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blue bits. red rocks.

charles pierce

Friday 24 February 2012

I think they were booing George W. Bush. He is the man who isn’t there. Until NCLB came up last night, the years 2000-2008 had been successfully written out of the narrative of the 2012 election. For these jamokes, time effectively began in January of 2009. It was Year Zero on the Kenyan Muslim Socialist Calendar. I do not believe that Bush’s political non-personhood is an accident. It is now an article of faith among the Republican base that Bush’s failures stem not from the fact that he was a manifest incompetent, but that he was too liberal a president. Putting through Medicare Part B without paying for it is a greater sin to these people than running two wars off the books was. No Child Left Behind had the endorsement of Teddy Kennedy! (Aieeeeeeee!) If only Bush had tried conservatism, the fairytale goes, then conservatism would have succeeded, as it always does. It never fails. It is only failed. C-Plus Augustus failed conservatism. Charles P. Pierce

Sunday 12 February 2012

Willard Romney will be whatever they want him to be, because he wants to be president more than he wants to be who he once was. He is unrecognizable politically to the people of Massachusetts who voted for him as their governor, thereby giving him his first real boost in running for president. He is now who he has fashioned himself to be. It is a stunning achievement of personal manufacture. He is what he has pretended to be. He’s the old fairy tale in reverse. Pinocchio, you’re a real wooden puppet now. Charles P. Pierce

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