The Most Frightening Poll Results That You Will Read Today

So THAT'S who takes Thomas Friedman seriously.

We're doomed:

National Journal…asked a panel of Congressional and Political Insiders to rank, one-through-five, those columnists, bloggers, and television or radio commentators who most help to shape their own opinion or worldview.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman received more points than anyone else, with support from both Democrats and Republicans.

I should point out that this survey is three years old. That is not a sign that we are not doomed. It is a sign that we've been doomed for a while.

Comments

[RedDragon6009]

I should point out that this survey is three years old. That is not a sign that we are not doomed. It is a sign that we've been doomed for a while.

So I'm way behind on finishing that bunker and stockpiling food and ammo aren't I?

[RedDragon6009]

I know, grammatically incorrect but at least I'm first.

[darius404]

And yet, you're still not first in our hearts.

[The Late P Brooks]

The one thing China does which I would like to see us emulate: execution of public officials for corruption.

End incumbency now!

[Joshua]

um... they only execute for the wrong kind of corruption. The right kind gets you promoted. Kinda like in the US.

[Tman]

Mr. I WISH WE WERE CHINA?

Egads. That is a worthy Balko sized friday nut punch Jesse, thanks. Keepin the tradition alive.

[RBS]

It's nut punches all the way down.

[Loki]

At some point they're just speed bagging other dude's scrotums.

[Episiarch]

asked a panel of Congressional and Political Insiders

Well that's your problem right there.

[CampingInYourPark]

Yeah, and the link to a list of those polled doesn't work, so...pffft

[scareduck]

Friedman is a mirror, not a beacon. That is why he is popular among this crowd.

[John Thacker]

This is certainly true.

Not sure if it's more or less scary that he's only reflecting what they already think, rather than changing their mind, though.

[Broseph of Invention]

Positive spin: Thomas Friedman helped shape my world view by illustrating the dangerous roads of blind State worship, buying-a-donut-as-allegory missive-based journalism, and localized facial hair.

[BakedPenguin]

Is there anyone on that list, other than possibly George Will, whom we could possibly feel good about?

[Mike M.]

I feel a little better that at least Billy Crystal made the list.

Oh shit, it was actually Bill Kristol. We really are screwed.

[Joe M]

Krauthammer is semi-decent on some stuff.

[BakedPenguin]

I could never get past his love of bombs. I tried to track down the full list at National Journal - in hopes that there would be some other decent writers - but they have apparently taken it down. All the links pointed back to the Fish Bowl.

[Joe M]

Yeah, only on non-foreign policy-related stuff is he worth reading.

[Episiarch]

Isn't Krauthammer viciously anti-gun?

[John]

I don't think so. Or if he is, I haven't heard him say it. He has said on a couple of occasions that the gun lobby is most of Americans and liberals need to get over their obsession with the NRA.

[BakedPenguin]

Looks that way.

It is simply crazy for a country as modern, industrial, advanced and now crowded as the United States to carry on its frontier infatuation with guns. Yes, we are a young country but the frontier has been closed for 100 years.

[Kaptious Kristen]

So he thinks guns are to protect set'lers from bars in Kain-tuck-eee?

[John]

Injuns and gunfighters.

[John]

Thanks.

[BakedPenguin]

I think that's from a very old column, however. In more recent ones he has stated that it's a political non-starter - which doesn't necessarily comment on whether he believes in it or not.

Kristen - for people to protect themselves against SugarFree when they're in Kentucky.

[John]

And Warty when they are in Ohio.

[Kaptious Kristen]

SugarFree, Warty, bears - six of one, half dozen of the other.

[SugarFree]

They mostly just keep me around as a sort of twisted tourist attraction.

[Warty]

Like I said yesterday, I am the bear of bears, and that goes for any way you can parse it.

[Kaptious Kristen]

I'll be in my bunk

[CampingInYourPark]

He is for gun control. Don't know how vicious he is about it though.

[Caleb Turberville]

Tom Friedman and Michio Kaku should get together and speculate on how China is outpacing the US in wormhole technology.

[Joe M]

At least George Will is number four on the list. The rest of it is pretty awful though.

[Archimedes]

That bestseller everyone's read? I haven't read it.

[JW]

Every time I see The World is Flat on someone's bookshelf, my respect for that person is diminished by that much more.

