Rich points to my fundamental concern re Hillary and a possible foreshadowing of her foreign policies. I say 'might' because I'm not sure whether this glimpse of her FP team is truly representative. If so, then I think it is important...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/opinion/23rich.html?hp
I understand that it is a great tragedy you fellas can't look into Hillary's heart to see what's there. Pretty much all one needs to know about another, particularly a candidate for the presidency, is contained within such soul-watching.
And warmth. What could be more critical as a measure of the character of someone who you've only seen in magazines or on TV.
Perception of warmth is so important. How many fewer readers of FreeRepublic would have supported George Bush had he not been someone they could have a beer with?
Mike Huckabee is a warm fellow too. One of the friendliest Darwin deniers I know of.
Heck, even Rudy has his sharp-elbow New York honest and out-front cheeriness and honesty about him. He's like Podhoretz that way.
And who doesn't like John McCain? I mean, the smile and the funny beerhall singing about bombing Iran and what is warmer than a constructivist supreme court?
And Romney is just an easy-bake-oven of warmth. That smile! That gentle touch on the shoulder in the old folks' home. Those warm and motherly responses he's given that demonstrate how he will expand the unitary executive past what Addington has done (see Greenwald at Salon).
Definitely yulelog warming stuff, boys.
You definitely want to be voting Republican. Like George Bush, stand for principle. Show resolve.
Allright, relax.
It's about trust as much as it is policies. I don't trust Hillary one whit. I trust McCain more.
I would rather have someone principled in office then someone Democratic. I would rather have a principled Republican then an unprincipled Democrat. Our current leadership is an unprinciple Republican, the worst of both worlds. Second worst is an unprincipled Democrat. I haven't seen any real evidence that Hillary has anything inside her, at all, which isn't the product of calculation.
Look at it this way - she's ridden Bill's coattails all the way to the top. I resented her carpetbagging in NY using her husband's name and I resent her attempt to win the presidency based upon her husband's popularity. If it wasn't for his presidency, she wouldn't have been considered for Senate at all, let alone the presidency. I think she's the ultimate product of the DLC; I don't expect her to do a damn thing, once in office, that won't profit corporations. So how can I look at her, and think that she's going to be preferrable to all other Republicans by default?
Don't get me wrong - I'm not cheering for Republicans. I don't want to vote for any of them. But I don't want to vote for Hillary either. She's nothing but a Republican Lite.
Cycloptichorn
To address just one point...
Quote: I don't expect her to do a damn thing, once in office, that won't profit corporations.
That hardly squares with what she did attempt, and we've no good reason to assume she won't do so with even more vigor now, re universal medicare.
and christ in shitty napkins...why not have a bit from Dowd and Greg Sargent
Quote:Note To Dowd And Other Media Figures: Could Hillary's Public Guardedness Be Because Of ... You?
December 19, 2007 -- 8:35 AM EST // link //
Normally Maureen Dowd is not worth the bother, but today's column is worth a look, because it neatly showcases one of the stranger facets of anti-Clinton irrationality: The refusal or inability of many pundits to draw a link between their profession's deep-seated hostility to Hillary and her consequent aloofness and guardedness in public.
Dowd's effort concerns the fact that Matt Drudge and Rush Limbaugh have been ridiculing Hillary for looking wrinkled and old in that photo of her that I blogged about below. Dowd quite reasonably is critical of this attack for much of the column. But then she suddenly feels compelled to veer into this:
Hillary doesn't have to worry about her face. She has to worry about her mask. Back in the '92 race, Clinton pollsters devised strategies to humanize her and make her seem more warm and maternal. Fifteen years later, her campaign is devising strategies to humanize her and make her seem more warm and maternal.
The public still has no idea of what part of her is stage-managed and focus-grouped, and what part is legit. It's pretty pathetic, at this stage of her career, that she has to wage a major offensive, by helicopter and Web testimonials, to make herself appear warm-blooded.
