Sully Bait
Posted: February 1, 2012 Filed under: Quotes 3 Comments »When a conservative once decides, as many articulate conservatives seem to have decided in explosive America, that the best of all possible worlds was here yesterday and is gone today, he begins the fateful move toward reaction and ratiocination that turns him from a prudent traditionalist into an angry ideologue.
- Clinton Rossiter, Conservatism in America: The Thankless Persuasion, 1955
Quoted in Carl T. Bogus’s Buckley: William F. Buckley Jr. and the Rise of American Conservatism, which I’m currently reading (and through which I’m seeing now all over the place).
(I know, I should be using this space to chime in about Florida, or at least about Newt’s bizarre Florida “concession” speech — which, among other strange delights, included a shout out to Canada — but my eyes are starting to glaze over again. I got nothing.)
I described Newt’s speech as loopy on ILX last night. He’d just taken a beating, and he spent most of the speech describing…all the executive orders he was going to sign in the 10 hours between his inauguration and that night’s parties! The only thing I got out of it was the he’d be too exhausted to do any dancing, and that much of his staff would be angry at him for not getting the day off. Very Hillary 2008: didn’t mention Romney, didn’t seem cognizant of “events on the ground.”
Romney’s gaffe today is pretty funny. I’m trying to figure out if I’m guilty of a double-standard, or if it’s as bad as everyone thinks it is. When Obama made his guns-and-religion comment three years ago, I was willing to spend the 30 seconds necessary to figure out that he was making perfect sense. With Romney, I’m just enjoying the fallout, even though common sense tells me his words are no more incriminating than Obama’s. The damage-control phase will be extra entertaining. I’m guessing he’ll be ditching “America the Beautiful” pronto for all his favourite Woody Guthrie and Billy Bragg songs.
“common sense tells me his words are no more incriminating than Obama’s…”
Well, I’d disagree on this point because a) it’s merely the latest (and the clumsiest) of what is turning into a long line of similar self-parodying Ebenezer moments; and (more importantly) b) it is ruffling far more feathers amongst conservatives right now than liberals (who really don’t need to do much right now but sit back and let all this stuff play out… and enjoy). Charles Krauthammer captures some of the breakdown: http://www.redstate.com/absentee/2012/02/01/krauthammer-on-romneys-very-poor-phrasing/
And wow, if this is true (it’s the opposite of what we’ve been hearing), more fuel for the fire!
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2012/02/02/mitt_romney_donald_trump_and_the_clown_show_.html
Well, perhaps. I don’t see it working much to Mitt’s advantage, let’s put it that way.