Bookworm on Feb 11 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Cuba
Little things mean a lot, and some Cuban voters in Florida, who might otherwise have been leaning towards Obama, may back off if they get a gander of his fellow travelers — Obama campaigners who are loud and proud in their support for Castro-ite Cuba and Che Guavara. There is no indication at all that [...]
Bookworm on Feb 09 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Bush Derangement Syndrome, Climate change, Identity politics
I’ve never been able to read Philip Roth’s novels because I cannot stand his navel gazing (or should I say penis-gazing?) characters. They are, for me, profoundly uninteresting — I find them infantile and narcissistic in their concerns. Perhaps my the problem with his writing is his thinking. Why do I say this? Because [...]
Bookworm on Feb 08 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama
On December 12, 2006, I wrote the following:
My personal feeling is that, while Obama may one day turn into a something, right now he’s pretty much a nothing: a very intelligent, but as yet untried man, with limited experience, and superficial views. What I’m gathering, though, is that on the Left, this very blankness is [...]
Bookworm on Feb 08 2008 | Filed under: African-Americans, Barack Obama, Identity politics, John McCain
John McWhorter, who supports Obama, has pointed out what he sees as a profound problem with the Obama campaign, which is the way identity politics has made it impossible to treat Obama as an adult, rather than a child, for fear of being called “racist”:
Yet there is an element of surprise, a tincture of dismay, [...]
Bookworm on Feb 07 2008 | Filed under: Democrats
I’ve read often, especially from liberals, and especially when they’re in a down cycle in elections, that America ought to have a parliamentary style democracy, where the representatives appear in proportion to their votes, as opposed to the American “winner take all” system. The thing with the winner take all system, though, is that it [...]
Bookworm on Feb 06 2008 | Filed under: John McCain
Now that McCain looks inevitable, I’m becoming sanguine. More than that, I’m hunting for his good points, and they are many:
1. He’s a hawk.
2. He will almost certainly nominate strict constructionist Supreme Court justices — and certainly more conservative than anyone Hillary or Obama would nominate.
3. He’s a hawk.
4. He [...]
Bookworm on Feb 06 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama
My 5th grader came home from school and told me that all the kids were saying that people should vote for Obama because he’s black.
I asked, “Do they know anything else about him?”
“No,” she replied. “They’re just saying [read: their parents are just saying] that people should vote for him because he’s black.”
My next question: [...]
Bookworm on Feb 04 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Media matters
Is it just me, or is this precisely the way the media covered Theresa Heinz Kerry when it became apparent that John Kerry was the frontrunner?
Once reticent Michelle Obama is big campaign asset
Michelle Obama’s fiery campaign style belies the fact that she was hesitant at first about getting involved in her husband Barack’s bid to [...]
Bookworm on Feb 04 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama
It’s okay to have eclectic, even wacky friends — but if you have friends such as this, you’d better explicitly disavow their wackier beliefs — not just in vague generalities, but specifically. Otherwise, you risk getting tarred with that same brush. And so it goes with Obama’s beloved mentor, Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., [...]
Bookworm on Jan 31 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain
I’ve noted before, based on instinct that, when it comes to substance, nothing distinguishes Obama and Clinton from each other, in that they’re each extremely liberal. That, I said, is why they’ve had to fall back so frantically on their racial and sexual identities. It’s not just the “identity politics” chickens coming home [...]
Bookworm on Jan 31 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama
You all know that I’ve been singularly unimpressed with Barack Obama’s rhetorical gifts. To me, he is just throws out platitudes — and he does that in an increasingly condescending manner. John Derbyshire is as unimpressed as I am, and has taken some time to dissect Obama’s language (h/t Paragraph Farmer):
I dunno, I [...]
Bookworm on Jan 30 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Presidential elections
Compared to Romney, I don’t like McCain. Compared to Obama or Hillary, I adore McCain and would happily vote for him — heck, if I were voting in Chicago (home turf for both Obama and Hillary), I’d vote for him twice, and have my ancestors vote for him too. You dance with them [...]
