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You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / David Brooks Giving A Seminar At The Aspen Institute / I think about the implications

I think about the implications

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I know some of you hate this stuff, but sometimes the insularity of the Villagers blows me away. Halperin:

Mitt Romney decisively loses the Tom Friedman Primary. Boston will likely say “who cares?” and “big surprise (not),” rather than asking why it happened and what the political (and potential governing) implications are.

Are there really voters who are going to change their mind based on what Tom Friedman thinks at this point in the election cycle? What could the governing implications of one negative Tom Friedman column possibly be?

Reader Interactions

61Comments

  3. 3.

    El Cid

    Well, I suppose among residents of Tom Friedman, the Tom Friedman Primary could count among their most significant electoral battles.

  4. 4.

    Omnes Omnibus

    What could the governing implications of one negative Tom Friedman column possibly be?

    Opinions differ.

  7. 7.

    BC

    Damn, if I weren’t such an Obot I would vote for Romney. My knee jerks in opposition to what Tom Friedman says.

  8. 8.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    Are there really voters who are going to change their mind based on what Tom Friedman thinks at this point in the election cycle?

    __
    I guess in 6 months we’ll find out.

    ETA: damm, Yutsano got there first

  9. 9.

    ? Martin

    Are there really voters who are going to change their mind based on what Tom Friedman thinks at this point in the election cycle?

    No, but I imagine things will look completely different on the ground in 6 months.

    (Sometimes I think DougJ sets these up just to see how many of us will jump at it)

  11. 11.

    Shawn in ShowMe

    What could the governing implications of one negative Tom Friedman column possibly be?

    Are there really voters who are going to change their mind based on what Tom Friedman thinks at this point in the election cycle?

    Tom Friedman is widely read among the immigrant Indian cab-driving demographic. If you’ve lost them, you’ve lost the future of the Republican party.

  12. 12.

    MattF

    No, Friedman isn’t going to convince any actual voters and the number of voters who care about foreign policy is tiny. That said, Friedman’s takedown of Mitt’s foreign policy stupidities puts the Village Seal of Approval on the proposition that Mitt doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Yeah, 99.99999 percent of Friedman’s stuff is a pointless waste– but why whine when he’s correct?

  13. 13.

    dmsilev

    Scary to say, but Friedman’s column isn’t all that bad. Not particularly insightful of course, as it’s only taken him a decade or so to begin to realize that the modern GOP is stark raving mad, but given the source it’s pretty reasonable.

  14. 14.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    sometimes the insularity of the Villagers blows me away

    __
    To be fair, this blog’s community can be a bit insular at times too. Of course unlike the Village we aren’t a sinister cabal of borderline-genocidal moronic fuckwads who inherited our positions at birth, so we do have that at least.

  18. 18.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    Friedman only recently discovered that when Romney says the world is flat he means it literally.

  19. 19.

    General Stuck

    Sorry DougJ, I don’t give a tinkers damn what Tom Friedman thinks writes or shits. And especially right now. I do care about this

    Just Released: President Obama to Establish César E. Chávez National Monument

    Nutters heads to explode on Obama building monument to both union thuggery and dirty messicans before the election. With his sekret commie freak flag flying high.

  20. 20.

    Metrosexual Manichean Monster DougJ

    @Nicole:

    Glad someone got it. I’ve always admired your musical acumen since you told me you had an earworm for “I Want To Kiss You All Over”.

  22. 22.

    Schlemizel

    I’d rather slit my wrists with a dull rusty spoon that read the ‘stash let alone actually be influenced but the useless sack of shit

  23. 23.

    wrb

    @ThatLeftTurnInABQ:

    To be fair, this blog’s community can be a bit insular at times too. Of course unlike the Village we aren’t a sinister cabal of borderline-genocidal moronic fuckwads who inherited our positions at birth, so we do have that at least.

    Speak for yourself

  25. 25.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @dmsilev: Gawker dismantles Friedman’s stylings today.

