Mere Rhetoric, 11/03/08:
Obama has to be the only candidate in history who has people voting for him because they hope that he’s lying to them. Gay rights advocates know quite well that Obama is explicitly against gay marriage but write that he “actually has no problem with gay marriage”. Ostensibly pro-Israel American Jews know quite well that Obama surrounds himself with anti-Israel radicals but fall back on a vast array of awful pretexts. Mickey Kaus knows quite well that Obama and McCain are indistinguishable on amnesty… but he spins imaginative scenarios where Obama won’t do what he has the inclination and the power to do. Christopher Hitchens knows quite well that Obama is “vapid and gutless” but holds out hope that Obama/Biden “show some signs of being able and willing to profit from experience.”
LAT 12/05/08:
Deep down, we had hoped Barack Obama was fibbing when he bashed the North American Free Trade Agreement on the campaign trail. After all, his senior economic policy advisor had, according to a leaked memo, assured Canadian officials that the talk was “more reflective of political maneuvering than policy.” Yet amid reports Thursday that Obama had offered the crucial job of U.S. trade representative to a dyed-in-the-wool protectionist, it seems he was disastrously serious all along. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) could become the administration’s point person on international trade. He’s a terrible choice… Becerra is a leader of the Democratic Party’s protectionist wing, which opposes NAFTA, the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement and most other trade deals.
And of course liberal intellectuals are rushing to justify Obama’s disasterous economic policies with psuedo-intellectual nonsense. These are the same liberal intellectuals who just a week ago were talking about how the economy was recovering because of Obama. Because why should being consistently wrong prevent experts from providing smart-sounding pretexts to mindless liberal activists? And while the multiplier argument is utter crap – obviously – it’s nowhere near as stupid as the idiotic and contradictory arguments being used ny foreign policy sophisticates to justify Iranian engagement.
I’m actually kind of impressed with the LAT. I figured liberal news outlets would spend years making increasingly dumb rationalizations for their misguided Obama worship. At least I can count on ostensibly pro-Israel American Jews to be more enthusiastic as reality slowly intrudes. They’ll end up redefining “pro-Israel” as “the opposite of what the majority of Israelis want” – because obviously Israelis don’t know what’s good for them. At least it’s not unimaginative.
In totally unrelated news: the prospect of Democratic economic prescriptions has the US economy in free fall and the world is gearing up to blame it specifically on Obama’s protectionist policies. So much for dampening global anti-Americanism. Or not being a total disaster.
References and previously after the jump…
References:
* Leftist Interest Groups Pretty Psyched About Ultra-Liberal Obama Administration (Plus: MR’s Electoral Prediction) (UPDATE: MR’s Electoral Map Identical To Rove’s) [MR]
* Becerra’s a bad choice for trade post [LAT]
* Stephanopolous, USAToday Agree: Obama Caused Stock Market Rally and Solid Black Friday Sales [Ace]
* Give me an S! Give me an M! Give me two O’s . . . !!! [Megan Mcardle / Atlantic]
* Israel Gearing Up For Unilateral Strike On Iran? [MR]
* Obama Foreign Policy Appointees: Israel To Blame For Mideast Instability, Sweeping Concessions Necessary [MR]
* Workers Give Up [Economix / NYT]
* Impending Obama Victory Already Trashing US Trade, Economy [MR]
Previously:
* Mideast Muslims: Financial Meltdown Is Allah’s Punishment
* Global And Domestic Markets Responding To Obama Election With Something Less Than Elation [MR]
* Global Investors And Economists Reacting To Obama Election With Total Meltdown (UPDATE: Moran: "Simplistic Notion That People Who Have Wealth Are Entitled To Keep It")
