So much for the notion that it wasn’t a referendum on Obama. “I’m not recommending for every future President that they take a shellacking like they — like I did last night.” Notice the “I.”
So much for the Bill Clinton–like adjustment. “Obama admits he got a ’shellacking,’ but shows no sign of budging on core agenda.”
So much for the wishful thinking of the left blogosphere: “Republicans have picked up a net gain of 53 seats and were leading for another 13 Democratic-held seats. If current trend holds, Republicans could record their largest gains in the House in more than 70 years.”
So much for historical accuracy: “The newly divided government could be a recipe for gridlock or, as some veteran Capitol Hill operatives suggest, an opportunity for President Barack Obama and Congress to improve their weak standing with the American public by working together — a la Bill Clinton and Speaker Newt Gingrich.” Um, I don’t think Gingrich improved his standing.
So much for lessons learned. The left blogosphere is still spinning: “I think the root of the Democrats’ political troubles lies in the initial flurry of activity — the stimulus, restructuring TARP, and the auto bailout. In the public mind, this all become jumbled together as ‘the bailouts’ — a conflation carefully nurtured by Republicans — even though obviously Keynesian fiscal policy is not the same thing as a bailout. But the truth is that all those policies were highly unpopular, and all came to symbolize big government rescuing bad actors while average people paid the bill. It became a frame that colored perceptions of the entire Democratic agenda.” It didn’t “symbolize” big government — together with ObamaCare, it was big government.
So much for Rahm Emanuel’s handiwork. “The Democrats who handed Speaker Nancy Pelosi her majority were largely wiped out of Congress on Tuesday. Fourteen members of the freshman class of 2006, dubbed by Pelosi (D-Calif.) as her ‘majority makers,’ and 21 freshman elected in 2008 lost their seats with a handful of races still undecided. Republicans were able to win several more open seats that Democrats had won in those cycles.” No wonder Rahm developed a yen to be mayor.
So much for getting our money back. “GM said it intends to sell almost a quarter of its 1.5 billion shares of common stock, at a price between $26 to $29 a share. It also intends to sell 60 million shares of preferred stock with a liquidation value of $50 a share. That price range would suggest that the Treasury Department’s 60.8% stake in the company would be worth between $23.7 billion to $26.5 billion once the stock starts trading. That value would be well below the $40 billion in taxpayer money GM received from the government and has yet to repay.”
So much for stonewalling. Rep. Lamar Smith, who together with Rep. Frank Wolf labored to get to the bottom of the New Black Panther Party scandal, will be the House Judiciary chairman. Eric Holder therefore may be the first subpoenaed member of the administration. I sense a stampede of officials at DOJ running to spend more time with their families.
Jennifer, I’ve never seen any evidence that you actually read the comments to your posts (it would be very nice to know that you at least occasionally take a look). But I’ve noticed before when you used the word “restbit.” Here it’s “resbit.”
As a fellow conservative, and an admirer, I don’t mean to embarrass you. But–unless I’m missing something, or you’re making a joke–the word is “respite.”
> Whatever your political preference, it’s a refreshing resbit from the craven careerism we have seen on display of late.
What’s a “resbit” ? It sounds like pet food for rabbits. I think you mean “respite”.
Anyway, HERE’S TO THE ‘HAMMER! (swigs a cheap Moscato– not terribly inspiring, but the best I can do)
How do you know “craven careerism” motivates conservatives who back Obama and not principles and reason? Are you a mind reader? You know their hearts well enough to dismiss their explanations? In effect, you are calling them all liars. Would you call Adelman, Brooks, Douthat, Buckley, Hitchens, Powell, Sullivan, Parker and Frum the same to their faces? I doubt it. They will still be representing conservatism long after you, and neoconservatism, are gone.
She took a resbit from spellchecking
You can tell an ideology is bankrupt when its adherents turn on each other. Trust Fund Jenny is now insulting members of her own team, carry on and step it up. Yeah! That Frum, that Noonan, that Parker, that Brooks, they’re all following That One!
Sic ‘Em Jenny, bite bite bite, a delight to watch conservatives implode on their own bile.