    Sample:

    Imagine what it must be like to be the editor of globalism’s Rain Man, Thomas Friedman. Your job, ostensibly, is to hammer this man’s prose into some semblance of logical readability, and yet he has built a fabulously lucrative career on his total lack of logic, readability, or, really, variety of any kind. Clearly, his editors have now made the only sensible choice: “Eh, just put that shit right in the paper exactly how he typed it on his Blackberry.” (*Big shot of heroin*)

  26. 26.

    Bort

    I cut out the Mustache of Understanding Middleman and ask a random cab driver who I should vote for. Or failing that, a waiter or busboy.

  27. 27.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @PeakVT:

    Half of the wingers will confuse César E. Chávez with Che Guevara. The resulting rage will be about the same, though.

    “They all look alike to me anyway.”

  28. 28.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @ThatLeftTurnInABQ: that’s why I read Sully and Joe Klein, to see what the Village is saying. I don’t bother with hard core right wingers because people here and in other places keep me posted enough to be aware when one of their whackadoo memes starts creeping in.

  29. 29.

    Chyron HR

    @PeakVT:

    Half of the wingers will confuse César E. Chávez with Che Guevara.

    And the other half will confuse Cesar Chavez with Chuck-E-Cheese.

  30. 30.

    NonyNony

    @Chyron HR:

    And the other half will confuse Cesar Chavez with Chuck-E-Cheese.

    You’re forgetting the group that will confuse him with Cesar Romero and wonder why Obama’s building a monument to the Joker.

  31. 31.

    dmsilev

    @PeakVT:

    Half of the wingers will confuse César E. Chávez with Che Guevara Hugo Chavez. The resulting rage will be about the same, though.

    FIXT.

  32. 32.

    General Stuck

    @PeakVT:

    They are already fit to be tied that Obama is buying off the defense contractors (and paying their fine from general fund cash,) to not send out required layoff possibilities for the coming defense cuts.

    Now he is showing them how you bully pulpit to win. And I can’t tell you what a delight it is to witness it all.

  33. 33.

    dollared

    In a fit of seriousness, I will point out that some people really do lurrv the Mustache.

    There really are a whole bunch of upper middle class white centrists who buy into the “globalization means those other people have to be poor” meme.

    So yes, Tommy boy could move a few thousand votes. And in that gruop, all of them voted for Bush, at least the first time.

    I’ll take every goddamn win until the Dems hit 300 votes in the house, and the GOP leadership flees to Brazil and Paraguay.

  35. 35.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I do think there are chin-stroking tote-baggers, maybe not a huge number but significant in such a close race, who need to tell themselves they’re giving a lot of Very Serious thought to the race. One self-important chin-stroker who might be influenced by Friedman: St Colin, whose endorsement I think would matter as part of the narrative that drives lo-infos to vote for the apparent winner.

  36. 36.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    I love that Halperin is dumb enough to think that a Friedman column matters one iota to anyone beyond his little circle and that he is then forced to go to the wall to defend its importance because, in his mind, “As goes Friedman, so goes I.”

  37. 37.

    arguingwithsignposts

    It’s funny, because I don’t remember there being any other general election primaries.

  38. 38.

    var

    I haven’t even thought about the Mustache in a while he’a so irrelevant. I assume he’s just playing out his contract at the New York Times like a bad free agent signing and he will retire to Singapore or something and do the lecture circuit from there.

  45. 45.

    1badbaba3

    @lacp: Quien es Mas macho, Ricardo Montabaln o Cesar Romero?

    Sorry, could not find an upside down question mark.

  55. 55.

    danielx

    Are there really voters who are going to change their mind based on what Tom Friedman thinks at this point in the election cycle?

    Is there anyone outside the Village who cares what Tom Friedman thinks on any topic whatsoever? His record for being wrong rivals that of Bloody Bill Kristol, and he’s almost as much of an asshole.

  58. 58.

    sven

    If you are a fan of Colin Hay or [email protected] it is worth checking his tour schedule. I caught him last year at a 300 seat venue and for only $25. I really enjoyed the music and was surprised at how funny he was.

  59. 59.

    Spatula

    I know some of you hate this stuff, but sometimes the insularity of the Villagers blows me away.

    Please.

    DougJ, you would give both nuts to become a part of the Village government/media complex.

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