Friday, January 15, 2010

Friday Quick Links

It's Friday so it's Krauthammer day. I look forward to Charles Krauthammer's columns and today he scores once again. This one is subtitled "From Mr. Wonderful to The Grinch in Twelve Months."

Krauthammer looks at Obama's falling popularity and puts a sharp assessment on what happened:

It’s not about style; it’s about substance—about which Obama has been admirably candid. This out-of-nowhere, least-known of presidents dropped the veil most dramatically in the single most important political event of 2009, his Feb. 24 first address to Congress. With remarkable political honesty and courage, Obama unveiled the most radical (in American terms) ideological agenda since the New Deal: the fundamental restructuring of three pillars of American society—health care, education, and energy.

Be sure to read the whole thing.

Today's Peggy Noonan column is also critical of Obama. I have long since lost patience with Peggy Noonan and now when she criticizes Obama or finds fault with his "cool" I just want to scream. She was pretty smitten with his "cool" during the campaign and spent many a column waxing rhapsodic about how wonderful it could be. Now, not so much. Now she discovers that he is disconnected from the American people:

The real story is that his rhetorical and iconic detachment are harped on because they reflect a deeper disconnect, the truly problematic one, and that is over policy. It doesn't really matter how he sounds. It matters, in a time of crisis, what he does. That's where the lack of connection comes in.

Seriously? She's just now discovering this?

Read the whole thing. Maddening.

While you're doing all that, I'm off to work. Today my 10th graders are wring in-class essays and then we're off for a three-day weekend. I'm watching for the UPS truck this weekend; sick to death of my Vista laptop with a slow processor, I've ordered a shiny new super fast kick-ass laptop which will hopefully make me very happy. It's due to arrive any day now. Not sure what I'm going to do with the other laptop - I'd like to put it in the road and run over it.

Happy Friday!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

How do I approach an English teacher who is determined to ruin English for my 9th grader. The teacher is a very liberal witch who obviously doesn't believe in tolerance for those who hold an opposing view of politics. She is the leader of the democrats group at school.

She berates my daughter for the stupidest things. We have already approached the school about this teacher. Now what?

Bob Belvedere said...

Regarding Peggy Noonan: I know how you feel, Pat.

Quoted from and Linked to at:
It's Cool, Man, It's Cool