Norman Mailer, down for the count

The Washington Times ^ | By Suzanne Fields

[YankeeReb]

When George H.W. Bush chose Dan Quayle as his running mate in 1988, one of the persuasive considerations of the Republican strategists was that the senator's good looks would appeal to the ladies. Dan Quayle was cute.

The vice president himself noted later, that the praise was not only faint but dumb and condescending. Dan Quayle's "good looks" were out of sync with the times and he became the administration's dumb blonde. The boyish, milk-fed frat guy from the Middle West lacked the masculine gravitas that baby boomers, both men and women, craved.

[JAWs]

For Mailer, manliness these days sees to be to get liquored up and use some gal-pal as a punching bag.

[Thane_Banquo]

I was thinking that one of the reasons, if not the main reason, liberals hate Bush so much is that he typifies everything about the American middle class the left hates:
1) He believes in free markets, individualism, and limited government.
2) He believes in the greatness of America and our responsibility to defend her.
3) He believes there is such a thing as right and wrong.

[Joe Bonforte]

I'll give you #2 and #3. But I think I could make a pretty good case that his belief is #1 is rather shaky.

[Cicero]

I think he believes in #1, probably. But he also needs to stay in office and win votes for the Republicans, if he wants to accomplish anything else.

If you cast your mind back to Ronald Reagan's first year, you'll remember that he promised to cut government spending. He tried to do so for his first several months in office. He failed. He gave up, and let the Democrat congress spend as much as they liked. He cut taxes, but not spending, and the result was $2 trillion added to the deficit.

You can say he was handicapped by a Democrat congress. But if he had continued to fight them on spending, the probable result would have been an even larger Dem majority. He did the numbers, and gave up on that aspect of his program.

I don't blame Reagan for this; he did what he could. I'm just saying that presidents have to choose their battles; they can't do everything; and cutting spending is maybe the hardest thing of all.

[tkathy]

The so called champions of the little person are beyond condescending.

[Publius6961]

I'll give you #2 and #3. But I think I could make a pretty good case that his belief is #1 is rather shaky.

Possibly.
But not if you accept that politics is the art of the "possible".

Unyielding principle is admirable but always on the outside looking in.
Unless a good leader is in power, principle is simply academics and often sophistry.

[expat_panama]

that his belief is #1 is rather shaky

At first glance what you say rings true (re- tariffs, miniscule tax cuts, increased regulation), but W's actual record is more complex than that.  He succeeded in cutting taxes not once but every year --a far cry from just promising 'no new taxes'. 

And above all, W's record has to be weighed not against some imaginary ideal, but against the probable record of W's rival.

 

[George W. Bush]

What Mr. Mailer and the Democrats with cataracts can't come to terms with is that George W. Bush is not an intellectual lightweight and simply calling him one doesn't make him one. His critics can't understand how a man who can't talk a good game can play one so well. They measure the man by what James Q. Wilson calls "the college definition of intelligence," rather than the real thing.

I've said this many times before though not so eloquently. Quite often, the strongest leadership does not need glib words or mere academic skills.

Talk is cheap. W. acts.

[gcruse]

Well, two out of three isn't bad.

[ontos-on]

This article was written by a woman, but you would not know that except for her name. [If I missed something, let me know.] I think that this written work is masculine in the best sense. That is quite an achievement, given its topic. Bravo Zulu

[JesseShurun]

Ancient Evenings and Jack Abbott screwed up his whole writing legacy

[jaz.357]

Norman Mailer IS (AN) A-HOLE.