Author Topic: The Audacity of Vanity (Krauthammer Slapdown)  (Read 1163 times)

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Offline Wretched Excess

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The Audacity of Vanity (Krauthammer Slapdown)
« on: July 18, 2008, 09:34:43 AM »
Krauthammer has always been one of my faves . . . .

" . . . has there ever been a presidential nominee with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements?"



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The Audacity of Vanity

Barack Obama wants to speak at the Brandenburg Gate. He figures it would be a nice backdrop. The supporting cast -- a cheering audience and a few fainting frauleins -- would be a picturesque way to bolster his foreign policy credentials.

What Obama does not seem to understand is that the Brandenburg Gate is something you earn. President Ronald Reagan earned the right to speak there because his relentless pressure had brought the Soviet empire to its knees and he was demanding its final "tear down this wall" liquidation. When President John F. Kennedy visited the Brandenburg Gate on the day of his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, he was representing a country that was prepared to go to the brink of nuclear war to defend West Berlin.

Who is Obama representing? And what exactly has he done in his lifetime to merit appropriating the Brandenburg Gate as a campaign prop? What was his role in the fight against communism, the liberation of Eastern Europe, the creation of what George Bush the elder -- who presided over the fall of the Berlin Wall but modestly declined to go there for a victory lap -- called "a Europe whole and free"?

Does Obama not see the incongruity? It's as if a German pol took a campaign trip to America and demanded the Statue of Liberty as a venue for a campaign speech. (The Germans have now gently nudged Obama into looking at other venues.)

Americans are beginning to notice Obama's elevated opinion of himself. There's nothing new about narcissism in politics. Every senator looks in the mirror and sees a president. Nonetheless, has there ever been a presidential nominee with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements?

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« Last Edit: July 18, 2008, 09:54:38 AM by Wretched Excess »

Offline BEG

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Re: The Audacity of Vanity (Krauthammer Slapdown)
« Reply #1 on: July 18, 2008, 09:49:51 AM »
Krauthammer is the best EVAH!

Offline Chris_

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Re: The Audacity of Vanity (Krauthammer Slapdown)
« Reply #2 on: July 18, 2008, 10:17:38 AM »
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We are getting to know. Redeemer of our uninvolved, uninformed lives. Lord of the seas. And more. As he said on victory night, his rise marks the moment when "our planet began to heal." As I recall -- I'm no expert on this -- Jesus practiced his healing just on the sick. Obama operates on a larger canvas.


Priceless.

Down on your knees, scum.  Lord Obama has come!
If you want to worship an orange pile of garbage with a reckless disregard for everything, get on down to Arbys & try our loaded curly fries.

Offline Wretched Excess

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Re: The Audacity of Vanity (Krauthammer Slapdown)
« Reply #3 on: July 18, 2008, 10:25:27 AM »
Quote
We are getting to know. Redeemer of our uninvolved, uninformed lives. Lord of the seas. And more. As he said on victory night, his rise marks the moment when "our planet began to heal." As I recall -- I'm no expert on this -- Jesus practiced his healing just on the sick. Obama operates on a larger canvas.


Priceless.

Down on your knees, scum.  Lord Obama has come!

I almost stood up and applauded on this paragraph, along the same lines:

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It is a subject upon which he can dilate effortlessly. In his victory speech upon winning the nomination, Obama declared it a great turning point in history -- "generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment" -- when, among other wonders, "the rise of the oceans began to slow." As Hudson Institute economist Irwin Stelzer noted in his London Daily Telegraph column, "Moses made the waters recede, but he had help." Obama apparently works alone.

Offline DixieBelle

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Re: The Audacity of Vanity (Krauthammer Slapdown)
« Reply #4 on: July 18, 2008, 10:29:08 AM »
Damn. That's excellent. I love it.
I can see November 2 from my house!!!

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Forget change, bring back common sense.
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No, my friends, there’s only one really progressive idea. And that is the idea of legally limiting the power of the government. That one genuinely liberal, genuinely progressive idea — the Why in 1776, the How in 1787 — is what needs to be conserved. We need to conserve that fundamentally liberal idea. That is why we are conservatives. --Bill Whittle

Offline docstew

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Re: The Audacity of Vanity (Krauthammer Slapdown)
« Reply #5 on: July 18, 2008, 10:33:22 AM »
that was quite possibly the best, most cogent slam on a man's vanity i have ever seen  :bow: :bow:

Offline ReardenSteel

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Re: The Audacity of Vanity (Krauthammer Slapdown)
« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2008, 10:40:47 AM »
Glad to see the Brandenburg Gate issue raised again. Krauthammer is one of the few media good guys for sure.

 
"When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."

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http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=1826