Crazy Is As Crazy Does
I received quite a jolt this morning, and it certainly didn't come from the decaf I drink to start the day. The "center-left" editorial board of the Los Angeles Times actually came out swinging in one of their editorials today, and it used a Louisville Slugger.
Whatever one thinks of his politics, Newt Gingrich has demonstrated a wide-ranging intelligence over the years. But there's nothing intelligent about his recent endorsement of the theory that President Obama's political philosophy is rooted in a "Kenyan, anti-colonial" worldview. Bizarre is more like it.
National Review Online reports that the former speaker of the House praised conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza for a "stunning insight" into the president's behavior. That "insight," the subject of an article in Forbes magazine, is that to understand Obama's views, one must scrutinize the opinions of his Kenyan father, who left Obama when he was 2 years old. [Emphasis added]
I disagree that Newt Gingrich has ever "demonstrated a wide-ranging intelligence." He has simply combined a facility with language and a flair for the dramatic, qualities usually found in politicians and snake-oil salesmen. Still, even my eyebrows were raised by Gingrich's praise of D'Souza's "insight," an insight uttered by a man the editorial dismisses as "reliably wrong." Gingrich, obviously on the come-back trail, has, after all, some intelligence, although after his comments I'm not so sure of even that.
After some polite unpacking of D'Souza's wild theorizing (the racist part is never mentioned), the editorial ends with an unbelievably strong (for the "center-left" editorial board) conclusion on Mr. Gingrich's stance:
Gingrich used to be a serious figure. He is mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2012. But he has earned the description he applied to Obama: "If you look at [his] continuous denial of reality, there has got to be a point where someone stands up and says that this is just factually insane." [Emphasis added]
Ouch!
That's gotta leave a mark.
And it's about time somebody called the crazy what it is.
Whatever one thinks of his politics, Newt Gingrich has demonstrated a wide-ranging intelligence over the years. But there's nothing intelligent about his recent endorsement of the theory that President Obama's political philosophy is rooted in a "Kenyan, anti-colonial" worldview. Bizarre is more like it.
National Review Online reports that the former speaker of the House praised conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza for a "stunning insight" into the president's behavior. That "insight," the subject of an article in Forbes magazine, is that to understand Obama's views, one must scrutinize the opinions of his Kenyan father, who left Obama when he was 2 years old. [Emphasis added]
I disagree that Newt Gingrich has ever "demonstrated a wide-ranging intelligence." He has simply combined a facility with language and a flair for the dramatic, qualities usually found in politicians and snake-oil salesmen. Still, even my eyebrows were raised by Gingrich's praise of D'Souza's "insight," an insight uttered by a man the editorial dismisses as "reliably wrong." Gingrich, obviously on the come-back trail, has, after all, some intelligence, although after his comments I'm not so sure of even that.
After some polite unpacking of D'Souza's wild theorizing (the racist part is never mentioned), the editorial ends with an unbelievably strong (for the "center-left" editorial board) conclusion on Mr. Gingrich's stance:
Gingrich used to be a serious figure. He is mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2012. But he has earned the description he applied to Obama: "If you look at [his] continuous denial of reality, there has got to be a point where someone stands up and says that this is just factually insane." [Emphasis added]
Ouch!
That's gotta leave a mark.
And it's about time somebody called the crazy what it is.
Labels: Free Press
posted by Diane at 3:09 AM
1 Comments:
That's the problem with the corporate owned media outlets, they mostly just can't tell the truth any more. That was a bit refreshing.
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