Rebuilding the Republican Party is going to be difficult enough without the baleful influence of the Me-Too Bushies. I can bet that a lot of the Obamacons are actually Bush Republicans looking for yobs.
Look, Reagan and Goldwater Republicans, those who actually believed in liberty and limited government, understood that the orgy of spending that took place in DC under Bush couldn’t continue forever. As it was, lots of this is the fallout of a Republican Government betraying the legacy of Reagan and Goldwater.
The one good thing about losing, and losing big, is that there will be a ghastly blood purge of the people who got us to this point. We’ll be a healthier party for it. Trust me. Before we got to Reagan, we had to go through the Valley of Death.
Or, as Mr. Churchill said at a more somber occasion, “As it was the will of God in Heaven, even so, let it be.”
The trolls seem so nervous. Every single post is adolescent attack mode. Hmmmm. I wonder if the polls are as biased as the media, and the trolls sense disaster. The 1st place to attack would most likely be a Krauthammer piece stating his adherence to his principles, followed by Jennifer Rubin’s commentary. Moths are usually attracted to light.
Well, I am starting to see a glimmer of hope here. Maybe there is a change coming just in time. Go McCain/Palin! To think! Joe Lieberman’s “Jo’mentum” line was really referring to the future plumber. How about that folks?
Have you noticed the troll names are now, “boo-hoo” and “loser”? Is there something Freudian in the air?
As an old Goldwater Republican, I have been there and done that. This one is not lost, and if it is, ultimately, the fight is far from over. We’ve found Sarah Palin, we’ve got Bobby Jindal coming up, and you will be astounded how many bright young stars are just waiting to come out of the woodwork. We’ve gone through the days of fat, happy and decadent (days we could not even imagine in the dark winter of ’64), and we have and are paying the price. But, win or lose, good times are coming for the conservative cause.
Because total failure in economics and Iraq might not be enough to discredit you fully, I encourage all neocons to hang on and support the stinking (but well dressed) carcass of Palin-McCain to the end.
These trolls use the same imagery as A’jad. (“Stinking carcass?”) They are presumably Red fascists and jihadi sympathizers. (Maybe even relatives of Ayers and Dohrn.) There’s your Democrat base, folks: Terrorist-lovers. Weatherguys and Weathergals. It’s one reason the rest of us need the Second Amendment, in case you’ve forgotten.
Ahithophel, There should be a comma before and after “occasionally”. Clean up your act. Zeppenwolf, Your parenthetical sentence fragment uses both the third and first person. Clean up your act. Clint, If you are a conservative, name one principle or reason for voting for Obama. Remember, emotions are not tools of cognition.
SiouxLady:>Zeppenwolf, Your parenthetical sentence fragment uses both the third and first person. Clean up your act.
( Man, this website is BRUTAL!! )
Sorry, Lady Sioux. I admit to having mixed my.. er… “persons”. [It was] my bad. Honestly– I could have done better there.
The fragmentary nature of the clause, however, I think is acceptable neuveaux-standard for a parenthetical of that type on the internet. And if that doesn’t work… did I mention the wine?
At any rate, HERE’S ANOTHER TOAST TO THE ‘HAMMER!!! VIVA LA REAGAN REVOLUCIONNEE!! (sp?!?!)
( Still moscato, but it’s tasting much better now! )
If you’ll allow me to channel Triumph The Comic Insult Dog for a second, Kathleen Parker et alia are perfectly fine…
…FOR ME TO POOP ON!!!!
Our St. Crispin Day
Come and vote for John McCain
This election day.
Shine or rain – don’t abstain,
Don’t you sneak away.
He’s the man who is tried and true,
He’s the man who has fought for you -
Come and join the fray.
Stand and fight with John McCain -
Rally to his side.
Let your honor be without stain,
Come in love and pride.
Hear the tocsin – feel the urge:
Now’s your time to bring that surge,
Time to turn the tide.
I am glad Charles gets it (Hitchens obviously did not).
