Showing posts with label david brooks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label david brooks. Show all posts

Monday, April 21, 2014

Jealous Clowns Brooks and Todd Discuss Whether Obama is a Manly Alpha-Dog ~ Updated

photo image.png

Previous Related Posts:
Armchair Chicken Hawks Call Obama Weak, Trembling and Feckless on Russia
Obama Baffles Media by Ordering Congress to Vote on Syria
Chuck Todd Admits that Truth Isn't Part of His Job Description
David Brooks: GOP are Wackos Because Obama Divides GOP
Chuck Todd Jumps the Shark over Romney Voting Machines

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Meet the Press this Sunday, Old Frat Boy David Brooks and MSNBC's Non-Journalist Chuck Todd questioned the President's "Manhood" in dealing with world affairs. The irony is painfully obvious. Number one, both of them are pretty much the antithesis of Macho, using talking points from the #GOP on any given day like a couple of trained parrots, which is an insult to parrots. And number two, they just sound jealous, as if they have career ~ if not "manhood" ~ envy.

They're just so ready to emasculate the President now that Obamacare is a success, while GOP has gone flaccid except for their "Patriot" rhetoric. The Republican Presidential candidates are the return of the clown show, and the Tea Party only wants to have an armed insurrection in Nevada. I guess size really does matter when you are the incredible shrinking party.

Transcript Via Crooks and Liars

DAVID BROOKS: And, let's face it, Obama, whether deservedly or not, does have a (I'll say it crudely) but a manhood problem in the Middle East: Is he tough enough to stand up to somebody like Assad, somebody like Putin? I think a lot of the rap is unfair. But certainly in the Middle East, there's an assumption he's not tough.

. . . CHUCK TODD: And isolating Putin, but also just sort of containing this issue, because there is this fear, as you know. He doesn't want this to become the rest of his presidency, you know. But in many ways, he is being tested here in some way on how he handles Ukraine.

So, for instance, I'm about to hop on a plane in two days. We're going on this Asia trip. And, oh, by the way, Japan has an issue with islands with China; Korea has some territorial issues. There are a lot of countries in Asia that have territorial issues with China. Where is the United States going to sit when this decides to raise its head and become an issue there? So that's why this does matter globally, sort of how the White House responds to this. And they have no interest right now in doing sectoral things.

DAVID BROOKS:I mean, basically since Yalta, we've had an assumption that borders are basically going to be borders. And once that comes into question, if in Ukraine or in Crimea or anywhere else, then all over the world, you know, the tokens--

CHUCK TODD: All bets are off.

DAVID BROOKS: All bets are off.

CHUCK TODD: It is open.

CHUCK TODD: By the way, internally, they fear this. You know, it's not just Bob Corker saying it, okay, questioning whether the president is being alpha male. That's essentially what he's saying: He's not alpha dog enough. His rhetoric isn't tough enough. They agree with the policy decisions that they're making. Nobody is saying-- but it is sort of the rhetoric. Internally this is a question.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

photo manly_men.jpg

. . . It was this president who escalated the use of force against al Qaeda; it was this president that launched the mission that killed bin Laden; it was this president who increased the use of predator drones to strike at terrorist suspects (including killing Americans affiliated with al Qaeda living abroad); it was this president who helped assemble an international coalition to strike at the Gadhafi regime in Libya; and on and on.
. . . If you knew literally nothing about the last five years, you might hear this chatter about “manhood” and “alpha males” and assume that President Obama was a pacifist, reluctant to use military force under any circumstances. But given what we know about what actually happened over the last five years, the scuttlebutt is just bizarre.
~ Steve Benen, Maddow Blog

