans and/or the DC press”
Please fix the redundancy.
Nicole
@Mudge: You’re right, that article is infuriating. And, of course, no opportunity to leave a comment pointing out how bad it is.
Especially aggravating were the accusations that Obama wouldn’t compromise with Republicans and he was just as much at fault as they were. Because, of course, it’s just unseemly to refuse policies that would send millions more into poverty. How rude!
PurpleGirl
@Robin G.: Today’s win. Where would you like your internets sent?
bemused
@Mudge:
When any pundit or journalist uses the word “uncertainty”, I know it’s time to tune out. It was meaningless from the time banksters used it as a euphemism for sitting on piles of money, not lending money or any other self-serving, self-enriching behavior they wanted to gloss over.
quannlace
I got a chuckle out of the RNC’s statement after Clinton’s speech. A speech full of actual reality and facts completely refuting the talking lies in Romney and Ryan’s speeches.
What their ‘statement’ boils down to?
‘We don’t care. Obama’s still the worstest president ever cause we say so. So there!”
scav
Some newspapers are clearly finding a niche as very exclusive facebooks for well-connected posh people.
Or, perhaps they are merely being reduced to what was once merely one of the functions.
Jane2
Love lazy pundits. Scott Feschuk of (Canuckian) MacLean’s Magazine tweeted:
@scottfeschuk: Especially hilarious: some journalists and others complaining the speech was too long and substantive.
Laura
I’m Petri’s age, and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen her at a party or two, but let me assure you that for the most part, we’re not all as stupid as that.
SW
Remember the scene in ‘Annie Hall’ where they are standing in line at the movie theatre and asshat is going on and on about Marshall McCluan and finally the Woody Character grabs the real Marshall M by the arm from off camera to come out from the wings to tell the dick wad that he is full of shit? That is what Clinton’s speech was like last night for the Romney camp that has been touting Bill Clinton as the last word in responsible ‘Presidentin’
Soonergrunt
On this theme of press uselessness, the AP has “fact-checked” Clinton’s speech by noting that since the teabaggers in Congress have refused to work with the President and turned down his grand bargain (whereby he offered them everything they wanted,) that the President is not a compromiser, and also that the speech is disingenuous because President Clinton never once mentioned Monica Lewinski.
The hashtag #futureAPfactchecks is currently trending on Twitter. Some of them are hilarious.
tomvox1
I love the disconnect between trying to present last night as Clinton > Obama juxtaposed with the stemwinder Clinton gave which essentially boiled down to Obama > Clinton in just one term. The WaPo opinion pages: where logic goes to be beaten with a giant Clenis. (Couldn’t help myself–thanks, mistermix!)
tomvox1
@Jane2:
That’s our Mr. Brooks! Also, too: needs more debt talking, sez Bobo.
pokeyman
@Hunter Gathers: i think that word you are using doesn’t mean what you think it means. there is nothing “hipster” about her.
The Ancient Randonneur
Petri began her WaPo career last year (or maybe the year before) writing that blog with the Dick Whisperer. That could damage anyone, even a Harvard grad like her.
The Ancient Randonneur
@tomvox1:
Also explains where all the pearl necklaces came from that the punditry were grabbing at last night and this morning.
blondie
@Hunter Gathers: I feel like shaking my cane and cawing for her to get off my lawn. But, really, little Alex, if you were too gosh-darn young to experience the Clinton presidency and you are too lazy or dumb to learn about it by, like, such as, reading, also, too, then your 5th grade comments are less relevant than a tiny piece of lint wafting from my clothes dryer vent.
kc
Hard to believe Petri gets paid, probably handsomely, to write crap like that.
gene108
@Paul:
Please fire Mr. Brooks for this demonstration of terminal stupidity.
President Clinton is one of the greatest public speakers of the modern age.
You many agree with the Big Dawg on stuff, but you can’t deny he is a great public speaker.
schrodinger's cat
I was watching PBS, when Rahm asked the Punditubbie assemblage, Clinton was impeached, that was not really bipartisan was it? He ended with weren’t you all there? He looked like he wanted to punch Brooks smug mug.
SRW1
What do you expect from someone who came into her own with the famous words of her beloved philosopher GW Bush: “And it’s hard work.”
