Gail Collins is not as boring as Bob Herbert, as abrasive as Maureen Dowd, as loopy as Bill Kristol, as assy as David Brooks, or as 2,000-word ranty as Frank Rich, so she doesn’t command as much attention as many of her fellow New York Times columnists. But she seems like a sensible sort with a subtler sense of humor, and today she has some very reasonable things to say about Barack Obama. Go read it, ye wounded liberals, and meet your new Barry, same as the old Barry. [New York Times]
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I gotta say, I agree with Gail. Hopey wants to be president of all the states, not just the blue ones, and he can only yank people so far to the left before November. I think the whole country is ready for a pendulum swing to the left, but not at warp speed.
DUM…DUMB DEE DUMB…WE WILL GET FOOLED AGAIN!
A year and a half of campaigning and we still haven’t heard Obama’s penguins, either…There’s definitely a penguin in there somewhere.
This is the kind of equivocation I’ve come to expect from the Times, but I never realized how cute it could be!
Sullivan linked to this. Do we have a new consensus pundit?
To a lot of people, “change” meant “we’re going to run as hard to the left as this past administration has run to the right.” They just projected their desires onto the phrase, and the candidate.
Very myopic, a lot of people are about their politics.
That article made too much sense. Therefore I DENOUNCE and REJECT it.
Will Obama do the same? Will Childers say something?
What’s this? The man who said we need to stop dividing the country into left and right turns out to be kind of a centrist? I’m confused!! I thought all Black people were liberals!
Oh, I’ve got the answer now. It must be the white half that voted for FISA.
Where’s the part about Obama being Jesus?
I’ve waited years for Barry to ride into town, guns a-blazin.
Don’t let us down, Barry. Don’t let the bad guys off the hook.
“Pragmatism you can believe in” just doesn’t have the same je ne sais whoop de doo.
[re=32946]shortsshortsshorts[/re]: You know, I think you’re right. Fuck it, I’m going to proceed to blame the passage of every bill that I don’t fully agree with on one senator and/or congressperson. I’m kind of lazy, so after I get bored of the presidential candidates, I’m just going to putting the names of the “ayes” in a hat, picking one, and then haunting message boards in the depths of night posting screeds declaring the loss of my vote.
THAT will teach ‘em.
Bill Kristol is, at this very moment, coming up with a 3,000 word diatribe aimed specifically at coming up with new ways of calling Gail a total cunt.
Oh, and I bet Hilltards read that article and thought Gail was calling Hillary dumb.
[re=32952]populucious[/re]:
How about “Everything in Moderation ’08″
or
Barack “Asi Asi” Obama – “A Little of This, and A Little of That.”
Obviously, Gail Collins is another America-hating Muslim. And she hates whitey, too.
[re=32952]populucious[/re]: Too many letters–it wouldn’t fit on a sign.
Someone just took all the fun out of the Hope balloon.
But, but, what about the HOPINESS?!!!
[re=32951]WhatTheHeck[/re]: You might want to consider McKinney/Clamente ’08. Those gunz stay on blazed.
Speaking of screeds, in my perusing the anti-Obama ranting in the FISA “discussion” on the Times Political Blog, I’m seeing a disproportionate number of references to “Nader ’08.”
I think a Nader – Paul ticket is just what we need for true hilarity.
[re=32950]MoodProcessor[/re]: he’s also half that Hindu monkey god and then part of him is Muslim. It hard to keep track.
[re=32951]WhatTheHeck[/re]: he’s got to get elected to do anything, and he has to tread a line here so as not to lose Republicans and Indes who are for him now but also not lose the true liberals. Not an enviable position.
Column summary: Barack Obama is going to leave us for the South Pole so he can gay-marry a penguin.
But I read in an email yesterday that he is THE MOST LIBERAL SENATOR, IN HISTORY (ory, ory, ory).
[re=32955]queeraselvis v 2.0[/re]: It must be nice to be Kristol. The world is black and white, he is never wrong or in doubt, everyone else is always wrong and too stupid to see he is right, and he gets paid a lot of money to write whatever he wants. Good gig.
[re=32954]NotNotLickingToads[/re]: Probably the most fucked up way to promote accountability, ever, but still more credible then the way it is today.
Up with Political Persecution! Down with everyone else!
I always kinda liked Gail for the reasons you describe. A few months back her Hillz love overpowered some of the articles, but this is spot on. Yes, Obama did say he’d unite the parties; we just hoped he was lying and would have abortions on the White House lawn. This will hopefully quiet an internet full of hysterical liberals (myself included).
[re=32972]Doglessliberal[/re]: The far lefters have a hard time reconciling the fact that they lost the last two elections on accounta not having enough people voting for their candidate, and need to pick up some new votes to win.
Makes sense. (Btw, I actually read this article in the actual paper version of the Times, actually.) We shall all hold hands and sing hosannahs and whatnot. Being anti-dumb is better than being leftishly center or centerishly left or whatever.
[re=32983]TGY[/re]: But being anti-smart is SO EASY!!!???
[re=32967]NotNotLickingToads[/re]: YES! But the combined patchouli stench and Cheeto grease at their convention might violate EPA standards.
Gail Collins just articulated my confusion over the “Barry’s betrayed us” meme better than I ever could have. I’ve been feeling like I heard a completely different candidate than everyone else in the bloggy realm. I actually liked Barry’s post-partisan stuff even though I knew it meant I wasn’t going to agree with him on every issue.
Oh noes! Does this mean I’m alls grown up now?
