November 4, 2004
THE TEEN IS MORE MATURE:
Two stories on NPR caught our interest yesterday.
In the first, EJ Dionne puts on a near textbook display of Democrat Derangement Syndrome, insisting that in order for there to be better relations between the two parties in Washington George Bush has to apologize for the campaign he ran:
Implications of the Outcome: Part 1 (All Things Considered, 11/03/04)
NPR's Robert Siegel, with E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post and David Brooks of the New York Times, mulls Tuesday's outcome and the upcoming second term of George W. Bush.
David Brooks laughingly compares him to Rush Limbaugh in his inability to see any sin in on his own side of the aisle. Mr. Dionne takes it poorly.
the other is far more lighthearted, even touching, Ohio Voters Persevere Despite Legendary Lines
While the rest of the world was trying to count the votes already cast in Ohio, a cadre of Kenyon College students and local residents waited for up to 12 hours to vote. People ordered pizzas, pulled out guitars and played music -- and generally, everyone stuck around until the bitter end. Hear NPR's Melissa Block and voter Lauren Gray, a Kenyon College junior.
One is proud that Lauren Gray is a fellow citizen after hearing her tale, though she shouldn't have the franchise. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 4, 2004 11:30 PM
Dionne's rant doesn't top Bill Moyers' fantacizing on Charlie Rose that the Republicans would have staged a military coup d'etat if Kerry had won the election. But then Bill is into semi-retirement and doesn't have anything better to do than rifle through the pages of his own TomPaine.com and feed his worst delusions. Dionne is supposed to be a major columnist for the nation's capitol's main daily, and he sounds like he's reciting the political version of a WWE iron cage death match script.
Posted by: John at November 4, 2004 11:53 PMOne of the most intelligent, conservative individuals I've ever known--and one of the few people I've truly respected (Iranian, oddly(?) enough)--told me circa 1993 that Dionne was someone from the other side he respected. I was never crazy about Dionne, but that made me think.
Whatever was the case ten years ago, he's drunk deeply from the Kool-Aid, and is most assuredly not a respectable voice anymore, if ever he was.
Posted by: jsmith at November 5, 2004 12:25 AMOne is proud that Lauren Gray is a fellow citizen after hearing her tale, though she shouldn't have the franchise
Orrin,
You are, if I'm not mistaken, old enough to remember Sony(TM) Walkmans (hard to explain to the young 'uns... sort of like MP3 players but with moving parts and prone to breakdowns.)
If you were in or near Boston during the 1980 elections, you will probably also remember the ubiquitous bumper stickers "Don't Blame Me: I Voted for Duane Glasscock".
In those days, "hip" and "cool" college students would not have been caught dead admitting having pulled the lever for either Reagan or Carter.
Now it is 2004, and the current crop of college students is not only voting, they are shouting it from the rooftops.
I find this heartening. Score one for participatory politics and for the democratic process.
And yes, thank you George Soros.
Posted by: Eugene S. at November 5, 2004 12:25 AMI've said it before, but I'll say it again, E.J. Dionne is, next to the senile Daniel Schorr, one of the worst political pundits I've ever seen.
I heard this interview and I couldn't help laughing when Brooks compared him to Limbaugh. I thought Dionne was going to have a stroke. It was a moment I thoroughly enjoyed.
You know the administration could defund NPR.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at November 5, 2004 2:52 AMAnd it's your fault, for taking your kids to pig out on Big Macs 1,000,000 times!!! (shakes fist)
Posted by: Eugene S. at November 5, 2004 4:05 AMWinning means never having to say you're sorry. Just ask Ray Lewis.
Posted by: Bart at November 5, 2004 6:31 AMSpeaking of senior news fossils, how could we have missed this hilarious, utterly confident prediction by Jimmy Breslin in Newsday, published November 2nd: Why Kerry will beat Bush.
Posted by: Eugene S. at November 5, 2004 8:53 AMEugene:
Read it, love it. My favorite part is the cell phone polling and the assumption that it undercounts upscale liberals. I'd like Jimmy to come out here to flaming red Indiana and stand in a check-out line at Wal-Mart some Saturday morning. If there are fewer than 3 cell phone calls going on in the line I'll gladly buy him a beer.
Posted by: Jeff at November 5, 2004 9:57 AMI tell ya, listening to NPR this week is one of most enjoyable things I think I could do. It even makes me think (for about a nanosecond) about donating money to it.
Posted by: pchuck at November 5, 2004 10:04 AMI heard this as well. Wanted to ask Mr. Dionne: "Does the phrase 'lying-est bunch of crooks' ring a bell?"
Posted by: Rick T. at November 5, 2004 10:38 AM"This is Jimmy Breslin's last regular column for Newsday. He will write from time to time."
This paper should be embarrassed if it ever gives more space to one so irretrievably trapped in his own fantasy world.
Posted by: curt at November 5, 2004 10:42 AMIt's funny how so many media rants today sound like how the press ranted in 1948, after Truman BEAT Dewey. But, the Washington press corps hung a sign when Truman returned to D.C. - "Mr. President, we are ready to eat crow when you are ready to serve it".
Not much hope of that today, altough Bush joked around enough with them during his news conference yesterday.
Posted by: jim hamlen at November 5, 2004 12:15 PMI don't know that the press corps was notably anti-Democratic in 1948. Their bosses were, but that's not the same thing.
I've been voting since 1968, and I still cannot understand how, this far from Afghanistan, you can have waits of 3, let along 12 hours.
How do they arrange that?
Posted by: Harry Eagar at November 5, 2004 4:01 PMStudents voted in the town where they rent instead of the one where they live.
Posted by: oj at November 5, 2004 4:32 PMA decade ago EJ Dionne was regarded as the heir apparent to David Broder. Now EJ just types up the Democrat talking points. As they sometimes say of Rhodes Scholars, he has a bright future behind him.
Posted by: George at November 5, 2004 4:39 PM