Broder’s on a roll, baby

Wow. Wow-wa-wee-wa-wow. What a chump:

Straight Talking Again

By David S. Broder

Credit John McCain with one thing: When you’re 70 years old, are running for president a second time and have been stumping through the country for many months, it’s difficult to spring any surprises in your formal announcement speech.

The Arizona senator came up with one: He is running as the anti-Bush.

After years of cozying up to the man in the White House, and emerging (for better or worse) as the most eloquent defender of Bush’s current strategy in Iraq, McCain this week reverted suddenly and dramatically to his 1999-2000 role as the leading Republican critic of politics as usual.

Gee, why would McCain want to suddenly run as the anti-Bush? It must be out of some high priniciple of maverickin’ straight talk! Or, maybe it’s because Bush has a goddamn 28% approval rating.

David, from now on I’d like you to begin every column you write with the following words: “I am a chump.”

 

Comments: 56

 
 
 

So how does going on the Daily Show and defending “the surge” make McCain the anti-Bush again?

 
 

Good thing McCain’s not a Democrat. Otherwise, he’d be wearing flip-flops or something.

 
 

Broder is a senile old fuckwad.

 
 

One stupid old man endorses another. Both should be put out to pasture.

By branfo4 | Apr 27, 2007 7:24:26 AM | Request Removal

That one might be tough to beat.

 
 

Yet notice that Broder sees nothing but trouble for Democrats when they defy or dismiss Bush.

In Broderlandia, the incredible unpopularity of President Bush can only favor right wing Republicans — and can only hurt Democrats.

See?

 
 

I would also accept Broder’s use of the term putz when he describes himself.

 
 

I love that the WaPo allows comments. The wingnuts always seem out of their element. When they try to praise a column that supports their cause or castigate a “liberal” (usually conservative) WaPo column, they get shot down pretty fucking quick.

 
 

Ahh, unlimbering the old-fashioned fake liberal democrat bashing media, circa 1999.

expect a whole litany of contentless, gratuitous swipes against Democrats that are ‘conventional wisdom’ while the Republicans are stalwart manly men who are giants among us.

Read the archives of The Daily Howler. Repeat.

When the revolution comes, can these useless rich-fuck pundits be the first ones against the wall?

 
 

It’s dawning on me that the WaPo has turned into the Wall St. Journal Lite: some good reporting on the front page, utter self-serving mendacious bullshit on the Op-Ed and the Ed.

Ben Bradlee! Thou shoulds’t be living at this hour.

What? Oh.

 
 

I need to know hat kind of meds he’s on, so I can avoid them at all costs.

 
 

yes, they do get quite a few left-leaning comments over there. must have something to do with their subscriber and readership base. you know, sort of a demographic study on the fly.

so, with this information, that many of their readers, most likely a plurality if not an outright veto-proof majority (i suspect) are on the left. and their ad numbers and subscription numbers are both down year-on-year for the second year running.

huh. you say they have skewed to the right? and their primary readership base is to the left? and they continue to insult them with their op-ed page mix and editorials? and their numbers are down?

i’m sure hiatt sits in meetings with graham and they look at their numbers and just scratch there little heads about whatever is going wrong and blame the whole thing on “general decline amongst newspapers” or some such bullshit.

losers.

 
 

So how does going on the Daily Show and defending “the surge� make McCain the anti-Bush again?

Obviously McCain’s going to win the war that Bush is losing. There you go.

 
 

You know, I used to think that it wasn’t humanly possible for me to have any more contempt for a politician than I do for George W. Bush. After watching McCain’s behavior the past few months, I may have the rethink that appraisal. Hell, DubYa and Unkie Karl may have actually done the world a favor when they smeared McCain’s campaign into the ground in South Carolina back in 2000. I mean, it’s hard to even contemplate how anyone could’ve fucked up the past six years worth of domestic and foreign policy any worse than The Decider did…but McCain just might’ve managed it. Given how completely batshit insane he now appears to be, one wonders whether he would’ve just started lobbing nukes at the Middle East in the aftermath of 9/11.

Whatever. McCain’s campaign was officially toast the second he had his “Dukakis in the Tank” moment in the Baghdad marketplace. Unfortunately, he can still cause a lot of bad noise as his campaign thrashes about in its death throes… especially if his every deranged bleat continues to be treated as Gospel by senile old whores like David Broder.

 
 

I remember a lot of speculation, some of it right here in Sadly, NoWheresville, about the incredibly shallow field of potential 2008 repub presidential candidates, and how we were looking forward to seeing them eat each other and self-destruct. We actually had no idea how bad it was gonna be for them. I expect to find the democratic campaigns somewhat dreery, but watching these clowns, lightweights and nutjobs in the repub field is gonna make for a very entertaining year and a half. They haven’t got the sense to distance themselves from a hated administration and an utterly failed policy, and they have neither excitement nor charisma.

