Blissful Ignorance

There's really something bizarre about the growing number of constituencies to which your modern-day Republicans must pander in order to succeed in primary politics. That's all I think you can conclude from something like Mitt Romney calling on the US to boycott a UN panel we're already boycotting. Of the people in the race, Romney's clearly the one who's most eager to leave no pander unturned, so here we have him grasping at straws to prove his UN-hating bona fides, probably just wishing he'd had the chance to pick a fight over parking tickets like Rudy. Maybe then he wouldn't end up making an ass of himself like this.

Obviously, though, you can't put this sort of ignorance on a par with a "gaffe" like getting a haircut or saying you wouldn't drop nuclear weapons on Pakistan.

Comments

an yetr Kaus thinks Democrats are in the hands of speciall. I hate Kaus.

Posted by reddie | October 19, 2007 1:19 AM

Since we're on the top, I'll note that this is the first time I've seen Kevin Durant play, and he's definitely a blue chipper. But even if Oden turns out to be a total bust, I'd still have taken him above Durant.

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"I hate Kaus."

Don't be prejudiced. Goat blowers are people too.

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Romeny is teh funny.

Posted by Petey | October 19, 2007 2:10 AM

I like watching Matt continue to struggle to find negative things to say about Mitt Romney. You voted for him for governor of MA, right? So there must be some things you like about him.

That's one reason I hope he wins our nomination: that he's been able to win votes from Dems in the past. Another reason is that he'd be the best president out of the current crop of candidates, since he's obviously intelligent and has a history of successfully running large organizations. A third reason is that he will be so hard for Dems to attack, as Matt's struggles demonstrate.

The only flaw with Romney is that he seems too perfect: one wife, his kids like him, etc. Maybe his camp needs to make up a story about an alleged affair to humanize him a little.

Posted by Fred | October 19, 2007 2:21 AM

One bright spot is his stated desire to form a "coalition of the free nations of the world." I have thought the same thing only I envisioned a "United Democracies".

The UN has become a forum for every despot dictator and has given them status and power. The ensuing corruption, especially during the reign of Kofi Annon, is astounding.

Posted by El Viajero | October 19, 2007 2:33 AM

There's really something bizarre about the growing number of constituencies to which your modern-day Republicans must pander in order to succeed in primary politics.

I really don't know if MY is serious or being ironic.

Posted by Mark Adams | October 19, 2007 2:42 AM

Put down that crack pipe, fred. Willard ain't going nowhere.

Posted by merlallen | October 19, 2007 3:11 AM

Fred, magic underwear, the angel Moroni, every good Mormom gets his own planet to lord it over. The Talibaptists will do all of the attacking needed.

Posted by merlallen | October 19, 2007 3:15 AM

"One bright spot is his stated desire to form a "coalition of the free nations of the world." I have thought the same thing only I envisioned a "United Democracies".

The UN has become a forum for every despot dictator and has given them status and power. The ensuing corruption, especially during the reign of Kofi Annon, is astounding.

Posted by El Viajero | October 19, 2007 2:33 AM"

Of course, since major dictatorships like China and Russia can be wished away into the land of magical flying ponies and unicorns. Having a forum in which we can deal with China and Russia on issues of common interest and security (dealing with the threat of failed states, global warming, diseases, keeping account of all of the world's nukes, etc.) is useful. The only real power in the UN lies with the Security Council. By the way, Kofi Annan was the US's hand-picked choice to be Ghali's successor. By tradition, the next UN Secretary General was supposed to be from Asia, but we lobbied for Annan because he was seen as the candidate most sympathetic to American policies. It took 5 ballots to get him elected.

Posted by Reality Man | October 19, 2007 5:10 AM

Yes, because Democrats have no need to pander to any extreme contingencies.

Posted by Jim | October 19, 2007 6:23 AM

Evangelical Christians want the government to outlaw pornography, allow people to discriminate against gays, stop teaching evolution in public schools, start praying in public schools, and spend billions to stop AIDS (and sex) in Africa.

Libertarians want the government to keep out of their bedrooms and quit monitoring their phone calls.

Wall Street types want the government to massively cut taxes on the rich and do nothing for the poor, and allow massive immigration.

White "heritage" voters want to build a giant fence to keep out the Mexiands and throw out the ones who are here.

Militarists want the US to bomb Iran, spy on, arrest, and torture people without warrants, and stay in Iraq forever.

Oil barons want the US to suck up to Saudi Arabia.

Conservative Jews want the US to suck up to Israel.

