Even Obama Supporters Get the Health-Care Reform Blues
Via Drudge comes this Salon col from Camille Paglia, an avowed Obama-ite:
Who is naive enough to believe that Obama's plan would be deficit-neutral? Or that major cuts could be achieved without drastic rationing?…
An example of the provincial amateurism of current White House operations was the way the president's innocuous back-to-school pep talk got sandbagged by imbecilic support materials soliciting students to write fantasy letters to "help" the president (a coercive directive quickly withdrawn under pressure). Even worse, the entire project was stupidly scheduled to conflict with the busy opening days of class this week, when harried teachers already have their hands full. Comically, some major school districts, including New York City, were not even open yet. And this is the gang who wants to revamp national healthcare?
Elsewhere in the col, Paglia argues to "get the hell out" of Afghanistan and endorses Fleetwood Mac. Whole thing here.
Reminder that Matt Welch and I helped get the whole "Obama is losing it" meme rolling back in the pages of the Wash Post in July. Read "What's Next, Mr. President—cardigans? The real reasons why Barack Obama's domestic agenda is faltering."
And read Virginia Postrel's great Reason interview with Camille Paglia from 1995.
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the provincial amateurism of current White House operations
They’re like the actors in an over-the-top musical who, after the curtain has closed and the crowd has gone home, remain in character, pretending to be that which never really existed. They believed the gushing reviews and now they can’t understand why the show is closing.
No doubt Obama is an excellent politician. But even his true supporters are beginning to realize he’s just an empty suit. Larry Flynt recognized this during the primaries. I hate to throw race into this, but I’m beginning to believe Obama’s election was just a “novelty”.
Clarification: By excellent politician I was referring to his campaigning abilities.
Wow, a free-thinking liberal with the blinders off. I actually enjoyed reading that.
Camille Paglia has always been a pretty cool lady. She calls herself a libertarian, but she’s on the extreme leftmost edge of the territory. Still, she’s smart enough to be able to recognize things for what they are, for the most part.
Wow. That was pretty damn good, and makes some great points regardless of whether she considers herself a libertarian or not. Stuff like hers will probably do more to impact some lefties than anything we could say.
Good call Tomcat. I plan on showing her piece to a few people I know because she’s laid several things I’ve tried to tell them about out in a way I feel they may understand better. Or at least be more accepting of it coming from her.
While reading this, cspan read a clip from another disgruntled Obama supporter, Steve Hildebrand. Damn, this is getting fun. I had promised my sister I wouldn’t rub it in when she finally realizes she voted for an idiot. But I am strongly considering breaking that promise.
Tee hee!
He’s a salesman. That’s how he got people to vote for him. He sold them what they wanted and when the looked under the hood they realize the engine has been salted.
Wow. That was pretty damn good, and makes some great points regardless of whether she considers herself a libertarian or not. Stuff like hers will probably do more to impact some lefties than anything we could say.
Nah. She’s violated the orthodoxy. She must be purged for the sake of the community.
Let’s also keep in mind that the disgruntled Obama public felators aren’t mad with him for doing the “wrong” things, but that he hasn’t done the “right” things fast enough for their tastes.
His enemies aren’t yet smote. He’s doing something wrong.
Paglia has never bought into the Team Red — Team Blue bullshit.
Paglia has never bought into the Team Red — Team Blue bullshit.
True dat. Paglia is an iconoclast in the best sense. She may be full of shit sometimes, but she’s never afraid to call it like she sees it.
Had more Democrats protested, the administration would have felt less arrogantly emboldened to jam through a cap-and-trade bill whose costs have made it virtually impossible for an alarmed public to accept the gargantuan expenses of national healthcare reform.
Paglia’s complaint with her party is that Democrats didn’t stop Democrats from doing what Democrats do? God love her.
And otherwise she always appears to see things so clearly but for that massive blind spot she has for Obama. Read her earlier articles and you will see a devotee so desperate for the President to be above his administration’s ineptitude and corruption that she will throw blame everywhere but with him. It’s maddening.
and endorses Fleetwood Mac.
Fail.
“and endorses Fleetwood Mac.
Fail.”
With version of the band did she endorse? The original version with Peter Green was one of the great white blues bands of all time. They were Almon Brothers good. Later, when the chicks joined things got a bit more debatable. But, I will match the Mark I version of Fleetwood Mac up against anyone.
We allow the government to get increasingly powerful, then we hand the reins to increasingly inept politicians. How odd we’ve become.
Very Menckenian, in a 21st-century kind of way.
The left finds Paglia exasperating and stupid. Salon posts her long-winded drunken rants and Drudge dutifully links to it, bringing the birthers out in force to a site they’d otherwise never visit. They’re always surprised to find that they agree with a columnist on such a leftist rag. Of course they agree with her because she makes absolutely no sense.
Shut the fuck up, Tony.
YET YOU FAIL TO MAKE ANY SENSE, TONY, AND WE DO NOT LINK OR CITE TO YOU.
Did I hear a breeze blow through?
I thought I heard a distant, shrill but dim voice say something like The left finds Paglia exasperating and stupid.
And the right finds Palin inspirational.
That tells you all you need to know about the left and the right.
The left finds Paglia exasperating and stupid.
Pot, kettle. Kettle, pot.
I’ve always liked Camille. She is definitely sui generis, a libertarian on cultural issues, a standard-issue lefty on some of their issues, often a shrewd observer.
Although, on the debit side of the ledger, she totally bought into the version of Obama being marketed during the campaign, never bothering to look behind the curtain and see that he wasn’t in fact a transcendent figure at all, but merely a bizarre hybrid of polarizing lefty academic, bloody-knuckled Chicago machine politician, and gifted Teleprompter artist.
