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I have no idea what is going on here…
Fred Barnes, who is the emergency back-up always-wrong person in case Bill Kristol is unable to fulfill his duties, points out that President Blacker Than A 1000 Midnights should never attempt anything that might turn out badly like, say, getting involved in a land war in Asia. Barnes then challenges all of the DC media types to totally call Obama out for being a big fucking failure who, if he had a shred of decency, would resign because he can’t win anything of importance, besides that Leader of the Free World thing:
…Obama’s aides assured reporters the president wouldn’t be put in a position where he could be embarrassed. But that’s exactly what happened. The White House gang thought the IOC was poised to ratify the president’s bid for a Chicago Olympics. Hardly anyone else shared that view, including the Japanese, who figured Tokyo wouldn’t be picked but Rio would be and Chicago would finish last.
And even Fred Barnes (Fred Barnes!) knows that only fools bet on long shots because they have failed to weigh all of the available evidence and tend to think not with their heads but with their —
Sorry. What? Oh…
Standard editor Fred Barnes recalled being “struck by how smart Palin was, and how unusually confident. Maybe because she had been a beauty queen, and a star athlete, and succeeded at almost everything she had done.” It didn’t escape his notice, too, that she was “exceptionally pretty.”
Well yeah, but what about that time when the Huffington Post asked 27 Very Smart People (including Karl Rove, George Will, Ed Rollins, and Morton Kondrake) on 11/2/2008 who was going to win the election and all 27 of them picked Barack Obama—
What? Oh, one person didn’t:
Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard editor
Winner: McCain
Electoral College: Obama 252 McCain 286
Senate Seats: 55 Democrats 43 Republicans
House Seats: 255 Democrats 180 Republicans
How bad was that? Even Mark Halperin (Mark Halperin!) got it right, and I’m pretty sure that he’s brain damaged.
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”It didn’t escape his notice, too, that she was “exceptionally pretty.”
I’m gonna say it before any of the guys in this locker room get a chance: fap, fap, fap, fap, fap.
Anyway, I guess it’s just me, but I don’t get why the Prez should be embarrassed that his efforts didn’t bring the Olympics to Chicago. Has Freddy ever called out the former Chimp-in-Chief for starting an unnecessary war, or allowing a major American city to drown? I didn’t think so. Now THAT’S embarrassing.
Wait, sorry, there’s a post here? I just can’t take my eyes off the trainwreck that is that picture.
As for Fred Barnes, your mouth moves, but I cannot hear what you say. Thankfully.
You know perfectly well what is going on in that picture. A girl with a big screw on her shirt is riding a giant fake turkey and standing next to Fred Barnes, who is also a giant turkey and is a wingnut. It’s the whole giant turkey-hardware nexus. Do we have to do everything around here?
The turkey in the pic was killed in the background of one of Caribou Barbie’s interviews.
What is that woman doing to Morton Kondrake?
Actually not getting the Olympics is a minor embarrassment. Getting into an unnecessary was is not an embarrassment, it’s criminal.
Fred Barnes is the definition of vapid. David Gregory is a close second.
I guess Fred was asleep (or something) through Shrub’s two terms.
To show how f-ed up the whole BigMedia/Repub kabuki dance has been for so long, here’s Freddy Nightmare on K-Street presented as a respectable journalist to ask questions in a 1984 Mondale/Raygun debate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka38mzSuOtI
And notice Barbara Walters in disgust calling out the Repub antics of controlling the message machine at the beginning. The BigGame was already firmly established by this point and has only gotten 20 times worse since then.
Although, we’re chipping away more and more each year with the New Media. Onward and upward, Liberal soldiers!
Is there one among us who cares what Fred Barnes thinks? Same question about Ms Palin, but looks like she already has a best-selling book…go figure.
Chicago didn’t get the Olympics because the U.S. visa system is too onerous to get all the atheletes & staff in the country. At least that was what the IOC cited.
Here’s commentary on the state of Democratic things from a Republican who seems a bit less screwy (not a reference to that girl in the pic above or her shirt!):
“Democrats’ incompetence isn’t funny”
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITI…..index.html
Okay, so Fred Barnes is incompetent. Arguing that Barnes is incompetent and the Obama Administration is competent, does little to advance the progressive cause. Alan Grayson has been successful recently in framing progressive issues. When he appeared (video) on MSNBC with David Shuster on Friday he was asked, among other things, about Obama’s performance in trying to sell Chicago to the Olympic Committee. His response gets to the heart of progressive values and beliefs:
In highlighting the value of teamwork, Grayson appealed to the progressive side of “biconceptuals” by reminding them that we are all in this together…. Americans are all members of a team. The mere fact the that President made a special trip was itself a message that he cares and supports his team. The unstated contrast, of course, is that conservatives are only interested in themselves.
Grayson should also have pointed out that it was W’s change in the visa procedure that prevented the U.S. from getting the Olympics. It’s always good to have the facts but pols seldom do.
Spencer Ackerman is upstairs!
Intelligence Shortfalls And The Waziristan Offensive
Framing the subject as a team sport analogy seems unusually insipid for Grayson. In any event I’m with Groucho, I’d never belong to a club that would have somebody like me for a member.
Talking about visa procedures would be exactly the wrong thing to point out. W took on that issue because he wanted to play on peoples’ fears and wanted to appear that he alone was acting to protect them. We progressives need to emphasize that we become stronger by building a community through cooperation and empathizing with our fellow human beings.
Thank you for presenting so well some of the underlying premises of Grayson’s approach to responding to the nonsense and divisiveness that drives the worldview of the Republic Party.
I have been working on a letter to send Congressman Grayson, and have made a few changes based on your perspective.
eCAHN, thanks for pointing out the U.S. visa system as a major issue in the Chicago decision. Wasn’t aware of it.
Ah, Fred Barnes — the guy who in 1999 pimped bogus rape accusations against Bill Clinton, yet in 1991 did his level best to shoot down similar rape accusations made against Ronald Reagan: http://www.slate.com/id/1000336/
a giant fake turkey?
i though it was a giant fake penis… wearing panties on its head … using a crutch …
leaving now to get my
libidoeyes checked.sorry about that …
So, Fred BArnes thinks that President Obama embarrassed himself by showing up–as did the other heads of state (all but one of whom also lost the bid)–when eveybody knew the U.S. wasn’t going to get the Olympics, anyway. And, erm…just how much noise would Barnes have made had Obama NOT attended and Rio gotten the bid?
My God, do people actually pay this simpleton money? Winos conversing with lamp posts make more sense.
Fred Barnes embarasses himself by showing anywhere. At least he should be embarassed just to be Fred Barnes.
I just don’t get this whole obsession with saying that Obama was somehow taking a risk going to the IOC. Didn’t all the other countries in the running also have their heads of state there??
i just don’t get the “sarah is sooo pretty thing” .. pretty is as pretty does and i simply don’t find the vacuous bitch from alaska as attractive .. period ..
a’course … there’s no accounting for taste .. eh .. i mean.. there are those who think bill krystol is “smart” too …. eh ?? also …
As do lamp posts conversing with winos.