The Seven Dwarfs (Safire's shot at John Edwards)

NY Times ^ | Jan. 6, 2003 | William Safire

[yoe]

You can learn a lot by reading speeches...”....well the southern boy ain’t doing too well speaking either. But you gotta admit he has himself a top-notch staff.

SNOW WHITE!!?? Safire, you’ve lost your blooming mind.

[Cicero]

Snow White. It's a joke. And I doubt whether Hillary will like it.

[crystalk]

Her heart is just as black as her constituency.

But Edwards is not the only Dem candidate from the South, there is Graham of Florida, possibly Breaux of Louisiana, Gore of Tennessee no matter what is said officially, he is always on any short list...

[Nick Danger]

Senator John Kerry... could drag Massachusetts into the Democratic column.

Now that's impressive.

[Savage Beast]

"so many clowns climbing out of a tiny circus car."

Oh, Bill. Hahahahaha! You have such a way with imagery!

[yoe]

I am a southerner, and I know which dogs can hunt and which horses can jump; Edwards can’t do either. As for the SW joke, ‘splain it to me.

[Malesherbes]

Is Gore from Tennessee? I thought he was from D.C.

[seenenuf]

By jove, Safire has got it right. HRC, rides to the rescue, and those 7 dewarfs wouldn't dare dish a NOW goddess, even as she bumps them off with insider trading.

[crystalk]

Yeah, you are right. Ages ago I was in TN for awhile, and the antics of Gore's father against Vietnam, and the antics of Prince Albert in the DC elite schools, were reported and detested in the local paper in that state. He was said to have learned Southern as a foreign language, and to have been sent there on some Christmas and summer vacations to pick it up!

Gore deserved to lose TN in the past election, and he did.

The Sunday before the Tuesday election, the front page of the Asheville NC paper had a quote from a Democrat woman in that city who said that she had always voted straight Dem, but her husband was from TN and told her never to trust a Gore. She was going with that, she said, and would move that one lever back.

That is just what the State of NC did! It voted Dem for all offices (more than usual expected), while switching 5-10% of total vote, attributed mostly to younger white women, to Bush so as to cast for HIM for President.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

I take great delight in recalling that one of the Seven Dwarfs in 1988 was none other than a very young, very condescending, very ambitious... Al Gore.

[Torie]

This screed isn't very well thought through, and was just typed on the fly. Safire is way past his prime, and was at his best in discussing language and grammar. Elsewhere, except for some grace in his prose, which is deteriorating, he was medicore, and now is sinking below that pedestrian standard. Safire may be a fellow Neocon, but he is a drone. JMO.

[Deb]

And the original "Snow White" was Patsy Schroeder (shudder).

[Torie]

Is Patty Murray her replacement?

[guitfiddlist]

Although I must admit to my disgust with both Kerry and Edwards for their entirely different insidiousness, I do have to say that a dangerous combination would be Kerry at the top of the ticket - and Edwards as VP.

It would solve the obvious "gravitas" thing about Edwards that none of the mainstream mush can recall lately, and groom the little bubblehead to grow up by 2012, at the latest.

In the meantime - it would mate the House of Kennedy with the Double-Wide of Clinton - 2 power centers of 'Rat infestation. Pelosi and the Castro District that is California will obligingly follow the gravy train.

[okie01]

"This screed isn't very well thought through, and was just typed on the fly. Safire is way past his prime..."

In my opinion (as a writer), the entire piece was composed for the sole purpose of arriving at this closing thought...

And what a campaign Bush II vs. Clinton II would be. The Seven Dwarfs would have found their Snow White.

Which makes it a pisspoor column. And a worse joke, written to a weak punchline.

[Torie]

Good insight. Attempting to be clever trumps content, or something that makes any sense.

[okie01]

"Attempting to be clever trumps content..."

Ah, hell. I've done it myself.

But, upon re-reading, you're always left with the same guilty thought: "That was sure a long run for such a short slide."

[Deb]

Not yet. Murray doesn't have that weird emotional breakdown/laugh/cry thingy goin' on. She's just stupid.

[Aria]

So have we heard from the John Simon of Free Republic? I'll cut Safire some slack, after all we're trying to recover from the holidays.
For what it's worth I think Edwards is just trying to get face time right now, setting himself up for second banana in 2008 with, gasp, Hillary as the candidate for President.