And they don’t even have a white knight like gore in the wings to swoop down and pick up the pieces. Whatever meat they end up trotting out in the general elections is doomed to be road kill. And if there’s any upside to the horrors visited upon this nation by it’s current leadership it is that they will have served to discredit the madness that has come to be known as “conservatism” for years to come…

mikey

 
 

Check out the article. All McCain basically said was that his administration would be competent and responsible. It’s telling that even schmucks like Broder are interpreting this as being “The anti-Bush”.

So what does one have to do to run as a pro-Bush candidate? “I’m going to be corrupt, delusional, flippant, cavalier, and ruthless.”

 
 

I wish all the Democrats weren’t running as Bush clones. Then we wouldn’t have to look to the Republicans for an alternative.

 
 

“I resign” would also be a good opener.

 
 

Robert Green, consider how much money the WaPo’s circulation decline has cost Donald Graham, a billionaire who inherited his company.

Then consider how much Bush’s tax policy has benefitted him. Multiply this by all the owners of the MSM and there you have the problem.

 
 

I wish all the Democrats weren’t running as Bush clones. Then we wouldn’t have to look to the Republicans for an alternative.

I must have missed the campaign where Bush campaigned for universal health care, shifting the tax burden upwards, working with unions to promote higher wages and pursuing a more aggressive environmental policy. To say nothing of getting out of Iraq.

Thank God for the Naderite left. They never get old.

 
a different brad
 

The anti-Bush would be a mixed race lesbian daughter of illegal immigrants raised on welfare who rose to the top on sheer talent and willpower. And she’s a nun, tho atheist. Mhm.

 
 

Hahahaha. I see how this works. When a Republican, desperate and flailing and losing a race, radically changes course in the middle of a campaign, it’s not calculating or pandering or reinventing oneself or signaling that they don’t believe in anything – it’s a relief and straight-talking and a sign of great character. Good to know. Thanks, David.

 
 

Um, it was a joke.

 
 

And they don’t even have a white knight like gore in the wings to swoop down and pick up the pieces.

Of course, for some of them, Gingrich fills this role . . .

 
 

You know what I found especially sad about the McCain Dailyshow appearance? That despite acknowledging that the war was horribly mismanaged for four years, we should give the surge a chance to win (even though McCain wasn’t particularly sure that it would work) because, well, he really couldn’t give a good reason other than it’s better than losing. Add to it the weird certainty that somehow Bush (despite the four years of bungling) might be able to not screw up if we give him one more chance and you have… well, I’m not quite sure what you have. Whatever it is, it is pretty sad.

 
 

I suspect that Huckabee might be the GOP nomination on 08, everyone else has been shooting their mouths off, showing what b00bs they are. Ol’ Mike has just been sitting there, out beating the bush round up some grass roots. He’s got the Christian bona fides (covenant marriage supporter) for the 25%, and Clenis’ good ol’ boy charm.

 
 

Sorry Snag. I’m just too close to this these days. Between that Moyers show and yet another Nader argument I got into yesterday — I’m punchy. My bad.

 
Five of Diamonds
 

Broder’s a talented fairy tale author.

 
 

It reminds me of The Onion horoscope that said “You will be surprised by the lack of approval you elicit after saying ‘Don’t blame me, I voted for Nader.'”

 
 

it’ll be fun watching broder suffer for the next two years anyway..

someone make fun of tucker’s herpes outbreak. please.

so tired of the naderite left meme. gore lost that race fair and square. and the republicans stole it. the democrats suck nearly as much as the republicans, because they will most likely force us to elect the american thatcher, who couldn’t wait to throw out the “retaliate” bomb in the first debate. no bacon there, all balls!

 
 

“When you’re 70 years old…”

Huh? David Broder is one to talk. In September he will be 78!

One more thing: The president’s approval rating may be 28%, but that is still
higher than nose-picker Harry Reid, at 22%.

So there.

 
 

Wow!! He’s chummy chummy with Bush except when it’s an election year! The rest of the time, he’s playing “Push-Broom Guy” to Bush’s Mr. Peabody and Sherman parade!
Talk about straight-talked principles!

 
Northern Observer
 

Eight years ago, his favorite target was President Bill Clinton, whose personal recklessness had triggered impeachment. “Something has gone terribly wrong when parents no longer want their children to grow up to be president,” McCain said then. “That shames me, that shames me, and I want to do something about it.”

What a sap. Think … of …. the children.
Hey Cainster, Hitler did it all for the children too so why don’t you put a sock in it.

