Bush's Medvedev
I’m going to coin that phrase now, before someone on the Left does and thinks themselves like the next like Chomsky’r whatever. Also so I can monopolize the buzz surrounding this new, glib replacement for political commentary and point out that it’s an entirely unfair comparison, for what should be obvious reasons, and anyone who would compare the eerie similarity between Bush’s platform and that of the man who he famously battled to Clintonian lows eight years ago is not — intellectually — serious.
That said…one quote is all it takes, peeps:
Mr Bush said his one-time rival would be a president with the “determination to defeat an enemy and a heart big enough to love those who hurt”.
Gerson reopens the lemonade stand here. Andrew makes sour face. Lowry lifts a glass.
I call dibs on referring to McCain as “Bush’s Raul Castro”.
— Bo · Mar 5, 11:11 PM · #
But that’s the way Bush praises everyone. Seriously, everyone he’s ever appointed to /nominated for any governmental position, he praises their ‘heart’. It’s just evangelical-speak, it’s the only language he knows. What struck me about the line, actually, was how poor a fit it was for Mac — not that he hasn’t got a good heart, but that you simply can’t, in a million years, imagine him using such a phrase himself. It’s too soft. (And, as we all now know, he’s Worf. Worf does not do soft.)
It’s not particularly significant that W should praise McCain (or anybody else) in W-ish language; it’s a bit more significant that McCain’s own language is not particularly W-ish. Does anyone seriously believe McCain will be a compassionate conservative?
— Derannimer · Mar 6, 03:35 AM · #
Does anyone seriously believe McCain will be a compassionate conservative?
Does anyone seriously believe that Bush was a compassionate conservative? Let’s not confuse catchphrase with candidate here.
To me, McCain seems nothing quite so much as the “GOP’s William Jennings Brian” for the way he uses paeans to ordinary, working-class virtues to sell whichever political inanity, insanity, or various state nanny-ery has caught his fancy at the moment. Also, let’s face it; that he’s a loser. He may be the best loser the GOP has this year, but he’s a Bryanesque loser all the same.
— Bo · Mar 6, 04:29 AM · #
Uh-oh! When exactly did you post this, James? A comment over on a Wonkette post (search for “Medvedev”) may have beaten you to the punch! :)
Also, why don’t standard html tags work in these comments? Grrr!
— Ethan C. · Mar 7, 01:14 AM · #