The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘Carly Cut His Balls Off’?

Posted on | September 24, 2015 | 137 Comments

Certainly, many Fox News viewers must have been shocked Wednesday night by Rich Lowry’s comments to Megyn Kelly:

“Look Trump attacks everyone but she’s become a much bigger target. And I think part of what’s going on here is that last debate. Let’s be honest, Carly cut his balls off with the precision of a surgeon.”

Fox is becoming the anti-Trump network, as Trump himself has noticed and, whatever its effect on Trump’s campaign, I’m not sure that is a wise marketing strategy for Fox. The populist anti-Washington “mad as hell” voters who like Trump are a huge part of Fox’s viewership. Nor are the Trump voters a negligible component of the electorate:

Americans are “fed up” with politics, suspect the wealthy are getting an unfair edge, and think the country is going in the wrong direction, according to a new Bloomberg Politics poll that lays bare the depth and breadth of the discontents propelling outsider candidates in the Republican presidential field.
The survey shows that 72 percent of Americans think their country isn’t as great as it once was—a central theme of front-runner Donald Trump’s campaign. More than a third prefer a presidential candidate without experience in public office.
Three of the four candidates leading the Republican field fit that description: Trump, the first choice of 21 percent of registered Republicans and voters who say they lean that way, followed by neurosurgeon Ben Carson with 16 percent, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush with 13 percent, and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina with 11 percent.

My suggestion last night on Twitter:

People need to calm down about this primary campaign. We are still four months away from the Iowa caucuses. If Trump is your favorite candidate, OK. If you hate Trump, that’s OK, too. But there’s no point in conservatives denouncing their own friends and amping up the all-or-nothing rhetoric as if nothing else mattered.

Six months from now, in late March, a lot of people are going to disappointed that their favorite didn’t get the nomination, but so what? As long as the eventual Republican nominee wins in November 2016, conservatives generally will be happy, while liberals generally will be freaking out in paroxysms of rage and despair.

Imagine the disconsolate tears of liberals when Hillary loses. Be happy.




 

Category: Fox News, Media Bias, Republicans

Comments

137 Responses to “‘Carly Cut His Balls Off’?”

  1. Art Deco
    September 24th, 2015 @ 7:55 pm

    Both Bush and Fiorina are narcissistic as well.

    I cannot figure what the point of using psychiatric terms of art for these two is. Fiorina has been divorced once. Both she and Bush have been married for more than three decades without interruption. Neither has a history of alcoholism or known drug use or gross behavior problems. Neither has even acquired a reputation for bad temper. IIRC Fiorina was taken to task by irritated HP employees for appearing on site in limos &c.

  2. Art Deco
    September 24th, 2015 @ 7:55 pm

    Well, you know, Quartermaster, we often don’t see ourselves as others do.

  3. Daniel Freeman
    September 24th, 2015 @ 7:56 pm

    I agree with Scott Adams that it’s time to start getting used to the idea of President Trump, and for much of the same reasons, although I came to that conclusion before I discovered his blog where he explains it much better than I can.

    Basically, Trump is a master of rhetoric. He’s so far beyond the pundits in his mastery of language and psychology that they often proclaim that he made a fatal gaffe right before his poll numbers actually go up, and they can’t explain it without either admitting they were wrong or insulting their audience.

    Anyway, Mr. Adams expanded that into an entire fascinating series. You should read the whole thing plus How to Spot a Wizard (which has a malformed tag).

  4. Quartermaster
    September 24th, 2015 @ 7:57 pm

    It doesn’t surprise me that you don’t know the meaning of the term. You apply such terms freely, then someone else applies them in the same manner you do and then you object. There should be no wonder in your mind why people like me hold your type in contempt.

  5. Quartermaster
    September 24th, 2015 @ 7:57 pm

    What a hoot. Physician heal thyself.

  6. Quartermaster
    September 24th, 2015 @ 7:59 pm

    I think it’s too early to get invested in anyone. Adams may be right, but I’m no where near to the point of going out on the limb myself.

  7. Art Deco
    September 24th, 2015 @ 8:01 pm

    have no understanding whatsoever of our traditions and our form of
    government, we’ll never elect another conservative to national office
    again.

    Electoral institutions are familiar in Latin America and India and the Philippines and Korea.

  8. trangbang68
    September 24th, 2015 @ 8:01 pm

    a parenthesis on Lowery as a coward

  9. Quartermaster
    September 24th, 2015 @ 8:03 pm

    You’re making a point of showing you miss the point.

  10. Art Deco
    September 24th, 2015 @ 8:04 pm

    I’m saying you have not offered a coherent sentence. You’ve offered sentences which are jabberwocky and sentences which make superficial sense but incorporate allusions which make no sense. You can entertain yourself all you like. Nothing to do with me.

  11. Art Deco
    September 24th, 2015 @ 8:05 pm

    I understand his point. He’s wrong.

  12. Quartermaster
    September 24th, 2015 @ 8:06 pm

    That’s a conceit. You missed the point. You’re simply being an idiot and proving it beyond doubt.

  13. Daniel Freeman
    September 24th, 2015 @ 8:08 pm

    Oh, I haven’t even decided whether or not I want a President Trump. But I’ve been certain for a couple weeks now that it’s practically inevitable.

  14. Art Deco
    September 24th, 2015 @ 8:09 pm

    Francis was a contributor to Chronicles, not NR. Sobran was dismissed from NR after being repeatedly warned by the editorial staff that the contents of his newspaper columns were endangering his employment with the magazine. The warnings were issued piecemeal over seven years and were finally executed when he attacked his own editor in a column. National Review has editorial policies. Respect them or work elsewhere. One of their policies is they do not traffick in Jew wirepuller shtick.

