Why, the big (make that skinny) galoot! Here, all along he has been acting as though he doesn’t like FOX News. First, he sends his “communications director,” Anita Dunn, out to do a hit job on the network. This is followed closely by simultaneous attacks by caporegimei Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod. Then, when pressed for comments, TGL confesses his own deepest held views: to wit, that news commentary that could pass for the kind of drivel disseminated on “talk radio” just doesn’t deserve serious treatment (not that he worries his pretty head about it).
So how angry REALLY is Barack Obama at FOX News? Angry like a fox! As Obama surely knew, his pretense of despite toward FOX has given the cable network a 14-point bounce in its ratings among 25- to 54-year-old viewers, according to the Nielsen surveys.
And what does this say about Obama? That he’s a man of his word. When the guy promised during the campaign that he was going to boost the economy, well — by gosh, by golly — he clearly meant just that. The one detail lacking from his description of his grand scheme was that he would be starting with (of all businesses) the leading conservative cable network. I knew it was only a matter of time before the guy would show his true nature. Come on, big (er, skinny) fella: give us a hug.
Comments 24
Well, you know how them Democrats love ‘em some unintended consequences. That’s, like, one of their main things.
October 27th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
It’s always dangerous to underestimate a political adversary, as Hillary learned; but it sure does appear that the Obama team let their spite get the better of them on this one.
I tried to look up the old adage – “Never pick a fight with a man who buys his ink by the barrell” – which I think goes back to Mark Twain; but I can’t find anything definitive at least in a quick search.
October 28th, 2009 at 9:16 am
@ J.E. Dyer:
Gorsh, J.E., if I didn’t know better I would think you wuz being cynical.
@ Sully:
Sully, I thought that was Twain also. Or Mencken. Or someone else.
October 28th, 2009 at 11:04 am
Seems like most people attribute the remark to Twain, except those who — charmingly, I think — credit Bill Clinton with it because apparently he quoted it once.
This webpage is pretty funny in light of the complete absence of “Mark Twain” from it, and the presence instead of a bunch of Hoosier politicians. It does start out citing an impressive source: The Quote Verifier.
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/never_argue_with_a_man_who_buys_ink_by_the_barrel/
October 28th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Going down J.E.’s link reawakened the suspicion that I should have been a political speechwriter.
““I shall not argue in this carol
“With one who buys ink by the barrel.”
(Indiana Governor Roger Douglas Branigin to Eugene C. Pulliam, publisheer of the Indianapolis News and Star—ed.) ”
Should have been:
“I shall not quarrel in this carol
With one who buys ink by the barrel.”
October 28th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Okay Howard – this is what you get when you encourage the beastie:
Sychophantius
I met a traveler late of a Nobel land
Who said: “A vast and noble king is crowned
Spawned in Hawaii, of diverse strand,
In hasty marriage, by two not long for him around,
Oft’ stoned, he education gained, and phlegm,
And caustic wife, and writing rep most great renowned,
Although in law review his prose did never sound.
From him great peace may from passions stem
That may astound, stamped on world around.
We note with pleasure that he did not haw or hem
Smote them that mocked him, and went to bed
With those who pleased him, among those most read.
On Nobel plinth we erect his image
And sing fulsome praise unto his visage.
“Here’s to you Obama, this prize of prizes
We predict, imagine, your deed that to it rises.
To you great Obama, fondest hope of less noble mopes
We grant this honor, based wholly on our fondest hopes.”
To you who question, we have only this
Look on his glory, ye doubters and despair
That it will ever fade, be times either hard or fair
For from your every taunt re things amiss
We have no doubt the writers most folks read,
Who give many a pass to those who leftward lead
Can rescue him from any right launched screed
And in merest moment his regal rep repair.
October 28th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
@ Sully:
Deserves much more prominent placement than down the comment thread of an aging post.
October 28th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
@ CK MacLeod:
I’ll put it on the main page later. I’m not satisfied with it yet and I may want to package it with a beef that I’ve been trading back and forth about with a local politician relative on email. That beef is really what spawned it.
October 28th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Beef? It would be much more correct, I think, to be having a tofu with said politician. Or maybe a veggie-burger.
October 28th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
with cream cheese?
(phlegm?)
October 28th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
@ fuster:
You have a point. I meant it as a burning attitude re non-sun people; but I now find that my avatar, no less, has the selected example quote on one of the dictionary sites and he belies my intended meaning.
The word evolved from the hot body humour, yet it has gone on to mean “Sluggishness of temperament; dullness; want of interest; indifference; coldness.”
“They judge with fury, but they write with phlegm.” Pope.
I sold my compact OED or I would be looking it up in there before even seeming to admit that it has never been used to mean a hot and negative attitude as well as a coldly indifferent one.
October 28th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
@ Sully:far as I know, it’s been centuries since it’s been used for anything other than stolidity.
Let’s hear from the majority
October 28th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
@ fuster:
I’m a conservative. If it has ever been used in the sense I meant, even once, it works for me; even without invoking the Humpty Dumpty rule, which is always my last line of defense.
And what’s with the appeal to the majority? You should know I would face down a mere mob of rabble for my art.
October 28th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
@ Sully:We got us some pretty uppity rabble ’round here.
Even the Oklahoma Kid knows more words than a frog has warts and trying to argue with the Kid might leave you face down.
October 28th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
@ Sully:
I’m not sure what to say about anyone who would sell a compact OED.
But as for the usage of “phlegm,” there were plenty of references to it as the “gunk that makes you cough” when I was a slimy pollywog back in the dreadful, primitive days before remote controls for the TV.
Here’s a story I doubt anyone can match. Sixth grade. County spelling bee, Nueces County, Texas. Kid in front of me gets the word “phlegm” to spell. The pronouncer reads it off to him:
“Fledg-em.”
Slow, piercing stare at the contestant to see if he’s registering comprehension.
“Fledg-em.”
The kid got it wrong.
October 28th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
@ J.E. Dyer:
But the Kid got it, didn’t she?
October 28th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Hack! pftui!
October 28th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
@ J.E. Dyer:
The books must go J.E.
The OED was one of my first sales. I think I got something like $50 net for it; which was not bad since BOMC gave it to me as an incentive. I’m holding out for a hundred net on the Will and Ariel set. I’ll never read those volumes again.
I love the spelling bee story although it brings back the unfortunate memory of being knocked out with “across” in the first round of a schoolwide bee for which my nun english teacher thought me a contender. I knew I was toast the moment I nervously uttered the second “c”.
October 28th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
@ Sully:
Oof. Those second “cs” will get you every time.
Here’s another of Dyer’s Axioms for Life:
He who dies with the most books wins.
October 28th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
@ J.E. Dyer:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_f4aa9hFY87M/SRHUqwX0biI/AAAAAAAAAGg/F9QJLnLIP0Y/s400/spittoon1.jpg
October 28th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
@ J.E. Dyer:
If you can’t beat, fledg-em. That’s what I always say.
October 29th, 2009 at 8:47 am
This is by no means an admission of error; but “phlegm” will not appear in the final form of the poem when I post it on the main site – unless it absolutely insists.
October 29th, 2009 at 10:24 am
@ Sully:
I don’t know, Sully. There are an awful lot of entendres lurking about your line:
“Oft’ stoned, he education gained, and phlegm,”
I was quite partial to it. Even if you don’t technically need the apostrophe on “oft.” I think the little critter gives it an extra dollop of filip.
October 29th, 2009 at 11:06 am
@ Howard Portnoy:
OK, HP, I’m sending you the medical bill for that one.
October 29th, 2009 at 11:07 am