Good grief, as several have noted, Ms Rubin makes a perfectly valid, well reasoned, well presented POV as usual &, by golly, the responses are at the level of “Jenny/Henny/Penny”. So restbit/pestbit, trolls. You operate under some version of a Gresham’s Law of blogging; I follow this blog for insight & I get in the comments a bunch of “nynna, nynna, nynna, McCain’s gonna lose.” I say thank you for your posts Ms Rubin. (Please don’t answer me or the trolls will claim that I’m your cousin or I’m Trig’s Pa or something equally deep.)
Trolls, even you should understand. Whatever nonsense you babble, you’re not trying to sell us on the fact that McCain agrees with your principles. So, why should you rant when we point out that some professed conservatives, paleo, neo, oleo, whatever-o are trying to fool us by arguing that they are foxy/woxy & Obama is the guy who gets their vote because they have the secret decoder ring that enables them to understand that Obama is really in accord with their conservative principles, even though he comes up with quotidian (a Buckley word here for his incoherent son) criticisms of their conservative principles.
Seth, great post! exactly!
#7 “Maybe there is a change coming just in time.”
Always possible. But how funny it would be in this context: all those
rats jumping overboard – and then the ship doesn’t sink –
but the rats do!
I won’t claim to be a political conservative. However, some of the considerations leading to my current intention to vote for Senator Obama are arguably “conservative” considerations. For example, among foreign critics of the U.S., I am hoping for the kind of cognitive dissonance that Mr. Kristof referenced yesterday. I remember fearing such cognitive dissonance in myself during my early adolesence in the late 1980′s, when I was openly unpatriotic and anti-American. (By the way, although I just admitted to a lack of patriotism, don’t question my patriotism. Questioning anyone’s patriotism ever is unacceptable, because it’s McCarthyism!) I didn’t actually want the left-wing candidates whom I supposedly favored to win, because this would deny me the self-satisfied pleasure of disdaining my own country. Similarly, I suspect many foreign critics of the U.S. secretly want Senator Obama to lose, so that they can go on believing the lie that the U.S. in 2008 is a racist country. I have some sympathy for the McCain-Palin ticket, but I also think that race has been the most important moral issue in American history, and electing a black American as President of the United States will be a historic moral triumph that should make us proud of our country. As far as I know, the crowds at Senator Obama’s rallies don’t usually chant “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” — but I think they should and I hope they will.
Just to brighten your day, from a friend who calls himself Conservative Cabbie:
So, Sarah Palin’s advisors decide that it is time for her to meet a bunch of serious world leaders. They head to Europe, where, first up, she has an appointment with the Pope. The Pope and some of his Cardinals invite her for a boat ride on the Tiber. As they are sitting in the gondola talking, a wind starts up and blows the Pope’s hat into the water. Palin looks around and realizes that no one is going to do anything about it, so she calmy rises, takes off her her high heels, and steps off the side of the boat. Instead of diving into the water, however, she walks across it, to the hat, picks it up and walks back across the water to the boat. She climbs in, hands the Pope his hat and continues discussing whatever it was they had been talking about. The Cardinals are open mouthed in astonishment at what they have just seen. The news media, in nearby boats are busy discussing among themselves how to report it. Headlines the next day at the New York Times, The Washington Post and the networks all blare: New Revelation: Sarah Palin Can’t Swim.
#17: It is told that when, at “independence,” the last British warship departed the port at Aden, an officer aboard said of the Yemeni mob howling on the docks, “A ship deserting sinking rats.” But the Cambridge doc should pay more respectful attention to the mother tongue.
#18:
The only quality this line of reasoning requires from a candidate is
being black. It is essentially “affirmative action” in voting.
But if that had been the reasoning of all those turncoats, they
would have endorsed Obama early on.
They would have made more difference then.
Instead they waited until it seemed that he’s sure to win anyway,
even without their help: the traders give McCain just a 13%
chance – and so, apparently do the traitors… and then they
rushed to endorse, tripping over each other.
It will be funny (as I said before) if they get deceived – precisely
because their motives are obviously ignoble.
Even if Obama wins, some of them may be disappointed:
sero venientibus ossa…
I wonder what reward McClellan expects?
#20, A. A. : Thank you – I don’t know how I could have lived
without knowing this story.
