Sunday, March 21, 2010

Recommended Reading

David Frum on what it all means for the Republican party. He thinks they've lost big; that they tried for all the marbles and ended up with none.

Frum is kind of an interesting voice in the Conservative movement because he talks about what it will take for the G.O.P. to win elections and pass its agenda...but is often found in opposition to the Hannity/Limbaugh crowd. He gets slammed a lot for that but he seems to have a better track record for accurate predictions than any of them, at least in electoral areas. He's less prescient regarding things like the economy and foreign relations.

In '08, I attended a panel discussion where he crossed a few swords with Hugh Hewitt, who was also on the dais. Hewitt went on at some length explaining how the Democrats were doomed if they nominated Barack Obama because there was no way he could win. Frum felt otherwise. Who was right? I suspect that once again, he's saying something that the talk radio crowd doesn't want to acknowledge...but he's right.

• Posted at 9:19 PM · LINK

Sunday Afternoon

I'm taking time out from the deadline avalanche to watch a little of the Health Care debating and voting. Naturally, I'm pleased with the (at the moment) probable outcome but no, I don't find a lot of glee in watching the bill's opponents rant and scream and cry. I think it's very sad that in this country, disagreements at policy have ramped up to the point where they're never about what they're about. The other side, no matter what they're out to do, is always Hitler and/or the Anti-Christ and whatever they're proposing will doom mankind. That's bad for Democracy because, well, Democracy works best when there's a little realism about what we're debating. It's also much worse for whichever side loses a battle because they've psyched themselves up to believe that every loss is a victory for Satan and the Apocalypse.

One thing I do enjoy: I'm flipping between news channels and there's a nice unintentional commentary over on MSNBC. Their live coverage is displacing their usual Sunday lineup, which is a lot of documentaries about prisons and crime and mass murder, and the titles of those pre-empted shows keep popping up on my screen to tell me what show my TiVo thinks I'm watching. So there's Mitch McConnell explaining how this bill will make abortion mandatory (or whatever he's saying...I'm not even sure he knows) and on my screen, it says I'm watching Conviction: I Put Fear in Your Life. And then there's David Shuster talking with some Democratic Congressman and my screen tells me I'm watching Witness to Jonestown. And then there's John Boehner talking and the info bar says I'm watching The Mind of Manson. The final vote may come during a time slot that's supposed to be showing something called The Squeeze.

• Posted at 5:45 PM · LINK