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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

by DougJ|  October 1, 20127:10 pm| 61 Comments

This post is in: David Brooks Giving A Seminar At The Aspen Institute, DC Press Corpse

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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?

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Reader Interactions

61Comments

  1. 1.

    Enhanced Mooching Techniques

    October 1, 2012 at 7:13 pm

    Tom who? I belive that’s the correct reply to that question.

  2. 2.

    Yutsano

    October 1, 2012 at 7:14 pm

    The full implications won’t be known for another Friedman Unit.

  3. 3.

    El Cid

    October 1, 2012 at 7:14 pm

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

  4. 4.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 1, 2012 at 7:14 pm

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

    Opinions differ.

  5. 5.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    October 1, 2012 at 7:15 pm

    Rutro, sounds like Romney may be in trouble with the world’s cabbies.

  6. 6.

    SP

    October 1, 2012 at 7:17 pm

    If Romney waits 6 months he might win over Tom’s heart and mind.

  7. 7.

    BC

    October 1, 2012 at 7:17 pm

    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

    October 1, 2012 at 7:18 pm

    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

    October 1, 2012 at 7:18 pm

    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)

  10. 10.

    dmsilev

    October 1, 2012 at 7:19 pm

    So wait, I’m confused. Is this or is this not excellent news for John McCain?

  11. 11.

    Shawn in ShowMe

    October 1, 2012 at 7:20 pm

    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

    October 1, 2012 at 7:21 pm

    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

    October 1, 2012 at 7:22 pm

    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

    October 1, 2012 at 7:23 pm

    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.

  15. 15.

    Metrosexual Manichean Monster DougJ

    October 1, 2012 at 7:24 pm

    @dmsilev:

    It’s fine, it’s a good column. But it won’t influence anyone

  16. 16.

    scav

    October 1, 2012 at 7:24 pm

    Bemustached media titan and 6-month-egg-timer demographic lost? dear dear deario.

  17. 17.

    Nicole

    October 1, 2012 at 7:25 pm

    I think this post is just overkill.

  18. 18.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    October 1, 2012 at 7:26 pm

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

  19. 19.

    General Stuck

    October 1, 2012 at 7:26 pm

    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

    October 1, 2012 at 7:30 pm

    @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”.

  21. 21.

    Joy

    October 1, 2012 at 7:30 pm

    @Enhanced Mooching Techniques: That was my reply. You beat me to it. Who gives a fuck what he thinks? Oh right, Halperin.

  22. 22.

    Schlemizel

    October 1, 2012 at 7:31 pm

    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

    October 1, 2012 at 7:31 pm

    @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

  24. 24.

    PeakVT

    October 1, 2012 at 7:32 pm

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

  25. 25.

    arguingwithsignposts

    October 1, 2012 at 7:34 pm

    @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

    October 1, 2012 at 7:34 pm

    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

    October 1, 2012 at 7:36 pm

    @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

    October 1, 2012 at 7:38 pm

    @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

    October 1, 2012 at 7:38 pm

    @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

    October 1, 2012 at 7:40 pm

    @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

    October 1, 2012 at 7:41 pm

    @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

    October 1, 2012 at 7:44 pm

    @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

    October 1, 2012 at 7:45 pm

    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.

  34. 34.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    October 1, 2012 at 7:45 pm

    OT, found while looking for something else:

    During the Jan. 3 broadcast of ABC’s “World News Tonight” Diane Sawyer introduced a heartbreaking segment from the Iowa caucus, featuring a distraught voter being consoled by Mitt Romney.

    That distraught voter? She punked all of them. The mockumentary is on the festival circuit right now.

  35. 35.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 1, 2012 at 7:46 pm

    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

    October 1, 2012 at 7:53 pm

    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

    October 1, 2012 at 7:57 pm

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

  38. 38.

    var

    October 1, 2012 at 7:58 pm

    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.

  39. 39.

    lacp

    October 1, 2012 at 8:01 pm

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: Christ, for all we know, they’ll confuse him with Cesar Romero.

  40. 40.

    Persia

    October 1, 2012 at 8:07 pm

    I’m just excited to see Men At Work lyrics.

  41. 41.

    Mike E

    October 1, 2012 at 8:07 pm

    Just for this I’ma gonna grow a stache, then burn it. Should take about 6 months.

  42. 42.

    blingee

    October 1, 2012 at 8:08 pm

    When you’ve lost Tom Friedman….well you’ve lost Tom Friedman.

  43. 43.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    October 1, 2012 at 8:15 pm

    @Persia: They nullify the night

  44. 44.

    El Cid

    October 1, 2012 at 8:19 pm

    I heard the Cesar Chavez statue will face toward Mecca.

  45. 45.

    1badbaba3

    October 1, 2012 at 8:20 pm

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

    Sorry, could not find an upside down question mark.

  46. 46.

    Richard

    October 1, 2012 at 8:29 pm

    Romney just lost all the cab drivers on the Arab street.

  47. 47.

    Linda Featheringill

    October 1, 2012 at 8:29 pm

    OT but interesting:

    PPP says there is evidence that Obama has coattails.

    http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/10/romney-senate-races-republicans-polls.php?ref=fpnewsfeed

  48. 48.

    azelie

    October 1, 2012 at 8:36 pm

    In the Village, at least there’s pretty lights

  49. 49.

    Persia

    October 1, 2012 at 8:37 pm

    @blingee: I guess it could be interpreted as yet another nail in the Romney coffin.

  50. 50.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    October 1, 2012 at 8:52 pm

    OT, but potentially tangentially related, I re-read a linked old post, and its comments at Whatever and there was a comment by McMegan, describing when she met him (at a con, I think). It was a bit surreal to see that name, attached to a comment there.

  51. 51.

    piratedan

    October 1, 2012 at 9:00 pm

    dammit Doug, I keep trying to place which song this line (i.e. the thread title) is from!

  52. 52.

    LanceThruster

    October 1, 2012 at 9:02 pm

    To all the funny commentors…

    Zing-a-ding-ding!

    [you know who you are]

  53. 53.

    Nicole

    October 1, 2012 at 9:09 pm

    @Metrosexual Manichean Monster DougJ: I adore Colin Hayes’ acoustic version of “Overkill.” Of course, I also adore John Wetton’s acoustic version of “Heat of the Moment,” so make of that what you will.

  54. 54.

    Boudica

    October 1, 2012 at 9:14 pm

    @Persia: From my favorite Men at Work song, too!

  55. 55.

    danielx

    October 1, 2012 at 9:16 pm

    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.

  56. 56.

    Joseph Nobles

    October 1, 2012 at 9:19 pm

    Losing Tom Friedman should be the first part of Friday night.

  57. 57.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 1, 2012 at 9:25 pm

    @azelie:

    In the Village, at least there’s pretty lights

    and there is, in fact, little variation

  58. 58.

    sven

    October 1, 2012 at 10:02 pm

    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

    October 1, 2012 at 11:50 pm

    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.

  60. 60.

    fuckwit

    October 2, 2012 at 12:30 am

    Friedman can suck on this.

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. Why the conventional wisdom matters « The Reality-Based Community says:
    October 2, 2012 at 6:25 pm

    […] DougJ at Balloon Juice mocks Mark Halperin for noting that Mitt Romney has decisively lost “the Tom Friedman primary.” […]

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