Peggy Noonan has another funny, head-spinningly-whacked, and completely oblivious column for us today, on "How Far Obama Has Fallen":
Why did the president make such mistakes? Why did he make decisions that seemed so unknowing, and not only in retrospect?
Because he had so much confidence, he thought whatever he did would work. He thought he had "a gift," as he is said to have told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He thought he had a special ability to sway the American people, or so he suggested to House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
But whenever he went over the heads of the media and Congress and went to the people, in prime-time addresses, it didn't really work. He did not have a magical ability to sway. And—oddly—he didn't seem to notice.
It is one thing to think you're Lebron. It's another thing to keep missing the basket and losing games and still think you're Lebron.
And that really was the problem: He had the confidence without the full capability. And he gathered around him friends and associates who adored him, who were themselves talented but maybe not quite big enough for the game they were in. They understood the Democratic Party, its facts and assumptions. But they weren't America-sized. They didn't get the country so well.
It is a mystery why the president didn't second-guess himself more, doubt himself. Instead he kept going forward as if it were working.
Some "mystery". I've got a picture of the reason right here:
Except for the line "he gathered around him friends and associates who adored him, who were themselves talented but maybe not quite big enough for the game they were in," Peggy Noonan offers not a single acknowledgement she had anything to do with what's happened. Nope - it's all this Peggy's fault:
Michelle Malkin labeled Joseph "Peggy The Moocher" - showing a nicely-honed lack of civility that pissed no one off, BTW - which raises the question:
Why has Obama "fallen" but the nation's Peggy Noonan's - whose endorsement helped put Obama over the top - can carry on as though they're still credible? As though they can "keep missing the basket and losing games and still think you're Lebron"? Why do they pay no penalty?
We got two great emails last night; one from a dear friend, a poor liberal on the east coast, and the other from a former friend, a kinda-well-off NewAge socialist, in the west. We say they're great emails because, in their own way, both are thoughtful and show a concern and passion we can't just brush off. We're going to answer them both to let them know we hear them, no matter where they are, or what their political views. Both of these friends are concerned because, from where they sit, we've "switched sides". The friend on the east coast sent us the video, above, to try and remind us of the situation as he sees it. The NewAge socialist, of course, is just over-the-top. Both, in our opinion, are stuck in class warfare.
Here at TMR we don't focus on rich Americans and poor Americans. We even reject the phrase African-American because, as Teddy Roosevelt said, if you have a hyphen in the title of your country, you don't belong to one. Our enemies are not our fellow Americans but the destructive ideologies and beliefs many have been bamboozled into adopting as their own - communism, socialism, NewAge, Paganism, etc. As long as you reject those, we're ready to lock arms in defiance of anyone, and in defense of this country's people and way of life.
Rather than attempt to parse economic policy, we're going to remind our friends of reality - and recent history - and how both have played out in our lives. Reality, we think, will be easy for them to accept - like natural law, or a lion taking a chunk out of your ass, you can't really argue with it. Recent history, though, will probably be more problematic, because those to the Left don't come off so well, and self-reflection of the kind TMR demands, for them, might turn out to be a struggle. We apologize ahead of time.
O.K., first, reality:
You know those "Make A Donation" banners at the bottom of every post we do? Leftists have been haranguing us about them from Day One. There's something about them that just gets under their skin.
We got up at 4:30AM this morning to begin the work of creating this blog. Why asking for a donation is unsightly to some is beyond us. We're not demanding anything - "pay us because we do this or else" - we're just asking.
Before and during the last presidential election, donations paid almost a third of our rent, which came in handy because - after the divorce and the murders and whatnot - we were barely able to handle walking outside, much less holding down a job. After the election, we got a collective "fuck you, what do you know?" from the public and things have tapered off, considerably, since then. But - now that "The One" has proven we were right and the "O" has been revealed as actually being a "zero" - things are picking up again and we're grateful, both, for the cash and the regained respect for our opinion that it implies.
So what's our point? Our point is, everyone who's donated to this blog, at least at some point in their life, has had more money than we do! And they've been generous with it, we think, because we're not picking a fight with them:
We're merely asking our fellow Americans to pitch in to support a message (and a messenger) that makes it possible for them, in times of trouble, to prosper and be free.
