October 12, 2008
SOME PEOPLE WILL DO ANYTHING TO SELL A BOOK
Christopher Buckley, sensing a change in the wind in Washington, pulls an Arianna Huffington and positions himself to be a part of the in-crowd during the coming Obama administration. And he does so on the new "me-too Arianna!" vanity web site from super-ego but well-married magazine killer Tina Brown
And there's no doubt his book sales will grow now that he has embraced the Strange New Respect approach to Beltway popularity.
He thinks the real McCain, loser in 2000, sold out to the current McCain, chooser of Palin, that ditzy snow Nazi. How dare she think she has any right to criticize an Ivy Leaguer? Listen now as he balls up his shepherds tweed hat in faux anxiety:
Comments are disabled.
Post is locked.
And there's no doubt his book sales will grow now that he has embraced the Strange New Respect approach to Beltway popularity.
He thinks the real McCain, loser in 2000, sold out to the current McCain, chooser of Palin, that ditzy snow Nazi. How dare she think she has any right to criticize an Ivy Leaguer? Listen now as he balls up his shepherds tweed hat in faux anxiety:
McCain rose to power on his personality and biography. He was authentic. He spoke truth to power. He told the media they were “jerks†(a sure sign of authenticity, to say nothing of good taste; we are jerks). He was real. He was unconventional. He embraced former anti-war leaders. He brought resolution to the awful missing-POW business. He brought about normalization with Vietnam—his former torturers! Yes, he erred in accepting plane rides and vacations from Charles Keating, but then, having been cleared on technicalities, groveled in apology before the nation. He told me across a lunch table, “The Keating business was much worse than my five and a half years in Hanoi, because I at least walked away from that with my honor.†Your heart went out to the guy. I thought at the time, God, this guy should be president someday.
A year ago, when everyone, including the man I’m about to endorse, was caterwauling to get out of Iraq on the next available flight, John McCain, practically alone, said no, no—bad move. Surge. It seemed a suicidal position to take, an act of political bravery of the kind you don’t see a whole lot of anymore.
But that was—sigh—then. John McCain has changed. He said, famously, apropos the Republican debacle post-1994, “We came to Washington to change it, and Washington changed us.†This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget “by the end of my first term.†Who, really, believes that? Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking?
A year ago, when everyone, including the man I’m about to endorse, was caterwauling to get out of Iraq on the next available flight, John McCain, practically alone, said no, no—bad move. Surge. It seemed a suicidal position to take, an act of political bravery of the kind you don’t see a whole lot of anymore.
But that was—sigh—then. John McCain has changed. He said, famously, apropos the Republican debacle post-1994, “We came to Washington to change it, and Washington changed us.†This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget “by the end of my first term.†Who, really, believes that? Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking?
So now, having secured himself a place on the Georgetown society A-list, he smugly engages in hedging by employing a few modified limited takebacks.
Writers and pundits can get away with this because they are paid to write, not be right. To them, the only sin is to be unnoticed. Right, Arianna?
Buckley, you're a funny guy - stick with that. You're not in your old man's league, standing athwart history-wise. Your more of a holding history's coat type of guy. Careful you don't get too close to the fight and spill your sherry.
But having a first-class temperament and a first-class intellect, President Obama will (I pray, secularly) surely understand that traditional left-politics aren’t going to get us out of this pit we’ve dug for ourselves. If he raises taxes and throws up tariff walls and opens the coffers of the DNC to bribe-money from the special interest groups against whom he has (somewhat disingenuously) railed during the campaign trail, then he will almost certainly reap a whirlwind that will make Katrina look like a balmy summer zephyr.
See? Now once Obama and the New Bolsheviks have engaged in exactly the kind of big government socialism he deplores, he can write another book, publicly switch back by supporting whoever it is has the guts to take on Obama in 2012, and stay tight with the DC homies.Writers and pundits can get away with this because they are paid to write, not be right. To them, the only sin is to be unnoticed. Right, Arianna?
Buckley, you're a funny guy - stick with that. You're not in your old man's league, standing athwart history-wise. Your more of a holding history's coat type of guy. Careful you don't get too close to the fight and spill your sherry.
Posted by: JBD at
01:51 PM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 666 words, total size 6 kb.
11kb generated in CPU 0.0072, elapsed 0.0326 seconds.
23 queries taking 0.0279 seconds, 28 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
23 queries taking 0.0279 seconds, 28 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.