NY Times Columnists Carpet Bomb
Sep. 22nd, 2008 08:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
webfarmerWow!
Aaron Sorkin Conjures a Meeting of Obama and Bartlet by Maureen Dowd - NY Times - 20 Sep 08
"BARACK OBAMA knocks on the front door of a 300-year-old New Hampshire farmhouse while his Secret Service detail waits in the driveway. The door opens and OBAMA is standing face to face with former President JED BARTLET.
BARTLET Senator.
OBAMA Mr. President.
BARTLET You seem startled.
OBAMA I didn’t expect you to answer the door yourself.
BARTLET I didn’t expect you to be getting beat by John McCain and a Lancôme rep who thinks 'The Flintstones' was based on a true story, so let’s call it even."
And this is just warming up for Sorkin. (Ah, the West Wing! I miss it.)
Truthiness Stages a Comeback by Frank Rich - 20 Sep 08
"For better or worse, the candidacy of Barack Obama, a senator-come-lately, must be evaluated on his judgment, ideas and potential to lead.
McCain, by contrast, has been chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, where he claims to have overseen 'every part of our economy.' He didn’t, thank heavens, but he does have a long and relevant economic record that begins with the Keating Five scandal of 1989 and extends to this campaign, where his fiscal policies bear the fingerprints of Phil Gramm and Carly Fiorina.
It’s not the résumé that a presidential candidate wants to advertise as America faces its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. That’s why the main thrust of the McCain campaign has been to cover up his history of economic malpractice."
The Push to ‘Otherize’ Obama by Nicholas Kristof - 20 Sep 08
"When I’ve traveled around the country, particularly to my childhood home in rural Oregon, I’ve been struck by the number of people who ask something like: That Obama — is he really a Christian? Isn’t he a Muslim or something? Didn’t he take his oath of office on the Koran?
In conservative Christian circles and on Christian radio stations, there are even widespread theories that Mr. Obama just may be the Antichrist. Seriously.
John Green, of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, says that about 10 percent of Americans believe we may be in the Book of Revelation’s 'end times' and are on the lookout for the Antichrist. A constant barrage of e-mail and broadcasts suggest that Mr. Obama just may be it."
No Laughing Matter by Thomas Friedman - NY Times - 20 Sep 08
"Of all the points raised by different analysts about the economy last week, surely the best was Representative Barney Frank’s reminder on 'Charlie Rose' that Ronald Reagan’s favorite laugh line was telling audiences that: 'The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.' '
Hah, hah, hah.
Are you still laughing? If it weren't for the government bailing out Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and A.I.G., and rescuing people from Hurricane Ike and pumping tons of liquidity into the banking system, our economy would be a shambles. How would you like to hear the line today: 'I’m from the government, and I can’t do a darn thing for you.' "
The Alpha Dogs Bark by Gail Colins - NY Times - 19 Sep 08
"Looking either grim or overmedicated, Bush spoke for several minutes — 1,260 words worth of reassurance. That was a far more ambitious effort than the day before, when, as Politico’s Roger Simon noted, our president devoted 100 fewer words to his public utterances on the collapsing economy than he did to toasting the president of Ghana at dinner.
Behind the-first-president-with-an-M.B.A.-and-a-lot-of-good-it-did-us stood the Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, who appears to be actually running the government. On Thursday night, Bernanke had called Congressional leaders together and terrified them into supporting a quadrillion-dollar rescue plan. Legend has it that there was a time when these sorts of gatherings took place at the White House, but it would probably have really cast a pall on the president of Ghana’s big night."
Aaron Sorkin Conjures a Meeting of Obama and Bartlet by Maureen Dowd - NY Times - 20 Sep 08
"BARACK OBAMA knocks on the front door of a 300-year-old New Hampshire farmhouse while his Secret Service detail waits in the driveway. The door opens and OBAMA is standing face to face with former President JED BARTLET.
BARTLET Senator.
OBAMA Mr. President.
BARTLET You seem startled.
OBAMA I didn’t expect you to answer the door yourself.
BARTLET I didn’t expect you to be getting beat by John McCain and a Lancôme rep who thinks 'The Flintstones' was based on a true story, so let’s call it even."
And this is just warming up for Sorkin. (Ah, the West Wing! I miss it.)
Truthiness Stages a Comeback by Frank Rich - 20 Sep 08
"For better or worse, the candidacy of Barack Obama, a senator-come-lately, must be evaluated on his judgment, ideas and potential to lead.
McCain, by contrast, has been chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, where he claims to have overseen 'every part of our economy.' He didn’t, thank heavens, but he does have a long and relevant economic record that begins with the Keating Five scandal of 1989 and extends to this campaign, where his fiscal policies bear the fingerprints of Phil Gramm and Carly Fiorina.
It’s not the résumé that a presidential candidate wants to advertise as America faces its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. That’s why the main thrust of the McCain campaign has been to cover up his history of economic malpractice."
The Push to ‘Otherize’ Obama by Nicholas Kristof - 20 Sep 08
"When I’ve traveled around the country, particularly to my childhood home in rural Oregon, I’ve been struck by the number of people who ask something like: That Obama — is he really a Christian? Isn’t he a Muslim or something? Didn’t he take his oath of office on the Koran?
In conservative Christian circles and on Christian radio stations, there are even widespread theories that Mr. Obama just may be the Antichrist. Seriously.
John Green, of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, says that about 10 percent of Americans believe we may be in the Book of Revelation’s 'end times' and are on the lookout for the Antichrist. A constant barrage of e-mail and broadcasts suggest that Mr. Obama just may be it."
No Laughing Matter by Thomas Friedman - NY Times - 20 Sep 08
"Of all the points raised by different analysts about the economy last week, surely the best was Representative Barney Frank’s reminder on 'Charlie Rose' that Ronald Reagan’s favorite laugh line was telling audiences that: 'The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.' '
Hah, hah, hah.
Are you still laughing? If it weren't for the government bailing out Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and A.I.G., and rescuing people from Hurricane Ike and pumping tons of liquidity into the banking system, our economy would be a shambles. How would you like to hear the line today: 'I’m from the government, and I can’t do a darn thing for you.' "
The Alpha Dogs Bark by Gail Colins - NY Times - 19 Sep 08
"Looking either grim or overmedicated, Bush spoke for several minutes — 1,260 words worth of reassurance. That was a far more ambitious effort than the day before, when, as Politico’s Roger Simon noted, our president devoted 100 fewer words to his public utterances on the collapsing economy than he did to toasting the president of Ghana at dinner.
Behind the-first-president-with-an-M.B.A.-and-a-lot-of-good-it-did-us stood the Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, who appears to be actually running the government. On Thursday night, Bernanke had called Congressional leaders together and terrified them into supporting a quadrillion-dollar rescue plan. Legend has it that there was a time when these sorts of gatherings took place at the White House, but it would probably have really cast a pall on the president of Ghana’s big night."
