Utility opinionmonger Frank Rich of the NY Times, who can bat out Broadway reviews and political thumbsuckers with equal ease, has an entirely undeserved reputation as a scourge of America's deepening decadence. In truth, he's as much a misty-eyed sentimentalist about the supposedly permanent strength of America's "vital center" as the now-dead NYT columnist James Reston or the somewhat-alive WashPo pundit David Broder. Rich's column today is a classic: Saying that "Americans are exhausted by anger" due to the gross incompetence of the Bush Administration, Rich claims that the nation yearns for a "healer" like Gerry Ford rather than some firebrand ideologue (read: leftist) capable of challenging conventional pieties. Excerpt:
... [T]here's a strange paradox here. The decibel level of the fin-de-Bush rage is a bit of a red herring. In truth, there is some consensus among Americans about the issues that are dividing both parties. ... This relatively unified America can't be compared with that of the second Nixon term, when the violent cultural and political upheavals of the late 1960s were still fresh. But in at least one way there may be a precise political parallel in the aftermaths of two failed presidencies rent by catastrophic wars: Americans are exhausted by anger itself and are praying for the mood pendulum to swing.Gerald Ford implicitly captured that sentiment when he described himself as a healer.... We can see this equation at work now in Mitt Romney's unflappable game-show-host persona, in John McCain's unconvincing efforts to emulate a Reagan grin and in the unlikely spectacle of Rudy Giuliani trading in his congenital scowl for a sunny disposition.
The Democratic boomlet for Barack Obama is the flip side of the same coin: his views don't differ radically from those of most of his rivals, but his conciliatory personality is the essence of calm....
I dunno, Carl. Obama as the (sort of) black Gerald Ford? That's pretty funny, actually.
Comments (2)
Rich is secretly hoping not for ford
after all
bush is his own ford
but a carter reflux
why ??
well my guess
and its only a guess
poor Rich
"feels not"
the building piles of loose black powder
under his "amerika "
the road to a future class explosion
is not in his tour guide
maube with all that manhattan dazzle
he just can't get
into the white boy pleb head
the head thats gotten trade whipped
all these years
and sees the occ occ occ
as a home team lose
he's got a bad case of war flop blues
no the smoldering in the guts
of our domestic pale face jobblery
is not reflected
in beau rich's belly
rich emps with
the anxious twitchers
on the top floors
of the hollow center
his secret dream headline
dateline jan 09
" DC D team moves in "
HIS HOPE
the orthrian donks
gracefully
reset
the dials of global management
....back to silver standard running numbers
best case
an industrial stength
billy blow job
( hope with an iron vagina ???)
but ...
don't we all feel
something quite different is afoot ???
or
will the sharpening
"contradictions in the Force "
allow an ultimate sequel :
"clinton II is nixon II "
----------
yes theres tons of questions
about our
ever nearer and nastier
national class fork ahead:
some things seem self evident
to continuity riders like rich
self evidents that
are figments of broadway liberality
no 08 is not
about to be
76 all over again ????
are we headed into another
carter type wobble
and then a further right turn
like 80 ???
i doubt it
what then ???
i say maybe
an 08 as
a reverse 68
nixon in demo drag ????
recall
con sounds like dawn
at least
to ears
hoping for world historical
returns renewals
retributions
and reversals
the donk say
on the other gwot
the " global war on trade"
"we have a plan "
they don't
postulate
declasse is never in fashion
and
meanwhile
cleo's powder kegs....
are constantly filling
its but to light the fuses
Posted by op | June 4, 2007 7:54 AM
Posted on June 4, 2007 07:54
Barack Obama as the Black Gerald Ford sounds interesting enough until you realize that Chevy Chase just isn't as spry and limber as he used to be. Does anybody know what Garrett Morris is up to?
Posted by Mike Flugennock | June 4, 2007 9:53 PM
Posted on June 4, 2007 21:53