The good: Steyn is back. The bad: Obama's still here.
After his long, long, well-deserved hiatus Mark Steyn has returned, and I'm thrilled. Er, I think --
PRICED TO CLEAR
Mark, I’m writing to direct your attention to a Washington Times story from July 19, 2010 entitled, "Sperm Banks Says Donors Look Like Celebrities". Apparently, California Cryobank is offering a "Donor Look-A-Like" service, and according to the story, the look-a-like service includes an option for the "conservative intellectuals" who get "the choice of National Review columnist Mark Steyn".
I don't know whether you should feel honored or creeped out, but I thought you should be aware that your doppelganger is spreading his seed throughout California.
Gregory Hart
MARK SAYS: Hmm. This sounds like the beginning of one of those superhero stories where a radioactive spider falls into the beaker of Mark Steyn lookalike sperm, and next thing you know California is being terrorized by a giant Islamophobic showtune-singing tarantula. Either that, or we've got a great new prize for our Letter of the Week winner.
I love Mark Steyn as much as the
next girl but an autographed copy of
America Alone would be just fine, thank you. (And by the way, I posted something on
the pseudo-Steyn sperm exactly a year ago today.)
It must have been difficult for Mark to keep silent through the months of July and August. We certainly missed his insights and humor terribly. I caught the second half of his stint on Rush today and couldn't agree more with his point about the seven-story hole at Ground Zero: a disgrace which speaks volumes about 21st century America.
More proof that something has gone awfully wrong in America: that guy we put in the Oval Office. Check out today's must-read from
Victor Davis Hanson, who's come up with 10 excellent reasons why America misses W. Among them:
1) The Obama record. We naturally compare Bush to his chief critic and successor Barack Obama—and find the latter increasingly wanting as time goes by. Obama turned Bush’s misdemeanor deficits into felonious trillion-dollar annual shortfalls. He will pile up more debt than any other prior president.
Indeed, if, reelected, Obama will borrow more than all previous administrations combined. Bush was tarred in 2004 for a “jobless recovery” when unemployment hovered near 6%. It is now almost 10% and Obama still harps about “jobs saved”. Scott McClellan may have been singularly inept; we are not so sure after Robert Gibbs. For every Brownie there is a worse Van Jones or Anita Dunn. For Katrina we have BP. Bush’s NASA did space; Obama’s seems to prefer Muslim outreach. Bush’s prescription drug benefit was an unfunded liability; Obamacare is a trillion-dollar financial black-hole. I could go on, but Obama’s lackluster record is improving Bush’s legacy every day. [. . .]
5) Michelle is no Laura. Remember the narrative: conservative women are elitists who decorate, buy nice clothes and play Barbie; liberal first ladies are doers who are independent feminists that can’t be bothered by inanities like fashion and play. But Michelle this summer enjoyed a movable feast from Marbella to Martha’s Vineyard, in designer clothes and shades. Laura Bush used to vacation at the National Parks. Laura Bush often disagreed with her husband and sometimes offered a liberal “Oh, come on, George” to her husband’s occasional flight-suit strutting. Michelle, in contrast, is the second-half of the partisan Obama tag-team, perennially whining that “they raised the bar”. After “downright mean country” and “never been before proud”, we miss Laura Bush’s common sense and nonpartisanship. Ga-ga media talk of Michelle’s biceps, not the earthy decency reminiscent of a Laura Bush. [. . .]
10) Bush was authentic. He mangled his words. A liberal industry grew up around both “nuclar” and its sometimes corrective “nucular”. He strutted and talked Nascarese like “bring ‘em on”. Much of this was excessive, but we knew at least Bush meant it. We got worried when he extemporaneously expounded for long riffs about freedom at press conferences, as his eyes rolled and he drifted from topic to topic. He put his arm on Angela Merkel and cried out “Yo Blair.” The media told us he was a yokel; we might add albeit an authentic one who could duck properly when under shoe attack.
But Obama? He cannot really speak off the teleprompter without pauses, repetitions, and constant self-referencing (as is “me”, “I”, “my”, etc.). He is stiff and not comfortable with himself off the court or golf course. Bush made decisions and stuck by them; Obama the professor offers a perennial “on the one hand”/”on the other hand” mish-mash and a sorta, kinda, almost answer. Americans would prefer to be in a foxhole with George Bush, who would swagger, and announce as decider-in-chief at H-hour, “OK, pard, we’re going over the top together on this one.”—not Obama, who would stutter and give a long-drawn out exegesis why race and class had condemned us to such an unfair predicament, whose only solution was to go into a fetal position and condemn “them” who did this awful thing to us.
That's that far-from-first-class temperament of his. Also:
3) Bush Did It.
It is a uniquely American trait to shun whining and petulance. Rugged individualism and can-do optimism used to be ingrained in our national character, and even in our 11th hour have not wholly disappeared. So the public is tiring of Obama’s Pavlovian blaming of Bush. After 20 months, it is time for the President to get a life and quit the ‘heads you lose/tails I win’ attitude about presidential responsibility.
4) Who is the real yuppie?Given the choice, the public would probably prefer a little overdone Texas “smoke ‘em out” braggadocio to worries over the price of arugula.
Heh. And . . .
9) Bush was not corrupt and ran an especially ethical administration.What a falling off was there. Read the rest.
Most recent posts here.
I think it is probably the business community and Wall Street, who’ve placed their bets on a GOP takeover after 19 months of being Obama’s whipping post. Mort Zuckerman says this all the time the business community bashes Obama. Now that they’ve taken their money to the GOP Pelosi is probably having a screaming fit behind the scenes and we know that the Dems up for re-election have been hammering him to get a message on the economy. Like any narcissist Obama can’t handle the criticism and starts railing about the special interests who hate him after his massive legislative accomplishments or something.
He evidently spent the rest of the time bashing the GOP, what a shocker that is. I don’t know if it ever dawned on the guy to do something – you know presidential – on a national holiday. He doesn’t have anything else to offer though; he is a one-trick pony.