[re=32982]NotNotLickingToads[/re]: yes, there is a real die hard, 60s, white liberal contingent out there, the model of which is the Clintons (“be quiet little people, we know what is best for you”), who refuse to see that the world has changed and that a lot of us don’t need or want labels to vote. Obama is truly the perfect manifestation of that, both in his racial blending and his refusal to pick the “right” position on every issue. I was afraid for a while that his rational and logical lawyerly style in breaking down arguments would not fly (though that is one of my favorite things about him), but he seems to have balanced it nicely with the barnburner speeches.
[re=32969]Doglessliberal[/re]:
So he’s a Vishnu’s Witness handing out mass-market size copies of the Koran. Got it.
[re=32988]Cicada[/re]: maturity’s a bitch, but we’ll always have “BIG $ALE ON TRUCK NUTZ” to keep us young.
[re=32994]MoodProcessor[/re]: while riding a unicorn.
so, i guess that makes me a politically disposable left wing radical nut-case who deserves to be spied on….huh?..
Yaaaay, Penguins!!!!!!!!!!! Unless they’re those giant emperor penguins – those things are creepy . . . oh, and fuck Bill Kristol.
Most sensible column I’ve read on Barry ever. Obama: the antiDumb.
No, no, no, you morans. Barack didn’t say he’d unite the party. He said he’d untie the party. Big difference.
I admit I AGREE with Gail too.
http://www.weshow.com/top10/en
[re=32996]Doglessliberal[/re]: The unicorn is for all the abortions on the White House lawn. Way better than a wire hanger.
[re=32966]ForeignSickSpecialist[/re]: I know who McKinney is, but I had to Google the combo to find out they are the Green Party ticket. Clamente is described as a “hip hop activist.” YO! We should cut a deal with Russia and China not to have a nuclear war for 30 days and – just for shits and giggles – let those two turn the White House into a hot ghetto mess.
[re=32951]WhatTheHeck[/re]: That mentality was why I was for Hillz (until January 2008); I figured if anyone could decapitate the GOP hydra it was she. While I want blood for their crimes, I soon realized that we can’t win if we don’t play nice. I’ll wait until he’s in office, then we can unleash the Crazy 88.
[re=32997]anabellum[/re]: just post your SSN here and back away slowly. No one will get hurt.
[re=32997]anabellum[/re]: Yes, in Hyperbole Land. I sometimes rent a cottage there, but I can’t afford to live there year-round.
[re=33006]AxmxZ[/re]: oh that’s right, because he’ll be requiring abortions of every man, woman, and child.
I don’t know, if the Democrats are going to start running sensible, intelligent people for President, what excuse will I have to get drunk the first Thursday of November?
[re=33013]Doglessliberal[/re]: funny, i was just thinking the same thing…
uhmmm…as regards my previous comment….what i meant to say is centrist politics are the back bone of this countries political system…uhmmm…im glad Barry is so in touch with the American pulse…thats right, thats what i meant…
[re=33027]Lionel Hutz Esq.[/re]: Just remember the Alamo. It always works for me.
[re=33007]Delicious[/re]: I ASSume you are equating being black and Puerto Rican with being from the ghetto. I bet you fit in well with the Pat Buchannan crowd, because as he knows well all blacks and Puerto Ricans live in rat infested filth located near transformers and hospital waste, thus forcing someone like Rosa Clamente to speak out against it as an activist… yo…
“Obama’s penguins”: Good name for rock band?
[re=33016]Cicada[/re]: hyperbole?…perhaps a bit…
but i though most of it fell within the city limits of Sarcasm…
Meh, she goes on and on about wounded libtards, the ones threatening to vote Green instead of Obama. What about the ones that will vote Libertarian instead of Obama? I think Barr has the potential more to be Obama’s Nader than McCain’s at times.
[re=33019]Doglessliberal[/re]: Larry Craig will be the first in line to get rid of those pesky ass-babies.
[re=33042]2goats[/re]: or “Obama and His Penguins”, and they could stand behind him and do the back up singing and dance moves.
Yeah, I kinda thought the column nailed it (which is unusual for a Times columnist). I always saw Hopey not as a raging, fire-breathing Kossack who will be the reincarnation of Eugene Debs but mainly a raging pragmatist. I think Andrew Sullivan’s been more in tune with who Obama is more than most folks.
[re=32981]NoWireHangers[/re]:
I will not go quietly into that good night.
Oh, wait….
[re=33042]2goats[/re]: Insert obvious black-and-white joke here.
[re=32943]NotUrEvryDayWEzl[/re]: I think when she says we “haven’t heard” the penguins, she means we-haven’t-heard- even-though-he’s-talked-plenty about the penguind. Kinda like in her cute little Nora Efron-esque analogy.
Et TU, Obama?
http://usera.imagecave.com/destonio/Destonio_EtTu.jpg
I don’t agree with all his policies, but I love him and this line captures it why I will dive for a bullet going in front of him:
“But if you look at the political fights he’s picked throughout his political career, the main theme is not any ideology. It’s that he hates stupidity.”
YOU ARE VERY VERY INSULTING TO HILLERY WHEN U SAY NOOBAMA DONT BE LIKIN STOOPIDNEX. HILLERY IS NOT STOOPID TOO. LOOK AT HER SHE IS A HARDWONKIN WITE AMERICAN AND SHE DOES NOT LIE AND IS MORE FINANNCIAL RESPONSIVE THAN EVERYBONY. SHE IS A NICE WHITE GIRL AND SHE SAID SHE WAS NOT STOOPID MANY MANY MANY TIMES. MANY TIMES. SHAME ON ALLS YOU ALL. YOU ARE BAD AND STOOPID, NOT ME AND NOT HILLERY. SHE GO TO YALE WHICH IS A VERY SMARTY COLLAGE. BUSH/NOOBAMA TO HARVARDS (A NO GOOD ELITSIST STOOPID SKOOL.
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