I can't imagine why you'd think this coalition would be hard to keep together.

Posted by brooksfoe | October 19, 2007 7:04 AM

“We remain a hunted people. Now you think you have a destiny to fulfill in the land that historically has been ours for forty thousand years. And we’re a new Mestizo nation.”

“Our devil has pale skin and blue eyes…”

“We have got to eliminate the gringo, and what I mean by that is if the worst comes to the worst, we have got to kill him.”

– Professor Jose Angel Gutierrez, founder of La Raza

"Around the year 2040, whites will become a minority in the United States and, believe me, it will be 'payback time'."

- Pro-Immigration Activist, Jorge Sanchez

“And the one idea is, how we are going to exterminate white people because that in my estimation is the only conclusion I have come to. We have to exterminate white people off the face of the planet to solve this problem.”

- African Studies professor, Dr. Kamau Kambon

"Blond hair and blue eyes are a biological defect."

"The white race is a disease, and the only cure is a bullet. The rule of whites is history. Soon they will be our serfs. It's now the Age of the Brown Man."

- Hindu nationalist, Ramesh Sharma

“The goal of abolishing the white race is on its face so desirable that some may find it hard to believe that it could incur any opposition other than from committed white supremacists. Make no mistake about it we intend to keep bashing the dead white males, and the live ones, and the females too, until the social construct known as ‘the white race’ is destroyed–not ‘deconstructed’ but destroyed."

- Jewish studies professor, Dr Noel Ignatiev

.

Posted by Death of the West | October 19, 2007 7:06 AM

Wait, lemme guess: Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't all out to get you.

Posted by Bill | October 19, 2007 7:19 AM

I gotta say, I really didn't see the last quote coming.

Most of our racists around here are Sailerian, so they think the Jews are smarter, a superior race clever and tricksy. I wasn't expecting the old version of white power.

Posted by DivGuy | October 19, 2007 8:28 AM

By tradition, the next UN Secretary General was supposed to be from Asia...

True, but the African Secretary General was supposed to remain for 2 terms, and the US wanted Boutros-Boutros Ghali out after his first term. So the idea was to hand-pick another African Sec'y General to fill out what would have been Ghali's second term.

Posted by Tyro | October 19, 2007 8:31 AM

While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily thickening
to empire,
And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the
mass hardens [...]

Did people right before August 1914 know they were approaching August 1914. Or if you think you're approaching an August 1914 are you just a complete worry-wart?

Posted by Jeffrey Davis | October 19, 2007 8:51 AM

Except for La Raza, none of the people in that
list ring any bells. You may as well have got
quotes from the Onion's "What do you think?" panel.

http://www.theonion.com/content/amvo/drug_resistant_staph_widespread

Whites are already a minority in California and if
there's been any "payback", I certainly don't hear
about it.

For a preview of what "payback" would look like,
one need look no further than Zimbabwe. Apparently, it looks like economic and
political suicide.

-DJ

Posted by DJ | October 19, 2007 9:38 AM

"No pander unturned"? Pandarus (in the legend of Troilus and Cressida) was a sexual go-between, almost a pimp. Usually you pander to a rake or his vice: so "no lobby unpandered-to". I'm not sure whethet the verb can take a direct object in the service supplied: does Pandarus pander Cressida to Troilus? If yes, then you can have "no policy unpandered".

Posted by James Wimberley | October 19, 2007 10:55 AM

I am with Fred on hoping Mitty gets the nomination, but for the opposite reason. I see Mitt as an extremely weak nominee, not because he does so dismally in head-to-head polls. But because he's lost the quality that enabled him to pull of a win in 2002 against an under funded opponent.

Again this isn't about the specifics of his many flip-flops, Mitt has lost even the veneer of integrity he once had. In 2002 he appeared to be an independent voice, at least to the impressionable. But he's become a creature of the loony right and is seen as such, had on his Keery like fake plastic tree demeanor and we have a 40 state sweep.

Posted by AJ | October 19, 2007 11:34 AM

"Fred, magic underwear, the angel Moroni, every good Mormom gets his own planet to lord it over. The Talibaptists will do all of the attacking needed."

Every religion has wacky aspects, and most of us assume that those who are high achievers in the secular world simply don't believe the wacky stuff, or find a way to rationalize ignoring it. Mitt is put in the unfair position of being the only candidate asked to defend his religion's inherent wackiness, but I think this is surmountable.

Posted by Fred | October 19, 2007 2:54 PM