The racial aspect adds another dimension. Obama’s entire political career has been defined by pushing back against the “threatening, black alpha-male” stereotype. Conciliation, not confrontation, is not just his style, but the core of his substance as well.
. . . The more that physicality, per se, is demonized in the black male, the more problematic it becomes for white males asserting their own masculine identities, particularly their power over women. This inherent, largely buried contradiction lies close to the core of the GOP’s current problems, simultaneously losing the votes of women and minorities in a long demographic decline.
Faced with this reality, the GOP has no choice. No matter how riddled with contradictions it may be, faulting Barack Obama for his performance of masculinity is the only possible move Republicans have left.
~ Paul Rosenberg on Salon

Brooks exemplifies the problem with US foreign policy, which is that the inside-the-beltway chickenhawks with small peckers equate military aggression with “manhood.”
~ Juan Cole on TruthDig

How is it that the GOP still feels that if you don't threaten a war, you are not a man? It galls the GOP to no end that Obama is smart enough to fix problems and avoid conflicts without resorting to warfare.
~ ImaPragmatist on Huffington Post

Because as every good Tea-Thuglican knows, the only way to deal with any foreign country is by whipping out your missile and wagging it in their face.
~ Shawn K. on ThinkProgress

More Old White Ba___ds trying to Castrate a Black man.
War loving, A**kissing,"CHICKENHAWKS!" make me sick.
~ Tom L. on ThinkProgress

These folks are to funny...in other words, Obama is not being the bully of the world they are so accustomed too! And that's exactly why we reelected him! Alpha males don't start or look for fights...or stick our nose in others business!
~ Art W. on ThinkProgress

Pasty GOP Media Tools Chuck Todd and David Brooks Decide That Obama Has a Manhood Problem
~ Headline on PoliticusUSA





















Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Saturday, January 19, 2013

David Brooks ~ GOP are Wackos Because Obama Divides Them

Photobucket


David Brooks on New York Times
I may be earnest, but I’m not an idiot. I know there is little chance that today’s partisan players are going to adopt this kind of incremental goo-goo approach. It’s more likely that today’s majority party is going to adopt a different strategy, which you might call Kill the Wounded.

It’s more likely that today’s Democrats are going to tell themselves something like this:

“We live at a unique moment. Our opponents, the Republicans, are divided, confused and bleeding. This is not the time to allow them to rebuild their reputation with a series of modest accomplishments. This is the time to kick them when they are down, to win back the House and end the current version of the Republican Party.

“First, we change the narrative. The president ran in 2008 against Washington dysfunction, casting blame on both parties. Over the years, he has migrated to a different narrative: The Republicans are crazy. Washington could be working fine, but the Republicans are crazy.

. . . he should raise a series of wedge issues meant to divide Southerners from Midwesterners, the Tea Party/Talk Radio base from the less ideological corporate and managerial class.

“He’s already started with a perfectly designed gun control package, inviting a long battle with the N.R.A. over background checks and magazine clips. That will divide the gun lobby from suburbanites. Then he can re-introduce Bush’s comprehensive immigration reform. That will divide the anti-immigration groups from the business groups (conventional wisdom underestimates how hard it is going to be for Republicans to back comprehensive reforms).

“Then he could invite a series of confrontations with Republicans over things like the debt ceiling — make them look like wackos willing to endanger the entire global economy. Along the way, he could highlight women’s issues, social mobility issues (student loans, community college funding) and pick fights on compassion issues, (hurricane relief) — promoting any small, popular spending programs that Republicans will oppose.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

For four years now, President Obama has stood up for sanity as teh crazy went nuts. The right thought they were winning and many on the left called him naive for not getting crazy back. No matter how hard either side egged him on - the man maintained his pragmatism.
Now the ruthless side of that strategy is leaving folks like Brooks dissembling before our very eyes.
Please excuse me while I enjoy the moment.
~ Smartypants

David Brooks, denial comes before acceptance. Have your tantrum. Stomp your feet. Accept that trickle down have failed everybody. Become a Democrat like every thinking person not driven by bigotry or being cheap.
~ Tickerage on Huff Post