Right, right -- Hillary is cold and calculating and doesn't reveal her true self in public. But surely this is partly because of the very thing the rest of Dowd's column reflects -- the fact that the media, which is to say, people like Rush and Maureen, have been unremittingly hostile to her for years, and years and years, heaping contempt and derision on her every public utterance, on her laugh, and now, on her wrinkles.
Now, I don't know what came first, Hillary's public guardedness -- her decision to wear a "mask" -- or the media and punditry's entrenched hostility towards her. But quite clearly these two chicken-and-egg phenomena are linked to one another. As this column reflects, however, Dowd and her cohorts won't acknowledge this link -- because to do so would be to take an honest look at their own conduct. Which they'll never, ever do.
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-- Greg Sargent
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/
A comment I heard on the telly this morning, don't know who said it but "the function of political campaign reporters is to aid and abet hostilities."
dyslexia wrote:A comment I heard on the telly this morning, don't know who said it but "the function of political campaign reporters is to aid and abet hostilities."
That's VERY good, dys. If you manage to recall who said it, I'd really appreciate finding that out.
A big bit of odd from The Weekly Standard...
Quote:Romney's English
Dec 21, 07 11:39 AM By Matthew Continetti
As he mentioned the other day, Mitt Romney graduated at the top of his class at BYU with a degree in English.
Yet his favorite novel is the L. Ron Hubbard potboiler Battlefield Earth.
If it was his favorite movie, we can torch his trousers now.
blatham wrote:dyslexia wrote:A comment I heard on the telly this morning, don't know who said it but "the function of political campaign reporters is to aid and abet hostilities."
That's VERY good, dys. If you manage to recall who said it, I'd really appreciate finding that out.
I was in the office/puter room at the time and the telly, well you know where the telly is, I have no idea who said it.
Lash wrote:If it was his favorite movie, we can torch his trousers now.
my favorite film is "lonely are the brave." from the novel "the brave cowboy" by Edward Abbey.
Bernie wrote-
Quote:I understand that it is a great tragedy you fellas can't look into Hillary's heart to see what's there.
We've read the source books Bernie. Rider Haggard, Ovid, Homer, Frank Harris, Henry Miller--you know the sort of thing.
We don't do Cosmopolitan.
dyslexia wrote:blatham wrote:dyslexia wrote:A comment I heard on the telly this morning, don't know who said it but "the function of political campaign reporters is to aid and abet hostilities."
That's VERY good, dys. If you manage to recall who said it, I'd really appreciate finding that out.
I was in the office/puter room at the time and the telly, well you know where the telly is, I have no idea who said it.
thanx for nuttin, you skinny prick
spendius wrote:Bernie wrote-
Quote:I understand that it is a great tragedy you fellas can't look into Hillary's heart to see what's there.
We've read the source books Bernie. Rider Haggard, Ovid, Homer, Frank Harris, Henry Miller--you know the sort of thing.
We don't do Cosmopolitan.
Great source books they are too. Need to fix the plumbing, that's where to turn. Best tips on brake repair for a 73 Spitfire, enlightening commentary on the history of the rail boom, overviews of post-modernist architecture, care and handling procedures for Sherri Blair's mother's clitoris, the innate motivations which drive those brit anorak types who end up on internet message boards, and everything important we might need to know about all men (because they are identical) and all women (because they are identical) as well. Who'd need Cosmopolitan when you have what you have?
Most if not all of the candidates had some comments on the assassination of Bhutto and the resulting increased tension in that country.
Mike Huckabee, who's a bit lacking in foreign policy experience, had this jaw-dropping response, paraphrased here:
In light of the events in Pakistan yesterday, I find it interesting that we have more illegal immigrants from that country than any other except for countries to our south. 660 illegal imigrants from Pakistan last year, which is why I should be elected; to secure our borders from illegal immigrants.
As I've argued elsewhere, the rise of Huckabee as the prime candidate for many in the relious right base of the party is a very good thing for those of us who wish to witness the further disintegration of the modern conservative movement.