Was good enough for him. Is certainly good enough for her.
bootsy
@arguingwithsignposts:
@kc:
Petri: “TL;DL CLINTON! LOL! OMG, BIEBER!”
bootsy
@schrodinger’s cat: If that happened, Rahm would be doing something for the American people, for a change.
bemused
I was laughing at the comments here from people last night who watched David Brooks on PBS looking so pained after Clinton’s speech. I got the impression he looked like someone told him he would have to have colonoscopy without any happy juice. I’d love to see a short mashup of his comments and expressions. I’m not sure I could stand to watch the whole PBS panel group analysis of Clinton’s speech if there is a video though.
Frankensteinbeck
@Alex:
So true. When you look at their presidencies side by side, Obama’s weakness in passing national health care reform that Clinton failed to pass is just GLARING.
Bulworth
“This fact checking stuff, which we only do for Democratic speakers, is the bomb.”
Bulworth
@Frankensteinbeck: Yes, our village media which much prefer if Obama had failed to pass HCR. But since he did pass it, and no gopteabags voted for it, then in their minds, he failed.
Bulworth
Yup. Real radicals get shit done.
grandpa john
@Nicole: Asshole pundits, question do all pundits suffer from ADD and think that anything longer than a soundbite is boring.
Personally I did not find it to long and was surprised on looking at my watch when it was over that it had lasted over 45 min. I don’t thin the attendees found it to long,hell they were still wanting more Some one should tell the prima Donnas that they are not the guest of honor at a convention, and it sure as hell isn’t scheduled to fit their lack of ability to focus for more than 5 minutes and that the real people from the real world at the convention frankly don’t give a flying fuck what their feeble minds think about a speech since it is a forgone conclusion that any speech given by a Democrat will by panned by them.
grandpa john
@bemused: actually who can stand to watch David
Brooks on any program
Grumpy Code Monkey
One part of Clinton’s speech that needs to get more play is his emphasis on Obama’s honest efforts to work with the opposition. Obama’s not the reason bipartisanship is in short supply right now, Congressional Republicans are.
I wished he’d said it explicitly, but we really need to win back the House and solidify the Senate.
Brachiator
So here we have a pundit grasping onto the same life preserver as a lazy blogger or the “average guy” (if the average guy got a gig writing for a snoozepaper).
She is a political writer, but can’t be bothered to actually learn about politics or political history, and who instead offers her personal story wrapped up in edgy pseudo hipster prose with a side of snark.
Hey, it must be a’rite ’cause all the kids do it.
And again, all these hacks whining that Clinton’s speech was too long. But they don’t have they nerve to complain about how political coverage of the presidential campaign of what is supposed to be the most powerful and bestest nation on Earth has to be shoehorned in between tv shows and commercials, making it impossible for good journalists to do their jobs, and leaving a few crumbs for insects like Petri.
To hell with all of them.
LAC
Well, to cut Alex , like, some slack, she probably had Jennifer rubin invading her cubicle space, with her angry face and stale coffee breath. I would write anything to get that bitch out of my space too.
bemused
@grandpa john:
Exactly why I won’t go looking for that no matter how much I’d like to see Brooks so bummed out.
@VividBlueDotty
@gene108:
FTFY. Watching Bobo running around moving the goalposts made ME tired. He hasn’t yet realized that if you are not WRONG you don’t have to do that so much.
Edo
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
I see what you did there. *g*
Edo
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
I see what you did there. *g*
Edo
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
I see what you did there.
Edo
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
I see what you did there.
Allen
“Half-bright”?
You’re giving Rubin far too much credit. Half-dim would be closer to accurate.
Bulworth
@LAC: That’s probably a good point. Times that by two if you’ve got Michael Fcking Gerson hanging in your cube space as well.
Ben Lehman
Pokémon didn’t exist in ’88. Launched in Japan in ’96.
Mike
Your first thought after experiencing an absorbing, transforming work of art is not “It was too long”. Unless you didn’t get it of course, like the dummy in the third row who read it because he had to, kicking and screaming every minute. That was the first response of David Brooks.
Gravenstone
@kdaug: Well shitbox. That’s my third tier wingnut backbencher of a Congress critter. No wonder the progeny is so clueless.
Elie
I am a real fan of Bill Clinton. That said, I am amused that so many credit him with so much dazzling speechifying BEFORE Obama even gives his speech and totally ignoring the many accomplishments of this administration.