Sorry but the Democrats' "Eat The Rich" message doesn't accomplish that goal. "Hate the White Man" or screaming, "raaaacist!" don't either. Not only are they counter-productive but they have nothing to do with the ambitions of this blog or (if we can drop the "royal wee" for a second) the experience of my life. That liberal friend on the east coast? He's a black guy I traveled with in my youth, and he knows we watched, looked, and waited for any sign of racism, everywhere we went - and we never found it. People were kind to us. Much kinder than we expected. Especially white people. They may have looked at us warily, at first, but I know that's because they saw what was in our eyes - but they refused to rise to the challenge. Instead, regardless of race or circumstance, the women called us "Darlin'" and the men invited us into their homes - which, sometimes, were penthouses. It's a lesson I beg my friend to never forget:
We had no beef with them, then, and TMR has no beef with them now.
O.K., recent history:
How were the Bush years for everybody? Were you doing better, or worse, than you are now? Was America more, or less, respected? Did we, as a nation, have more or less money? We don't know about anyone else but, if we remember correctly, y'all was screaming bloody murder back then, hardly appreciative of how good you had it.
Right before Bushie Boy's second term, we were living in France and we thought we'd heard every negative thing that could be said about him and the United States - until we got back. All of it was hogwash. But, somehow, the outrageous ignorance of the French had crossed the ocean to infect our friends, who were even screaming, "The French do not agree!" as though what a third-rate power (who we had bailed out countless times with blood and treasure) thought of our security measures after 9/11 was of any consequence. The war had made the Left lose perspective. And they haven't regained it, since.
Like the French, nothing was good enough for them. Like the French, they refused to pitch in and help. Like the French, they said we had to look at all sides - especially that of the people who hurt us. And like the French, they demanded we turn over control to them. Then, when Bush won a second term - essentially the American people saying "Non!" - that's when the Left turned nasty.
So what's our point? Our point is the Left started working as the enemy. It was they who sabotaged the war effort with their constant drumbeat that we couldn't win in Iraq. It was they who shook our standing in the world with their declarations that our Commander In Chief was an idiot. It was they, with their lack of unity and pose of defiance, who made it necessary for America to work harder, spend more, fight longer, and watch it's back, both, from within it's borders and without. By the time Barack Obama came along, he could say anything, tell any lie - and he did - because you would buy it.
The fact that he was black just made it all the more galling.
The shame you allowed us - formally a proud member of the Left - to live with, for years, and then the disgust you forced on us, election night, as you danced with Oprah fucking Winfrey - that tramp who had already talked many of you into blowing money on that scam called "The Secret" and, later, into entering a sweatlodge with a charlatan to die - was just too much to bear. As many conservatives have said before us, we didn't leave the Left - you chased us away.
It was you who proved you would demonize your greatest defenders. That you would kick your friends when they're down. Attack your neighbor. Start a fight at a party. Turn a simple rock concert into a partisan political rally. And for what? Nothing we could see. Just what you believed was happening. And you believed all kinds of crazy things.
We keep telling you of how you attacked the truth. You still refuse to listen. We tell you of how you engaged in group-think of the worst possible kind. You still refuse to accept it. You were going to make us go green no matter what - and no matter there was no money in it, except for others, right? Now you want to blame Wall Street alone, and talk about what they did to make money, as though you - from Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama, to the lowliest ghetto dweller - didn't share in the exploitation of your collective madness however you could? Are you trying to fool us? Are you lying again? Whichever one it is, do you really expect we at TMR to go for it, now, after all this time? Well, if so, you've underestimated us greatly.
Look, we'll make you a deal, and because we're all friends, it's about as serious an offer as we've ever made to anyone:
We'll try to give you another, more coherent and detailed, explanation for why the rich deserve to get richer now, when you can detail, just as coherently, how the insane message that Barack Obama would one day pay her bills ever got in poor Peggy Joseph's head.
"The most touchingly pure expression of Obama cultist devotion since Peggy Joseph declared her mortgage troubles over."
-- Allah Pundit, after hearing Maryland State Senator Lisa Gladden say "It doesn't matter that the state of Maryland is broke as long as Barack Obama is president of the United States" on live television, spewing much too much Hot Air.
