White Southern Men can't Democrat and other Tidbits
Election nearly wipes out white Southern Democrats
Excerpt:
The white Southern Democrat - endangered since the 1960s civil rights era - is sliding nearer to extinction.
After this week's elections, the Democratic Party barely holds a presence in the region outside of majority-black urban areas such as Atlanta and Memphis. The carnage for the party was particularly brutal in the Deep South, where just one white Democrat survived across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.
The Republicans' effort to win over the South, rooted decades ago in a strategy to capitalize on white voters' resentment of desegregation, is all but complete.
"Right now in most of Dixie it is culturally unacceptable to be a Democrat. It's a damn shame, but that's the way it is," said Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, a campaign strategist for conservative Democrats such as Jim Webb of Virginia, one of the few remaining Southern Democratic senators.
Comment: Serious: Heath Shuler still stands. And I like him! Not serious: I'm going to change my middle name to "Mudcat". Jim "Mudcat" Peet ... has a nice ring to it!
Mort Zuckerman: America's Love Affair With Obama Is Over
Excerpt:
[Obama] He came across as a young man in a grown-up's game—impressive but not presidential. A politician but not a leader, managing American policy at home and American power abroad with disturbing amateurishness. Indeed, there was a growing perception of the inability to run the machinery of government and to find the right people to manage it. A man who was once seen as a talented and even charismatic rhetorician is now seen as lacking real experience or even the ability to stop America's decline. "Yes we can," he once said, but now America asks, "Can he?"
Comment: The old "empty suit" syndrome
Noonan: Americans Vote for Maturity - Obama gets a rebuke, but so do Republicans who seem unqualified.
Excerpt:
On to the aftermath of the election. On Wednesday, President Obama gave a news conference to share his thoughts. Viewers would have found it disappointing if there had been any viewers. The president is speaking, in effect, to an empty room. From my notes five minutes in: "This wet blanket, this occupier of the least interesting corner of the faculty lounge, this joy-free zone, this inert gas." By the end I was certain he will never produce a successful stimulus because he is a human depression.
Actually I thought the worst thing you can say about a president: that he won't even make a good former president.
Comment: President Carter is a better former President than he was a President (but that's not saying much!). Obama had better quickly learn from his mistakes or he will be a one-termer! An empty suit in an empty room!
Case to point: Selling health care reform ... going to save us money ... but it just costs more and businesses are dropping health care plans.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't reform!
More from Noonan:
ReplyDeleteWhat Democrats have to learn from this election: Cut loose from that. Join with Republicans where you can, create legislation together, send the bill to the White House, see what happens. Even as the Republicans have succeeded in getting out from under George W. Bush, this is your chance to get out from under Mr. Obama, and possibly prosper in 2012 whatever happens to him.
Noonan on Palin (same article)
ReplyDeleteConservatives talked a lot about Ronald Reagan this year, but they have to take him more to heart, because his example here is a guide. All this seemed lost last week on Sarah Palin, who called him, on Fox, "an actor." She was defending her form of political celebrity—reality show, "Dancing With the Stars," etc. This is how she did it: "Wasn't Ronald Reagan an actor? Wasn't he in 'Bedtime for Bonzo,' Bozo, something? Ronald Reagan was an actor."
Excuse me, but this was ignorant even for Mrs. Palin. Reagan people quietly flipped their lids, but I'll voice their consternation to make a larger point. Ronald Reagan was an artist who willed himself into leadership as president of a major American labor union (Screen Actors Guild, seven terms, 1947-59.) He led that union successfully through major upheavals (the Hollywood communist wars, labor-management struggles); discovered and honed his ability to speak persuasively by talking to workers on the line at General Electric for eight years; was elected to and completed two full terms as governor of California; challenged and almost unseated an incumbent president of his own party; and went on to popularize modern conservative political philosophy without the help of a conservative infrastructure. Then he was elected president.
The point is not "He was a great man and you are a nincompoop," though that is true. The point is that Reagan's career is a guide, not only for the tea party but for all in politics. He brought his fully mature, fully seasoned self into politics with him. He wasn't in search of a life when he ran for office, and he wasn't in search of fame; he'd already lived a life, he was already well known, he'd accomplished things in the world.
I agree with Peggy!
Is Carter even a good former President anymore? It was good when he was pounding nails with Habitat (though I saw firsthand how long some of those houses lasted, not pretty), but now that he's getting everything wrong as "senior statesman wannabe," I can't say much nice about him anymore.
ReplyDeleteRegarding President Obama.....boy, I can hardly hear him say three words without wanting to yell at the TV or radio.
By the way, it SHOULD be culturally unacceptable to support the party of abortion on demand, no?
ReplyDelete