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Flotsam and Jetsam

Obama’s baddest critic warns him about flip-floppery on the Ground Zero mosque: “Mr. Obama, you are not the mayor of Podunk arguing with the City Council over sewer versus septic; you are the president of the United States of America , the greatest country in the world! It may be that your utterances are sounding like indefensible rubbish to more and more of us, but at the very least you, the presidential enunciator of them, ought to have the courage to defend them —especially when they’re already in writing.”

Greg Sargent warns anti-Israel Democrats that the Emergency Committee for Israel is putting them ”on notice that if they criticize Israel, they can expect to be targeted, too.” Or, to put it differently, it will be harder to fake being pro-Israel.

Charlie Cook warns Democrats that the Connecticut Senate race will tighten. And sure enough: “The first Rasmussen Reports post-primary telephone survey of Likely Connecticut Voters finds that Democrat Richard Blumenthal has slipped below the 50% mark of support this month against Republican Linda McMahon in the state’s U.S. Senate race.”

Bill Kristol warns the left to get a grip: “The ‘f*ck tea’ movement [the real name of a new leftist undertaking] — that’s what the left has come to. They can’t defend the results of Obama’s policies or the validity of Krugman’s arguments. They know it’s hard to sustain an antidemocratic ethos in a democracy. They realize they’ve degenerated into pro-am levels of whining and squabbling. So they curse their opponents.”

The Gray Lady warns politicians to avoid Michelle Obama’s vacation gaffe: ”Forget the lush beaches of Bora Bora or the Campari-soaked cafes along the Côte d’Azur. And don’t even think about Rome or Paris. Astute Washington politicians have long known that when it comes to politically palatable summer vacations, it is best not to cross any oceans. Or even seas. Michelle Obama violated one of this city’s most sacrosanct unwritten rules when she went to Spain — during a recession, no less — with her daughter and a few friends.”

Senate Republicans warn the administration that its pick for ambassador to Turkey is a no-go: “The nomination of Frank Ricciardone to be the next U.S. ambassador to Turkey is being held up in the Senate and the GOP has no intention of allowing a vote on the nomination any time soon. … The administration might be wary of spending its limited political capital to push through the Ricciardone nomination to a floor debate in the Senate because it could open up a broader public discussion of Turkey policy the White House might not think is useful given the delicate diplomatic environment.”

Douglas Schoen warns fellow Democrats: “The recent discouraging economic news is a watershed for the Obama administration — at least as far as the midterms are concerned. It discredits one of the administration’s few remaining positive arguments: that the administration ushered in an economic recovery that otherwise might not have occurred.”

Bibi warns the world, explains George Will: “If Iran were to ‘wipe the Zionist entity off the map,’ as it vows to do, it would, Netanyahu believes, achieve a regional ‘dominance not seen since Alexander.’ … He says that 1948 meant this: ‘For the first time in 2,000 years, a sovereign Jewish people could defend itself against attack.’ And he says: ‘The tragic history of the powerlessness of our people explains why the Jewish people need a sovereign power of self-defense.’ If Israel strikes Iran, the world will not be able to say it was not warned.” Nor will it be able to say that, by leaving the job to Israel, Obama fufilled his role as leader of the Free World.

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0 Responses to “Flotsam and Jetsam”

  1. katieo says:

    In all of his stammered faux-intellectual meanderings, how much knowledge or understanding of American history has Obama ever revealed? If he had even a knowledge-level foundation in U.S. history I’d think he already would have put it on display, given he’s aware that he is often perceived as “foreign” or “other.” It’s just not there: he’s not learned, merely studied.

  2. JohnR says:

    You mean he of the 57 states and a tornado that kills 10,000?

  3. Al Myers says:

    Or the “bomb” that fell on Pearl Harbor?

  4. Pedant von Knowitall says:

    One thing I have wondered about Obama:

    You know how the media routinely tells us what geniuses the Democratic candidates are and all the great books they read? Has this ever been done with Obama? All I know about him is that he thinks Rev. Wright is a great scholar.

  5. Rininger says:

    Jennifer

    you say Palin isn’t a master of “stuff?” Are you saying she isn’t a master debater like Obama?

  6. Heather says:

    Remember how Gore was so much smarter than Bush? On a tour of Monticello, Gore the Smart did not recognize a bust of GEORGE WASHINGTON. Really. He had to ask the guide who that character was.

    I am a Canadian, and I can recognize Washington’s visage.

    This whole thing about Republicans are uneducated stupid people, and Democrats are sophisticated, and well educated (in the Best Universities), is so boring. Can’t they think of another reason why the American People should vote for them?

    Palin has already revealed a firm knowledge of Lincoln. I would bet her grasp of American History is better than that of either Biden or Obama.

  7. Paul Zisserson says:

    I think Heather’s point about Palin’s “grasp of American History” being better than Biden’s or Obama’s gets to the heart of many of the differences between contemporary liberals and conservatives. Liberals fail to understand just how exceptional this country is. Their focus is always upon faults, not strengths. They remind me of those nagging parents who are never satisfied with their children. Contrast with the old-time liberals, Hubert Humphrey for example. They beamed when they saw factories operating because Americans were at work, not polluting the air(this relates to a story told by Ben Wattenburg about a campaign drive with Humphrey). As Bob Tyrell has said, liberals wage a running battle agains regular people who want to lead normal lives.

    Sarah Palin, like Reagan, knows America’s texture and understands it to be exceptional. That’s exactly why we love her; we’ll go to the mat for her. And knowing what we are–good, generous, decent–she’ll go to the mat for us.

  8. Joe NS says:

    Paul, “They remind me of those nagging parents who are never satisfied with their children.”

    Isdn’t it more a case of spoiled children never satisfied with their parents?

  9. Paul Zisserson says:

    Joe NS, that works well too, maybe even better!