10.12.10
The Very Odd Man
Alleged heartland Democrat barflies. Of three things we can be certain: Pro diabetes, obesity and wearing baseball caps indoors.
By that I mean the Republican who shows up in news stories from the hinterland, insisting he’s a Democrat.
When the media went to Pennsylvania in 2008, doing the heevahava beat in the interior, they were present in many stories.
I suppose one would call them Reagan Democrats, if pressed. Drunk manly men who own Civil War patches, look like the guy on HBO’s Eastbound and Down and adopt the Democratic camouflage to, perhaps, impress women they’re unsuccessfully courting.
Since the mainstream media is now back in such places, looking for stories which show the obvious — that they don’t dig Obama — they’ve reappeared.
A newspaper in Pittsburgh ran a Politico piece today with this laugher (it was on the race in Arkansas):
Such an argument may attract John Miller, a Democrat and owner of a Civil War-era antique shop, sporting a revolver on his holster. After meeting with Lincoln, he said there isn’t a “nickel’s difference between Republicans and the Democrats” in Washington, but he believes Obama is a “socialist.”
Asked about his vote, Miller said: “I’ll vote for whoever Ted Nugent tells me to vote for.“
It’s difficult to understand how any journalist could be a stenographer for such a comment without immediately throwing it out. Or at least pressing the man on his real political identity. But such is the state of the rotting carcass these days.
Speaking of Ted Nugent, now that he’s off the road his columns have not disappeared. However, they’ve slumped in inspiration and vehemence. No run-on sentences in a while. It’s been a couple weeks sans Islam-o-phobia and insisting Muslims need smart-bombing. The repeated references to ‘hunting season’ in November are gone, the calls for crowbar-swinging violence a bit more muted.
It may be that being on the losing end with the game wardens is still gnawing at him.
Today from the WaTimes, Nugent just repeated the conventional wisdom, along with the bit, probably correct, that Obama will cave on sustaining tax cuts for the rich. Which Nugent seems to think means he’s an enemy of business and still a socialist:
Smart Americans won’t be surprised if the president makes an announcement before the election that he is going to extend the George W. Bush tax cuts for all Americans, including those making more than $250,000. Though this will upset his ultra-liberal base, he will do it to try to prove to moderates that he is pro-business. Don’t believe him. It will be more political smoke and mirrors, more doublespeak, more balderdash and more Illinois political deception for fools.
The president is not pro-business. Regardless of what he says, he doesn’t know or truly believe the private sector is the engine that drives our economy and creates jobs.
Shallow thinking like that has never been his forte.