I like the fight many of you are showing. As much of a pessimist I can be in the present, I always move on and look forward. That’s what we conservatives have to do and it’s good to see some of my Contentions’ friends beginning to engage in what will be–among those of us on the right, and between right and left–a necessary battle for not just the movement or a party, but our country and those threatened by the maniacs throughout the world. Yes, my Israeli-hostle friends, particularly Israel.
HEAR MICHAEL SAVAGE INTERVIEW WITH MAN SUING OBAMA!
A former Democratic state attorney general Philip J. Berg who filed a lawsuit claiming Obama was born in Kenya charges that by failing to respond, the presidential candidate has admitted to the accusations …
http://michaelsavage.wnd.com/
#18, do you really think Barry Obama is the only black politician you will ever have a chance to vote for for President? That’s a pretty depressing commentary on the prospects for finding a suitable black candidate. Would you have said the same thing 20 years ago about Jesse Jackson? Obama, for all his innumerable faults, is a better candidate than Jesse Jackson was, and there will be far better black candidates in the future than Obama. In fact, in 10 or 20 years a genuinely experienced Obama may himself be a better candidate than the current version. Meanwhile, please don’t vote based on a fixation on race which Obama himself has slyly and opportunistically injected into this campaign (for all his specious pretentions to transcendence).
Here’s the execrable Krauthammer:
Pure poppycock. Obama’s original instinct was correct. Later he got aboard the hegemonist bandwagon. I fault him for even entertaining the notion that NATO should admit Georgia and Ukraine, two countries it cannot and will not defend.
“Hegemonist”, Grumpy? For all your aristocratic fantasies, you still talk like a Red. At least use an American vocabulary.
#27 Seth Halpern
“‘Hegemonist’, Grumpy? For all your aristocratic fantasies, you still talk like a Red. At least use an American vocabulary.”
Well, at least I didn’t call him a “lackey” or a “running dog.”
In regard to #25, I think that’s absolutely correct. In fact, this whole election cycle amazed me, as I was sure the first black presidential candidate for the Dems was going to be Harold Ford Jr. – even after he lost in 2006. Obama without the Ayers/Wright baggage, and better foreign policy and economic bona fides.
Harold Ford, Jr., is only 38 years old. At age 26 (!), he inherited a safe seat in Congress from his father and held it for 10 years. He has some views that put him to the Right of the Congressional Black Caucus but that includes 99% of the American people. It would probably be more than a decade before he is able to put a credible campaign for President together.
More McCain backing:
300+ ECONOMISTS SIGN LETTER ENDORSING MCCAIN’s “JOBS FOR AMERICA PLAN”:
http://thepage.Time.com/mccain-release-on-economists-backing-his-proposals/
When I heard on Rush Limbaugh’s show today of Republicans running to Obama’s side, I got real excited and this is why.
I grew up on a farm and on this farm was a smokehouse with a natural rock foundation. In the winter my parents used it to smoke bacon, sausage etc. In the summer it served as a nice, cool, safe place for snakes. In order to get them out, my father found the hole in the rock foundation that they had crawled into then made another one on the opposite side. He would pour a bottle of ammonia (snakes hate the smell of ammonia) into the hole they crawled into and then stand by the one on the opposite side with his gun or weapon of choice. In just a little while, they would come crawling out of the hole and to their death.
Now let’s say the smokehouse is the Republican Party where these members, even though they didn’t really agree with all their policies and ideas, felt safe. At least, until McCain-Palin started talking about Washington reform and cleaning up the corruption, even within their own Party. The ammonia is the McCain-Palin victory. They can smell it…it is near….they know it is close….they must act and act now to somehow convince voters to vote Obama so they can keep their fat jobs. Little do they know they are actually crawling to their own doom as there will be a McCain-Palin Victory and they will have exposed themselves to be the hypocrits they are.
Obama’s administration WILL bring a bureaucracy into the White House, a bureaucracy larger than anything we’ve seen before. Why? Well because Obama doesn’t have enough experience to make a decision for himself, an issue that will lead to indecisiveness in dire times of immediate action. He will bring with him a crack team of illuminati advisers who will fight and bicker over technicalities and fine points of decisions more than the Senate. Do we really want to turn the White House into a committee?