Things stay the same
It's really sad to follow up on stories that should be dead and buried, but I feel bad even for righties when they keep making the same embarrassing mistakes.
But Mitt Romney just keeps asking for it with his invented history of being a sportsman. He tries to fix it, he makes it worse. And provides a sound bite that will probably haunt him 'till the end of his days: I’ve always been a rodent and rabbit hunter. Small varmints, if you will.
It's just like John Kerry's oft-cited "Who among us doesn't like NASCAR" bit. Except, of course, that he never actually said that. And very much like the endless citation of Al Gore and the Internet, which has become a part of popular culture, in spite of it being untrue. So it's fitting, if you will, that Romney is not only being directly quoted, instead of slandered, but that it stems from a glaringly obvious attempt to pander by lying about himself.
Having put it that way, I guess I don't feel bad for Mitt at all. And to be honest, I'm thrilled that Newt Gingrich's off-the-cuff racism made headlines, and that he tried to fix it with a stilted and whorish attempt to prove what an inclusionary guy he is by reading some cue cards-- in Spanish. Of course, with all the focus on his bigotry, Newt's ignorance of the actual issue at hand has largely been overlooked.
And while it isn't an ongoing thing, I've noticed that lots of progressives are waiting (in vain, I suspect) for the MSM to start talking about Giuliani's disturbing history of authoritarianism and egotism-- which is eerily reminiscent of the current president.
"It's a no-risk society," Giuliani went on. "If we continue with this idea of collective responsibility, we'll become a society that deteriorates. And it's a battle that has to be fought now."
He offers health care as an example. "Democrats want universal health care, collective responsibility--honestly, it's their version of socialized medicine." Even the recent health care reform in Massachusetts, designed by the Republican governor Mitt Romney, was tainted with collectivity, because it required every citizen to get health insurance.
This is also eerily reminiscent of current White House ideology-- which never moved beyond the early 1980s and the Cold War, where anything to the left of Milton Friedman is an excuse to play red scare. It's idiotic, childish, and outright dangerous in a nation where almost 15% of the citizenry has no medical coverage, yet costs are increasing by 10% annually.
These people shouldn't be serious contenders for the presidency of the United States-- they should be marginalized kooks, only good for a laugh. And as the last six years have shown us, taking stone-headed demagogues seriously instead of laughing at them can result in a whole lot of tears down the road.
But Mitt Romney just keeps asking for it with his invented history of being a sportsman. He tries to fix it, he makes it worse. And provides a sound bite that will probably haunt him 'till the end of his days: I’ve always been a rodent and rabbit hunter. Small varmints, if you will.
It's just like John Kerry's oft-cited "Who among us doesn't like NASCAR" bit. Except, of course, that he never actually said that. And very much like the endless citation of Al Gore and the Internet, which has become a part of popular culture, in spite of it being untrue. So it's fitting, if you will, that Romney is not only being directly quoted, instead of slandered, but that it stems from a glaringly obvious attempt to pander by lying about himself.
Having put it that way, I guess I don't feel bad for Mitt at all. And to be honest, I'm thrilled that Newt Gingrich's off-the-cuff racism made headlines, and that he tried to fix it with a stilted and whorish attempt to prove what an inclusionary guy he is by reading some cue cards-- in Spanish. Of course, with all the focus on his bigotry, Newt's ignorance of the actual issue at hand has largely been overlooked.
And while it isn't an ongoing thing, I've noticed that lots of progressives are waiting (in vain, I suspect) for the MSM to start talking about Giuliani's disturbing history of authoritarianism and egotism-- which is eerily reminiscent of the current president.
"It's a no-risk society," Giuliani went on. "If we continue with this idea of collective responsibility, we'll become a society that deteriorates. And it's a battle that has to be fought now."
He offers health care as an example. "Democrats want universal health care, collective responsibility--honestly, it's their version of socialized medicine." Even the recent health care reform in Massachusetts, designed by the Republican governor Mitt Romney, was tainted with collectivity, because it required every citizen to get health insurance.
This is also eerily reminiscent of current White House ideology-- which never moved beyond the early 1980s and the Cold War, where anything to the left of Milton Friedman is an excuse to play red scare. It's idiotic, childish, and outright dangerous in a nation where almost 15% of the citizenry has no medical coverage, yet costs are increasing by 10% annually.
These people shouldn't be serious contenders for the presidency of the United States-- they should be marginalized kooks, only good for a laugh. And as the last six years have shown us, taking stone-headed demagogues seriously instead of laughing at them can result in a whole lot of tears down the road.
posted by Matt Sandwich | 4:23 PM
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