Hey Jose – go suck a Pew and sing “it’s getting better all time, better better beeeetaaaarrr. Getting so much better all the time”

the Democrats in Congress
Approve Disapprove No opinion
4/15/07 54 44 2
10/8/06 48 50 3
5/15/06 39 58 4

 
 

Hey, Jose, that same poll put the Republican party approval rate at 22% and the Democrats at 35%. Oh noes!

 
Northern Observer
 

Snag said,
April 27, 2007 at 19:10
I wish all the Democrats weren’t running as Bush clones. Then we wouldn’t have to look to the Republicans for an alternative.

This one is almost as good as all the fake Michael Steel voting guides the Maryland republicans handed out that said DEMOCRAT on them with a big pic of Steels mug.

We. Ain’t. That. Stupid. Snag.

 
 

Let me say that if Snag had suggested we walk through the mall in a Nader suit I’d be all up in his pixels ready to not listen.

 
 

The anti-Bush would be a mixed race lesbian daughter of illegal immigrants raised on welfare who rose to the top on sheer talent and willpower. And she’s a nun, tho atheist. Mhm.

She could be a Buddhist nun and still be an athiest! I was going to say her family could be deeply loyal to the terrorist-funding House of Saud, but we are looking for the OPPOSITE of Bush so… maybe a peace activist? Yes, and, an ecoterrorist. No drugs though, that’s Bush again. And despite being a peace activist she will have to have served honorably in the military, otherwise more Bush overlap. Gee, this is hard. But I guess maybe she grew and developed as a person – hey, another Bush opposite!

You know, the more I flesh out all of her delightful little quirks, the more I love her. I will call her Fatimah, after the Prophet’s daughter. Too bad that she is a lesbian – oh and that I’m gay. Maybe we could make her the anti-Laura.

 
Smiling Mortician
 

Northern Observer: Snag already explained that the earlier comment was teh irony. Don’t make him/her explain again or I’ll stop this car.

Jose: Hush.

Some Guy: Mr. Peabody and Sherman absolutely rock. I smiled at the reference before registering that you compared them to Bush. And then I was sad. *sigh*

 
 

Smiling Mortician – Sadly, No’s hall monitor.

I think you should write Jose up, Mort. He oughta get detention…

mikey

 
 

Oooooo, mikey’s gonna get it now. Totally moded.

 
 

Umm, Jose, the most recent ABCNews poll puts Reid’s approval ratings at 46%.

 
 

At least give him an F in statistics….

 
 

Crap, i was still wearing my ovine sock.

 
 

But I give Jose a B- in Wingnuttery. He takes one WSJ poll which has Bush at 28% popularity (and 48% disapproval) and uses it to argue that Bush is popular or something. This one poll of course discounts pretty much every other poll on the planet which has Congress being favoured over Bush. Such disconnect earns him a passing grade. What’s missing though is some sort of bizarre tie in to something completely unrelated to the topic at hand. For instance, “Harry Reid is less popular than Bush, but the other polls were biased because they counted illegal immigrants.” Bonus marks would be awarded if some six degrees of separation argument could be made to tie in Hugo Chavez, the Chinese, and Al Qaeda.

 
Herr Doktor Bimler
 

The anti-Bush would be a mixed race lesbian daughter of illegal immigrants raised on welfare who rose to the top on sheer talent and willpower. And she’s a nun, tho atheist.

William Tenn’s story “Null-P” comes to mind. As I recall it (can’t find a copy on-line), the only way the opposition party can counter the popular incumbent (“Back to Normal with the Normal Man!â€?) is to run a hunchbacked dwarf as their candidate, with the slogan “An abnormal man for an abnormal world!”

 
 

the most eloquent defender of Bush’s current strategy in Iraq

My irony detector just exploded.

 
 

Snag, maybe you should try to hold a giant sandwich when you make your jokes next time.

 
 

No, Snag, hold a sammich

 
 

Make that a giant submarine sammich!

 
 

One GIANT SAMMICH comin’ up!!!

What, too arty?

 
 

Ceci n’est pas une sammich. Urp.

 
Smiling Mortician
 

Kingubu’s a showoff. Plus I don’t see a hall pass. Where’s Principal Blackman when you need him?

 
 

Showing off? Moi? Piffle.

 
Smiling Mortician
 

Oof! All hail the sammich master.

[genuflects]

I am truly not worthy.

 
 

I thought this was pretty good.

Funny how you run into fellow travelers on the inner+00bz!

 
 

Love the one on the moon, Roi Ubu.

 
 

When citing the Democratic congressional approval numbers, remember that one of the reasons they were so low was NOT that they weren’t supporting Bush but that their base was frustrated that they were not taking action fast enough to get US troops out of Iraq. (People who comment on low Democratic congressional numbers frequently misinterpret those numbers, claiming they are low because Democrats are not supporting Bush’s Iraq policy.) I would suspect as they challenge that more, their numbers would increase.

 
 

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