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Still Crazy After All These Years

May 29, 2008

maha

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It’s sad when the big, flaming revelations du jour are all stuff you already knew. For example, finally somebody who covers Washington politics admits that, in the months leading up to the Iraq War, she was under tremendous pressure from corporate execs to present a pro-Bush, pro-war narrative. I dare say most of us (meaning, y’all Mahablog regulars, who are a brilliant crew) realized this was happening at the time. Now, five years later, they’re starting to admit it. Frightening.

Here’s more stuff in today’s news you already knew:

David Corn: Phil Gramm has “long been a handmaiden to Big Finance.”

Mike Allen: “McClellan: White House Wanted Him to Stay Silent”

Emptywheel: “George Bush Authorized the Leak of Valerie Plame’s Identity”

Meanwhile, righties continue to be predictably insane. For example, Captain Ed is dutifully exonerating Big Oil and OPEC for high oil prices. You’ve probably heard about Little Lulu’s meltdown over Rachel Ray wearing a paisley fringed scarf. Dunkin’ Doughnuts pulled its Rachel Ray ad, and America is now safe from jihadist doughnuts. And for the latest on Auschwitzgate, see Sadly, No: “Best Bitch Slap Ever.” You will laugh.

BTW, did you know that yesterday was the Idaho primary? Obama beat Clinton, 56 percent to 38 percent. Naturally, Jeralyn interprets this to mean Hillary Clinton is the smart choice to beat John McCain in November. However, the real news — and this is something I didn’t already know — is that Ron Paul got more popular votes than Obama. That Idaho’s a real bellwether.

Here’s a must-read: In today’s New York Times, veteran pollster Mark Mellman explains why people should stop getting hysterical about Obama’s “problem” with working-class whites.

First, there is no relationship between how candidates perform among any particular group of voters in primaries and how they do with that segment in the general election. In 1992, Bill Clinton lost college-educated voters to Paul Tsongas in the early competitive primaries, but he went on to win that group in November by the largest margin any Democrat ever had. Similarly, John Kerry lost young voters in the competitive primaries in 2004 before going on to win them by a record margin in the general election.

Second, Democrats running for president have been losing white, non-college-educated voters since before Mr. Obama was elected to the Illinois legislature. Al Gore and Mr. Kerry each failed to win a majority of this bloc in the general election. With these voters, the size of the losing margin is what matters. … Mr. Obama is faring better today with the white working class than did either Mr. Gore or Mr. Kerry.

8 Comments

felicity • May 29, 2008 @3:38 pm

Speaking of ‘exonerating big oil’ George Will on WaPo opines “…legislators (in this case a Senate committee) are rarely lions, other than abusing unpopular persons (e.g. oil industry executives) testifying in positions of weakness.” Abusing? Big Oil weak? Called before a Senate committee unconscionable?

Is that the position of righties? The government has no right to protect us from those who would cause us great hardship? That’s like saying the police (government employees) have no right to protect us from criminals. Really, why do we bother to elect others to represent us other than to look out for our interests.

Bottom line, I really don’t understand Will’s remark, but I do suspect that he speaks for corporate America and it is they with whom we have to do battle.
maha • May 29, 2008 @3:53 pm

Is that the position of righties? The government has no right to protect us from those who would cause us great hardship?

Yeah, pretty much.
Swami • May 29, 2008 @7:13 pm

The revelation du jour concerning Scotty’s repentance is welcomed news. It’ll give McWarmonger a much need boost in his presidential bid now that Scotty is out there inadvertently stumping for Obama.
moonbat • May 29, 2008 @9:30 pm

I’m not sure it’s a fair comparison, the olden days versus now – but it’s sad that us old timers remember when the news was pretty much on top of things – producing a relatively high quality product, instead of these DUH revelations that were completely obvious years ago to anyone outside the loop but paying attention. The younger generation only knows poor quality news, and can’t envision things any other way, unless they travel abroad.

On a different note, two psychics I have some respect for have long been predicting Hillary as the winner of this year’s contest. One says that Hillary will pull it off at the last minute, and that there will be reconciliation with Obama, who will be VP.

The other claims to have predicted, back in 1994, that 1) one of George Bush’s sons will be President in 2000, for two terms, and that 2) Hillary will be President thereafter, with a black man as a VP.
Pat Pattillo • May 30, 2008 @2:20 am

Slwodown there. Not so fast with the “already new”s.

Peggy Noonan doesn’t know. In fact she was compelled to ask “But is it true?” :

“The left, while embracing the book’s central assertions, will paint him as a weasel who belatedly ‘fessed up. They’re big on omertà on the left. It’s part of how they survive.

The right will—already has—pummel him for disloyalty. But those damning him now would have damned him more if he’d resigned on principle three years ago. They—and the administration—would have beaten him to a pulp, the former from rage, the latter as a lesson: This is what we do when you leave ugly.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121209803493730619.html?mod=todays_columnists

Hmmm…it couldn’t be that some see Bush as dark, given the widespread belief that he is, could it? …and doesn’t the end to which loyalty is summoned matter?

Perhaps coming clean for McClellan was a figurative shower after feeling so dirty for so long. Maybe a shot at redemption meant more than the risk of reprisal.

Seriously though, the ones we have to worry about are the ones who never have and never will believe a word of it. They’d manage some rationalization in the unlikely event that Bush himself came clean. They’d rather believe a lie than to recant on past alleigances or admit having been wrong.
maha • May 30, 2008 @5:38 am

Pat — Peggy Noonan is one of the most persistently oblivious people on the planet. She’s one of the last people to know anything. I was speaking of the majority of people who read this blog. There’s not a thing being “revealed” now that I, and most Mahablog readers, did not understand perfectly well a long time ago.

IMO her comment about “omertà” on the Left is absurd, and reveals she’s so saturated with right-wing propaganda she has no idea what the Left is. There are some flaws common among lefties, Lord knows, but a “code of silence”? Hello? We’re never silent about anything.

My take on how most of us view McClellan — I think we appreciate that he’s going through a process of waking up to reality. As long as we see him struggling to be honest, I think most of us will wish him well.
Swami • May 30, 2008 @7:54 am

Jimmy Swaggart set the benchmark when it comes to confession and repentance, but Scotty appears to be making an honest go of coming clean and getting right with himself. I question his not being able to see the big picture sooner than he claims, but maybe there’s some truth in the adage..Love sees no wrong.
pluky • Jun 2, 2008 @11:07 am

I laughed upon first reading the “SadlyNo” entry. As the updates on the “Sweetness and Light” comment thread entries descended further and further into the abyss, I became appalled ,then angry. “Arbeit macht frei” indeed.