by The Puppet Mistress | Wow. To quote from Bret Harte:
Do I sleep? do I dream?
Do I wonder and doubt?
Are things what they seem?
Or is visions about?
First Christopher Buckley and now Christopher Hitchens? The Nation says it:
This is how bad it has gotten for John McCain....
Yes, he has lost the Christophers.
Just as an aside, I wonder how Buckley and Hitchens like being lumped together? Not at all, I'll bet. Anyway, here's the Hitchens article:
VOTE FOR OBAMA: MCCAIN LACKS THE CHARACTER AND TEMPERAMENT TO BE PRESIDENT.
It therefore seems to me that the Republican Party has invited not just defeat but discredit this year, and that both its nominees for the highest offices in the land should be decisively repudiated, along with any senators, congressmen, and governors who endorse them.
While it's hard for me to take in, Hitchens---like Buckley---has always been one of the conservatives I've always liked as a personality (shut up) and I'm feeling ever so slightly vindicated as a result for going on liking him even though he's so very wrong in so very many ways. Hitchens says:
On "the issues" in these closing weeks, there really isn't a very sharp or highly noticeable distinction to be made between the two nominees, and their "debates" have been cramped and boring affairs as a result. But the difference in character and temperament has become plainer by the day, and there is no decent way of avoiding the fact. Last week's so-called town-hall event showed Sen. John McCain to be someone suffering from an increasingly obvious and embarrassing deficit, both cognitive and physical. And the only public events that have so far featured his absurd choice of running mate have shown her to be a deceiving and unscrupulous woman utterly unversed in any of the needful political discourses but easily trained to utter preposterous lies and to appeal to the basest element of her audience.
McCain occasionally remembers to stress matters like honor and to disown innuendoes and slanders, but this only makes him look both more senile and more cynical, since it cannot (can it?) be other than his wish and design that he has engaged a deputy who does the innuendoes and slanders for him.
After arguing that voters shouldn't patronize Palin, he's come round to see her very differently.
[T]he most insulting thing that a politician can do is to compel you to ask yourself: "What does he take me for?" Precisely this question is provoked by the selection of Gov. Sarah Palin. I wrote not long ago that it was not right to condescend to her just because of her provincial roots or her piety, let alone her slight flirtatiousness, but really her conduct since then has been a national disgrace....
Moreover, given the nasty and lowly task of stirring up the whack-job fringe of the party's right wing and of recycling patent falsehoods about Obama's position on Afghanistan, she has drawn upon the only talent that she apparently possesses. (Slate)
Strong stuff. Another English ex-pat who supports Obama, Andrew Sullivan, says: "Welcome, old friend."
Gaaaaaah. This has been the strangest campaign. Hitchens, like me, feels sorry for McCain and even uses the same metaphor I did: an old lion on his last outing. I got tears in my eyes when I read what Hitchens said, because it's exactly what I felt.
Anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear had to feel sorry for the old lion on his last outing and wish that he could be taken somewhere soothing and restful before the night was out. The train-wreck sentences, the whistlings in the pipes, the alarming and bewildered handhold phrases—"My friends"—to get him through the next 10 seconds. (Slate)
No wonder the expression of blank dismay in Cindy's eyes as she ranted last week against Obama. I feel bad, bad, bad for McCain, but I want Obama to beat him by a landslide so there's no doubt as to the public's will.
You can almost hear his melodious English grumble as he fusses with his morning oatmeal and coffee, and finds the wine-stained post-it note stuck haphazardly on his laptop screen: “OBAMA ENDORSE, SLATE.” Well, then, let’s get on with it — before some clumsy mental midget like Jonah Goldberg beats you to it, old salt. Christ knows all the big names have already done so …. But how to endorse without an endorsement, per se?...Oh to hell with it, let the Slate copyboys put the “Vote For Obama” in the headline. Time for lunch!
Gawker's got a funny piece on all the Republican intellectuals (and "intellectuals") besides Hitch who have endorsed Obama:
Noted Bush-supporting former Trotskyite Christopher Hitchens has endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president! In Slate today, the beloved British alcoholic raves about how Obama isn't a sad old man, like McCain, or an offensive joke, like Sarah Palin. Hitch, like a Nader voter, declares that there are no substantial differences between the candidates, but McCain's temperament is too unstable, and Obama's is much more reassuring. This is basically the argument of a number of noted conservative intellectuals who have, in recent weeks, either endorsed Obama, resigned themselves to an Obama presidency, or simply unendorsed McCain. As the intellectual conservatives abandoned Bush, now they find themselves abandoning the GOP.
Some comments from Gawker readers:
Hitch on temperament is like Hitch on temperance: plausible a contrario.(Rosaluxembourg)
Can we give Hitch back? (scarletmenace)
Better late than never...eight fuckin' years late. (mymoustache)
John Cole says:
The guy you love to hate and hate to love chimes in on the McCain/Palin ticket with his usual flair...
That will leave a mark.
I once asked, rhetorically, "Is it wrong that I still love Hitch?" and everyone present said as one, "Yes, it's wrong." But there's a reason and people who love Hitch (or love to hate him) get it. People who don't, don't.
This guy speaks for me:
Hitch, whether you agree with him or not, does have a rather magical flare for the English language. Even when I think he’s completely wrong I still admire his willingness to be utterly vicious. With the exceptions of Frank Rich and P.J. O’Rourke, I can think of no other writers with the same command of language and savage wit. Just call me a sucker for great writing. And, right or wrong, Hitch is one funny MF.(at Balloon Juice)
Though no fan of Frank Rich, I loves me some P.J. It's like....Hitch and PJ are wrong, wrong, wrong; but they can write, write, write. You know?
I knew it was a mistake not keeping up last week with Hitchens Watch. The professional Hitch-watchers apparently saw it coming. (See Hitchens leaves a sinking ship; Is Hitch shifting back to the left?)
RECENT POSTINGS
Krugman's Win Draws Loud Cheers and a Few Dispirited Boos
Snark-O-Rama: A Compendium of Mordant Commentary On Current Events
Monday Laugh: Betty White on McCain and Palin
Bill Kristol: McCain Should Fire His Campaign
Pentagon Wants $450 Billion More, Should Maximize Current Funds First
The McCain Campaign on the Economy: "Whereof One Cannot Speak, Thereof One Must be Silent"
I'm a moderate lefty but I love Hitch and I love P.J. Independent original thinkers beat bland politicos every time.
Posted by: Undertoad | October 13, 2008 at 11:19 PM