I think Tony is Paglia’s sockpuppet.
The problem with the Turing test is that Turing never anticpated interweb trolls. They throw the curve all to hell.
gosh, Tony, Paglia’s done way more for the gays than the President ever has. So what’s your problem?
Obviously, anyone who didn’t go to the Right Schools, raised a family, held an actual job or two, came up through the ranks politically, and declined to have an abortion couldn’t possibly be a feminist hero.
My problem is there is no reason to read Paglia these days unless you’re interested in hearing about how the middle east peace process relates to Madonna’s “Material Girl.”
Shut the Fuck Up Tony.
Whatever merits or lack thereof Palin has, let’s not forget that she’s a woman who was (1) elected governor, (2) considered by pretty much everyone a popular and successful governor until the 2008 presidential campaign, and (3) was nominated to be vice president by the GOP, the first female to be on the GOP ticket.
I think a person legitimately concerned about women’s issues would applaud her success as a victory for women, even while, possibly, deploring Palin’s politics. Unfortunately, given the state of feminism today, they applaud people who sexually harass young women and do other things that demonstrate that their politics come before their stated cause.
The left finds Paglia exasperating and stupid.
And now there’s even more to like and respect, since the left finds anyone who’s not on the left as exasperating and/or stupid.
Pro,
It doesn’t advance any feminist cause to elevate an unqualified woman to a national ticket just because she possesses boobies. Just as the GOP likes to prove itself right about how government can’t do anything well, with Sarah Palin they justified their own arguments against affirmative action.
Just like the Democrats did with Obama. Just what were his qualifications to even run for the White House? He’s over the minimum age and a citizen. That’s about it.
Well she was technically qualified to run, but she simply didn’t have the intellectual capacity for the job. Obama’s lack of experience was considered an asset: he wasn’t owned yet. But nobody questioned his intellectual capabilities. He wasn’t just someone’s affirmative action pick like Palin. He actually ran and won a presidential race despite his lack of experience.
Oh, please. The guy was part of the Democratic machine in Chicago–one of the worst and most corrupt–and was telegraphed as a candidate well before he’d done jack shit. The national party wanted a minority candidate and found one, without regard to his actual qualifications.
Palin wasn’t the choice of the national party; she was someone McCain liked because of her perceived maverick status. Hardly anyone expected her to be selected.
Palin’s no bright light, but neither is Obama. Isn’t that insanely evident now? Even from the left?
Obama’s lack of experience was considered an asset: he wasn’t owned yet.
Ditto for Palin. (If you even believe this of somebody coming out of the Chicago machine.)
He wasn’t just someone’s affirmative action pick like Palin.
Funny, then, how many people voted for him so he could be the first black President. Face it, Tony, take away Obama’s racial fides, and he’s about as electable as John Edwards.
she simply didn’t have the intellectual capacity for the job
The intellectual capacity for the job of Vice-President? Mmm. I’m gonna roll that around on my tongue and savor the rich, tasty irony. So instead, the job went to the world renowned intellect of Joe Biden.
After all, it takes brains to wait around until the head guy dies. Oh, yeah, you get to vote on tie breakers in the Senate. A fucking housepet can do the job of VP, and would definitely make fewer idiot remarks than Biden has.
Obama shouldn’t be in charge of anything but a brown paper bag.
Obama shouldn’t be in charge of anything but a brown paper bag.
Racist!
It doesn’t advance any feminist cause to elevate an unqualified woman to a national ticket just because she possesses boobies.
Sure it does. Name one feminist cause that depended on merit. Go on, just one.
Here, I’ll get the game started:
Equal pay — qualifications: Having a vagina and a job with a title.
Issue: Someone without a vagina has a job with the same job title and makes more money than someone with a vagina and the same job title.
Although, on the debit side of the ledger, she totally bought into the version of Obama being marketed during the campaign…
That describes a large chunk of reason writers and commenters.
That describes a large chunk of reason writers and commenters.
I voted for Obama, but only because I was voting against McCain because he is batshit crazy. I never for one second bought into any Obama marketing, and I doubt the few reason contributors and commenters who voted for him did, either.
I never for one second bought into any Obama marketing, and I doubt the few reason contributors and commenters who voted for him did, either.
You can tell yourself anything you like, but in the final analysis, you voted for the schmuck. Something must have convinced you he was a more worthwhile choice, be that marketing or the voices in your head.
Smarter than me I’d guess,
Lichen is smarter than you.
You can tell yourself anything you like, but in the final analysis, you voted for the schmuck. Something must have convinced you he was a more worthwhile choice, be that marketing or the voices in your head.
I paid my money and I closed my eyes and rolled the dice. That’s a far cry from JB’s original accusation that a bunch of reason writers and commenters “totally bought into” Obama’s marketing. There aren’t a lot of people hanging out on this blog who are going to totally buy into anything any politician says.
“Stuff like hers will probably do more to impact some lefties than anything we could say.”
Sorry, but I had to laugh at this. Check out the 800 or so virulent e-mail screeds that her Salon columns regularly elicit. None of them believe she’s a lefty; they think she’s a conservative wingnut with a false lefty consciousness.
It is true she has a very bad habit of defending Rush Limbaugh, but that’s not enough evidence for me.
“Obama’s lack of experience was considered an asset: he wasn’t owned yet. But nobody questioned his intellectual capabilities.”
He was and is owned by the radical left, and if no one questioned his intellectual capabilities, Obama has proven since January that someone really should have.