David Brooks is a splendid hack, quack, crackpot propagandist.
Brooks redefines putz.
~ huffingtonsurferdude on Huff Post

President Obama sure is diabolical in the way he exposes Republicans for what they are by making them say things. I never even saw his lips move.
Seriously, though, the Republican Party and their pundits are running out of things and people to blame for what they bring on themselves.
~ Magnaturd on Huff Post

Brooks has a wish and a prayer, but mainly a fantasy. He fantasizes that Obama will forego any progress in the name of future assistance and cooperation beyond Obama's term. That, is desperation.
~ EverybodyHasone on Huff Post



David Brooks Now Totally Pathological
The radicalization of the GOP has placed unbearable strain on those few moderates torn between their positions and their attachment to party. Many moderate conservatives have simply broken off from the party, at least in its current incarnation, and are hoping or working to build a sane alternative. Those who remain must escape into progressively more baroque fantasies.
The prevalent expression of this psychological pain is the belief that President Obama is largely or entirely responsible for Republican extremism. It’s a bizarre but understandable way to reconcile conflicting emotions — somewhat akin to blaming your husband’s infidelity entirely on his mistress.
. . . This is all Obama’s fault because it makes Republicans “look like whackos willing to endanger the entire global economy.” Brooks displays an almost surreal lack of interest in the underlying reality that Republicans actually are whackos willing to endanger the entire global economy. It is his responsibility to conceal this reality from America.
~ Jonathan Chait on NY Mag

It seems to me that the press is starting to comprehend the sheer craziness of the Republican party and are working on their various stages of grief caused by the realization that they're centrist, bipartisan, moderate utopia will not happen because of it. Right now, they seem to be in a "please, save them from themselves, Obama" phase with nasty looks thrown at his way for not doing so. Maybe in a week, a month, a season, whatever, they'll finally achieve full acceptance and stop pretending the Republicans have anything of value to provide other than comic relief.
~ Tecumseh on NY Mag

You have evolved into a writer with such an odd perspective Mr. Brooks...forecasting the demise of the Republican House majority, but somehow thinking it is only because the Democrats aren't noble enough to rescue the sane half of the Republican party from the asylum they willingly checked themselves into?
Why not use some of the precious real estate the NYT gives you to start cajoling the real Republican party to step out of the cuckoo's nest before the electoral cat comes along and devours all the birds? Right now you just seem to be arguing for more ballast in a sinking ship...
~ The Liberalizer on NYT

Please, David, Stop! You're killing me. I was giggling uncontrollably with the line about Obama "inviting confrontations" with the GOP about the debt ceiling. But I was hopelessly ROTFLMFAO when I read that Obama's plan is to "make the GOP look like wackos willing to endanger the entire global economy."
David, this material is golden. Did you write it or hire the Letterman writers? You wrote it yourself? Then, Please, please, quit that Times job and do that HBO Comedy Special. Go on Colbert, Stewart, Marc Maron's WTF.
I know you're teaching a course on humility at Yale. But the one thing you are humble about is your comic genius.
~ Upper West on Daily Kos

Sinclair Lewis already wrote David's biography
George Babbitt.
~ freelunch on Daily Kos

How DARE Obama force Repubs to reveal just how morally bankrupt, moronic, ridiculous and radical they are! It's entrapment, I says, ENTRAPMENT! He's violating the unwritten rule that only Dems can be mocked and Repubs must be revered. RONNIE! Whaaa!
~ kovie on Daily Kos

(Brooks) commonly attempts to build a glass house, but tends to make an insanely complex mess of everything, misidentifying stuff and putting it together in ways that would stump Escher and Rube Goldberg, before even laying the foundation. And then he keeps bumping his nose on the walls and saying, "Who put that there?"
~ filkertom on Daily Kos

Next week - Brooks carefully analyzes the Mind Tricks of the Jedi Master Obama as he lures the Republican leadership into mind-boggling idiocy.
~ louisev on Daily Kos
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)