The Secret To Their Success

Madame's Nightshirt

Mrs. Peperium

Mark Steyn has let the cat out of the bag. According to David Brooks, the NYTimes crowd doesn't like him for his mind, they like him for his body,

The other day I was speaking with some chaps who'd attended a David Brooks speech shortly after he joined The New York Times, and in the course of the event he was asked if his relations with the Times crowd were a bit awkward, him being a conservative and all. And he supposedly replied that no, they get along fine because "I look like them."

We already knew the real attraction of Obama was his body.  Sure most said they were keen on him because of his mind.  But Joe Biden set the record straight with his straight talk about Obama,  

"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said. "I mean, that's a storybook, man." 

To base everything on looks, including your career is not a storybook.  It's a faerie tale.  

Mark Steyn asks an excellent question to those conservatives with the school girl crushes : 

Victor [David Hansen], I have to say the first six weeks of the Age of the Hopeychange have surprised me. I expected it to bad, but I didn't expect it to be so incompetent. Not because I had any expectations of President Obama's executive skills: As I said back in the fall re the comparisons with Governor Palin, Barack ain't run nuthin' but his mouth. This is the first real job he's had where you're supposed to show up at nine in the morning and make decisions.

So I had no expectations about his executive competency. But I assumed he had folks around him who could take care of that kind of stuff - that he'd be the smiley-face hopeychange frontman on an ideologically disastrous but ruthlessly efficient team. I figured he'd have a Deputy Assistant Associate Secretary of whatever who'd know what the form was for a prime ministerial visit by a close ally, and an Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary who wouldn't compound the gaffes by telling Fleet Street who cares about the Brits anyway. I expected he'd have an Assistant Associate Deputy Secretary who'd know that Russo-American relationsweren't the proper forum for lame prop gags, and a Deputy Associate Assistant Secretary who, once the decision were taken to go ahead with the lame prop gag, would at least be able to translate correctly one single word from English to Russian.

What happened? Where's his team? It's not like 2005, when the Senate Dems were holding up Condi and vetoing Bolton. Senate Republicans would be happy just to rubberstamp one big photocopied [INSERT NAME OF NOMINEE HERE] form. But, as many have noted, the soi-disant "smoothest transition in history" ground to a halt the moment Bush flew off to Crawford.

Perhaps, in his hectic round of promotional interviews, David Frum could find time - just for eight or nine seconds, say - to offer some thoughts on why the President's administration is not as "honed" as his physique.  

Ouch.  

That left a mark, Mark.  

*Be sure to visit the blog that has made the punishing of David Brooks an art form.

Comments

[Old Dominion Tory]

Many of the men and women of the right or of the moderate bent who were smitten with Barack Obama seem to be suffering from a severe case of buyer's remorse.
I suppose it will happen to many members of the mainstream press as well soon enough. As in the years 1976 to 1980, they ask rhetorically, "Who was daft enough to fall so hard for this guy?" Self-reflection doesn't seem to be a strong suit of the press.

[Crackie]

That buyer's remorse fits like hand and glove with the remorse felt about the investments such folk purchased via 401k, etc. Since the glove does fit, you can't acquit.