[Brett L]

Just goes to prove that people who are insecure about their own intelligence often mistake incoherence for brilliance.

[Joe M]

I moderate stimulus China completely and purple monkey dishwasher. Also, wolf nipple chips.

[Brett L]

Wolf nipple chips! Why didn't I think of that? Its so obviously the solution to our problems!

[Citizen Nothing]

I hereby denounce wolf nipple chips.

[SugarFree]

If you don't like them, please send me your ration cards.

[fried wylie]

wolf nipple slips still OK.

[Archimedes]

They make some really good points.

[Archduke PantsFan]

Ladies and Gentlemen, The wisdom of Thomas L. Friedman

[RBS]

One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century.

[Brett L]

Does it annoy anyone else that Friedman and his disciples essentially endorse Plato's Benevolent Tyrant without having Plato's wisdom of seeing the realistic downsides being far more likely than the potential upsides?

[Loki]

Yes, it does. So much that I want to go find Thomas Friedman and punch him in his smug hipster face as hard as I can. I've actually had that desire since I first made the mistake of reading one of mental diarrhea excresions.

Also, Friedman not having wisdom? Here, let me show my shocked face.

[Almanian 1]

Can't ever get enough of e-trade babies

[ant1sthenes]

Everything about Friedman annoys me, but I feel bad because he seems to be mildly retarded (unlike Dionne or Krugman, who are hacks, but have the mental capacity, if not the wisdom, to do better).

[Mike M.]

The world is a flat olive-colored Chinese Lexus 3.0.

[Kaptious Kristen]

The National Journal needs to name names!

[Kaptious Kristen]

I see EJ "Fists of Fury" Dionne is also on there.

[T]

DC's most punchable weasel.

[Brett L]

That's a non-unique identifier.

[MOFO.]

Congressional and Political Insiders need to eat my shit.

[fried wylie]

get friedman to write an article about your shit, then get ready with a steaming bowl full of shit and a bunch of spoons.

And probably a tarp or something too.

[MOFO.]

So i really just need to convince the Chinese to eat my shit then. Or just convince Friedman that the Chinese are doing it. Either way, he will wring his hands at how the US is falling behind in the shit eating race and my goals will be obtained!

Thanks FW!

[Almanian 1]

WE MUST CLOSE THE SHIT-EATING GAP!

[The Late P Brooks]

That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century.

I see trains.

Beautiful, beautiful trains.

Clean, comfortable, and ON TIME!

[fried wylie]

I most despise the idea that we need to move society forward. I think it progresses of its own accord. Historically, attempts to force that progress have (uniformly?) resulted in more regress than progress.

[John]

It just shows how they all live in a cocoon of group think where only certain brands of conventional wisdom are allowed to be thought. There are two things that are striking about the poll. First, they all read their own pundits. Almost none of the writers on the list have a large number of votes from the other side. Second, while the Dems read really far left kooks like Kruginuts, Friedman and Dionne, the right reads mostly centrist, go along and give in and be serious types like Brooks, Noonan and Krauthheimer. George Will is probable the most closest thing to a libertarian on the list.

So in Washington the acceptable intellectual choices are totally far out left and mostly left I am really to ashamed to not be a real liberal rightists.

[ant1sthenes]

It's like Washington's Congressional and Political Insiders are mostly statists. In other news, a poll of Dukes, Earls, and minor Barons found strong support for aristocracy.

[The Hammer]

You mean politicians love the guy who blindly endorses every one of their idiotic schemes? I'm shocked!

[newshutz]

I am as disturbed by David Brooks being number 2. (no not full of number 2)

I think it is telling that the NY Times tame "conservative" got equal number of votes from Ds and Rs

[rac]

Mark Steyn mentioned on Dennis MIller's radio show that many liberals, and I think one can take from this piece, many Republicans, "receive" the NYT, and by receiving it, they have done their duty. They don't really have to read the liturgy. My bet is that most of the people surveyed, Dems and Reps, don't really read Friedman, and his "if only we could have a few years of Chinese (fill in the blank) type of government, we could fix everything" BS. And so, there we are. Fucked.

[ZengaFooo]

Thats some scary stuff dude.

http://www.in-privacy.tk

[Copernicus]

I sometimes confuse Friedman for Krugnuts.