David Broder: Breaking! I've just discovered that George Bush spent nearly eight years dumbing down the presidency. Who knew? And they say I've lost my touch. Hah! Watch me make this bipartisan.
Peter Wehner: "I am a conservative evangelical, and even I am offended by James Dobson's dishonest critique of Barack Obama's theology." And believe me when I tell you that when it comes to conservative evangelical dishonest Democrat-bashing critiques, it takes a heck of a lot to offend me.
Frank Rich: A terror attack help McCain? An urban myth, like alligators in the NY sewers.
But let’s put ourselves in Mr. Black’s shoes and try out the Rove playbook at home — though not in front of the children — by thinking the unthinkable. If a terrorist bomb did detonate in an American city before Election Day, would that automatically be to the Republican ticket’s benefit?
Not necessarily. Some might instead ask why the Bush White House didn’t replace Michael Chertoff as secretary of homeland security after a House report condemned his bungling of Katrina. The man didn’t know what was happening in the New Orleans Convention Center even when it was broadcast on national television.
Peggy Noonan: How the mighty have fallen! Reagan's people could steal your wallet right under your nose and get you to blame your Democratic grandmother. McCain's people? "What a hotbed of incompetent manipulation they have become." Rank amateurs!
Y'know McCain ought to unleash his inner "straight talk express" and start telling people what he really thinks of George Bush. He'd still lose, of course, but at least it'd be a good deal more interesting than what we're getting from McCain now.
Gail Collins: On Barack and Hillary:
Do they really like each other? I think I speak for most of the nation when I say that on the list of things that keep us up at night, it does not make the top 1,000. It is, in fact, right down there with the fate of the Clinton campaign debt.
Well, I still can't figure out why he won and she didn't (they are so very similar to my eye), but can we start talking about Obama vs McCain now? It's time to move on.
Congress and the public do not know nearly enough about the nation’s post-Sept. 11 interrogation practices. When something as foul as torture is on the table, there is a tendency to avert one’s eyes from the most painful truths.
It’s a tendency we should resist.
It’s hard to fathom why Obama should be mau-maued into paying off the debt that Hillary and Bill accrued attacking and undermining him, while mismanaging the campaign and their nearly quarter-billion-dollar war chest so horribly that one Hillaryland insider told The New Republic that it bordered on fraud.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Weekend Pundit Roundup
Monday, June 23, 2008
Pundit Round-up: Weekend Review
The weekend edition is here. Collect them all and amaze your friends.
William Kristol: That Moveon.org ad with that mom and the little kid is completely narcissistic. We have an all-volunteer army and she's talking about a draft. Therefore, it's all about hating the troops.
In my next column, I'll show you how 2+3=7, and how the troops (and families of the troops, and all those retired troops) that think we should start coming home hate the troops.
Paul Krugman: being a homeowner isn't a requirement to being an American citizen (that "life, liberty and property" thing got changed along the way.) Good thing, too, the way the economy is going. Bonus points for finding today's Obama swipe (I have one in every column because I may not have anything against Obama, but I really dislike U of Chicago economists.)
Fareed Zakaria: After an appropriately somber and serious hiatus of telling people what to do about Iraq, I'm back telling people what to do about Iraq. Since it looks like Obama will win, I am directing the force of my intellect towards him. I will write his speech for him, the one he must give.
God, I love my job.
Robert Novak: I've never stopped telling Republicans what to do, and as long as I'm undead, I never will. Now, the GOP is a bunch of wimpy-assed nervous Nellies, crying in their milk that they are going to lose. And they will lose, and badly. Grow up, and take your medicine like a man. Enact Paul Ryan's "Gramm-Rudman on steroids". Cut every damn tax that exists and then cut more taxes. if McCain doesn't listen to me, he'll never be Ronald Reagan.
God, I love my job.
Jay Newton-Small: Breaking. Apparently Joe Lieberman's colleagues are peeved with him. You heard it here first.
God, I'm glad I have a job.
Fred Hiatt: "Administration officials, not surprisingly, dispute the conventional wisdom that the next president will inherit a hopelessly losing hand in world affairs. Senior officials argue that they have managed well the most important relationships in Asia -- the U.S.-Japan-China triangle -- and that relations with Europe have improved since the first term, as President Bush's recent tour confirmed. Leaders in Mexico and Colombia value U.S. friendship, while Venezuela's anti-American president is on the defensive. The brightening outlook in Iraq has kindled a more optimistic outlook overall."
God, I hate my job.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Your Friday Morning Abbreviated Pundit Round-up
EJ Dionne: All that 'no one wants to be a Republican' stuff is real.
David Brooks on education reform: Damn that Obama. He's not giving me
anything to attack. McCain, otoh, isn't even showing up to play. Damn,
damn, damn. I have a deadline.
Charles Krauthammer on Iraq: when you're delusional like I am, you
don't need stuff from Obama to attack. You just make stuff up, like
"we're winning!!" That'll win the election for McCain because even
though the American people overwhelmingly agree with Obama, it just
will.
Stu Rothenberg: If McCain loses the GOP is screwed. If he wins, they
are more screwed. Seriously.
Peggy Noonan: "The press will be nice to him [McCain] again. When he's
17 points down."
Garrison Keillor: "That is the failure of the Current Occupant. Whenever he steps up to the lectern, public confidence drops like a rock. He's not a leader, he's just a regular feller."