Bookworm on Jan 29 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Bush Derangement Syndrome, Conservative ideology, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Identity politics, John Edwards, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Republicans, Rudy Giuliani
I caught a minute of Mike Gallagher today, and he was talking about the fact that Republicans are more critical of Republican candidates than Democrats are critical of Democratic candidates. It occurred to me that, at least in this election cycle, that may be because there are real, substantive differences between the Republican candidates. [...]
Bookworm on Jan 28 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama
The mantra for Obama is change. I admit he’s a new face and a new color, but can anyone clue me in on how, politically, he is different from the other candidates? I mean this as a serious question, and I’d appreciate serious answers. So far, Teddy Kennedy seems representative of those [...]
Bookworm on Jan 24 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Identity politics
Okay, this is my third try at this post, because WordPress has eaten the previous two attempts (which accounts for the low level of blogging this morning).
I was listening to Dennis Prager yesterday, and he was fulminating about the calls for “unity” that are echoing through the Democratic side of the spectrum, especially with reference [...]
Bookworm on Jan 22 2008 | Filed under: Fred Thompson
It’s not surprising that Fred has dropped out. Even though conservatives purists rightly liked him, he just never caught fire. As you may have gathered from my posts, he never worked for me either. His folksy charm passed me by entirely, and while I agreed with his stand on issues and his [...]
Bookworm on Jan 22 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Media matters, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Religion
Christopher Hitchens is totally right when he notes that Mike Huckabee’s defense of the Confederate flag harmonizes perfectly with racist views. That is, a person could argue that the defense of the flag is all about States’ rights, but the fact is that the Confederate flag is so inextricably intertwined with the KKK and Jim [...]
Bookworm on Jan 21 2008 | Filed under: African-Americans, Feminism, Identity politics, Political correctness
Noemie Emery perfectly summarizes the nightmare the Dems have created for themselves:
Sometime back in the 1990s, when the culture wars were the only ones we thought we had going, a cartoon showed three coworkers viewing each other with narrowed and questioning eyes. “Those whites don’t know how to deal with a competent black man,” the [...]
Bookworm on Jan 21 2008 | Filed under: Uncategorized
I’ve got a deadline, so I thought I’d just give you a few links to things that interested me this morning:
Rick Moran highlights Zimbabwe’s insane inflation, another horrible indictment of Mugabe, who took one of Africa’s most stable and prosperous nations and reduced it to abject poverty.
An Iraq War widow, trying to help others, was [...]
Bookworm on Jan 20 2008 | Filed under: African-Americans, Barack Obama, Identity politics
The problem with Obama’s race is that you’re not allowed to dislike him simply because you don’t like him. From my point of view, irrespective of skin color, I find Obama boring and platitudinous, I dislike and distrust his friends, I find appalling his lack of practical experience, and I disagree with him from [...]
Bookworm on Jan 16 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama
Okay, I promise that this will be the last post today in which I mention the name Jonah Goldberg, but I simply can’t resist sharing with you his take on the problem with Obama’s candidacy:
Obama’s whole campaign is based on some of the most noble and inspiring sentiments in political life: hope, togetherness, bipartisanship. As [...]
Bookworm on Jan 16 2008 | Filed under: African-Americans, Anti-Semitism, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Israel, Jews
If you’re a liberal Jewish voter, and tremendously excited about Obama’s candidacy as the fulfillment of the civil rights movement, slow down, Pardner. Jews have always assumed that, because they supported the civil rights movement with enthusiasm and hard work, there would be a quid pro quo by which blacks, recognizing Jews as fellow victims, [...]
Bookworm on Jan 15 2008 | Filed under: African-Americans, Barack Obama, Capitalism, Identity politics, Multiculturalism
I’m still enjoying every page of Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, and I thought I’d share with you a few more points that I thought either summed up perfectly something most of us have already figured out or explained why [...]
Bookworm on Jan 14 2008 | Filed under: Leftist morality
I just have to share with you a few more gems from Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, and then I really, really have to buckle down and get some paying work done.
First, regarding the constant calls for unity that we’re hearing [...]
Bookworm on Jan 11 2008 | Filed under: Uncategorized
As someone who has always disliked Oprah’s touchy-feely, anti-intellectual approach, which I think has seriously lowered the tone of American discourse, I applaud this letter that the American Thinker published, especially the first two paragraphs. (I’m not sure if I agree with the third, since I think part of her attraction to Obama’s candidacy [...]
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