  15. Quartermaster
    September 24th, 2015 @ 8:09 pm

    I’m interested in why you think he’s inevitable.

  16. Art Deco
    September 24th, 2015 @ 8:11 pm

    You know, you might contrive a way of demonstrating a point somewhat more cogent than turning up the volume and pounding the table.

    Just a suggestion.

  17. Quartermaster
    September 24th, 2015 @ 8:11 pm

    IIRC, Francis did have some of his work published in NR although he was never a regular contributor.

  18. Quartermaster
    September 24th, 2015 @ 8:13 pm

    Physician heal thyself. Running around a thread and pretending to be an intellectual doesn’t get you much other than proving my point. Frankly, you make it easy and I have to expend little effort. There’s no need to up the volume.

  19. Art Deco
    September 24th, 2015 @ 8:14 pm

    You apply such terms freely,

    I tend to avoid psychiatric terms of art, even when they have popular meanings (commonly at a variance). Not sure who you’ve confused me with.

  20. Quartermaster
    September 24th, 2015 @ 8:15 pm

    I guess I confused you with you. So sorry.

  21. Art Deco
    September 24th, 2015 @ 8:18 pm

    You’ve chased me all over this thread offering contentless insults. Only you know why you feel compelled to do this.

  22. Daniel Freeman
    September 24th, 2015 @ 8:21 pm

    To put it in the terms that Scott Adams uses, we’re “moist robots” that can be programmed by “master wizards” of rhetoric. Since Trump is the only master wizard in the race, the only person that can stop him might be Obama, who is another master wizard.

    Trump will get the candidacy, and the Democrat candidate will be incapable of winning on his own.

  23. Quartermaster
    September 24th, 2015 @ 8:23 pm

    I have several windows open, one is open to this. I’ve watched for the posts of others. The notices of new posts does not differentiate between a real post and one of yours. I’ve seen several others and responded to them. I haven’t been all that active of late. I just had the misfortune of the combination of time and your presence. I don’t abide fools easily, particularly someone like yourself delusions of intellectual grandeur.

  24. Quartermaster
    September 24th, 2015 @ 8:26 pm

    Adams may have a point ( I also like his trip a lot), and we could do worse than Trump. What Trump has published as his positions are good, but we’ve been there, seen that, got the T-shirt,alas. All we can hope for is that if Trump has “savior” potential, that he isn’t too late. I think it is about 40 years too late, but I have been wrong before, and probably will be again. I’m just not willing to go as far as Adams has.

  25. Daniel Freeman
    September 24th, 2015 @ 8:33 pm

    At this point, I’m practically indifferent to who wins. If a good guy wins, then how will he pull us out of this dive? If a bad guy wins, then he’ll just drive this plane into the ground faster, so we can start over sooner.

    I’ll still vote for Capt. Pullup over Capt. Tailspin, but I’m resigned to a crash. If I learn that the next guy at the controls intends to push into the dive, it won’t change my expectations much.

  26. Daniel Freeman
    September 24th, 2015 @ 8:53 pm

    Well, thank goodness they all have long traditions of electing representatives that respect civil liberties, incorruption, equality before the law, primacy of the family, and the smallest government that works.

  27. theoldsargesays
    September 24th, 2015 @ 9:09 pm

    Meh….anyone who has read Lowry’s National Review knows that he’s
    the one with no balls.

  28. Daniel Freeman
    September 24th, 2015 @ 10:35 pm

    Translation time!

    AD: This kind of thing has happened many times before, because working politicians are flawed.

    PD: Being “working politicians” is not a justification that elevates them above non-politicians or erases their sins.

    AD: I didn’t say it did.

    PD: Well, it sounded like it, since you were apposing them to Trump. Classic rhetorical technique.

    AD: That is your inference and not my problem. I don’t even comprehend rhetoric, let alone speak it.

  29. Prime Director
    September 24th, 2015 @ 11:35 pm

    I honestly didn’t read the whole thread. Or most of it.

    I was @ work, sittin in my car, on the phone, bein a McCainiac (might catch on, never know) checkin out the comments, skimmin along, lookin for trolls, kinda bored, avoidin worknshit

    My napcap buzz, long gone :*^(

    Can I go home yet?

    Anyways iwas like “working politicians? John McCain? Fuck this shit. Have some word salad” right? Thatstotally what Ido huh

    Yeah, someone keeps puttin word salad in my lunch box. Not surewhy. Sokay itll be alright. Ill just share nI brought enough for everyone

    Anywayz, ifn you use common words in, shall we say, an innovative way; equivocate, introduce new idioms or neologisms to prove a tendentious point… You, too can have some :^)

    Srsly, tho: “working politician”? Yeah, at least one of us is just slappin words together in a vain attempt to produce the semblance of insight.

  30. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    September 24th, 2015 @ 11:47 pm

    This whole Trump Fox thing is a bunch of passive aggressive BS. This stuff is very TMZ, but without the morals

  31. daialanye
    September 24th, 2015 @ 11:50 pm

    First, you seem to have missed my original point. Second, Taft was the minority leader of the Senate and certain nominee for President until the establishment scraped-up Eisenhower and played some dirty tricks with ringer delegates at the convention.

    You really need to brush-up your history.

  32. Matt_SE
    September 25th, 2015 @ 1:12 am

    That’s the problem with the Austrian School: you know something bad is coming, you just don’t know when. I take the latter part as a reflection of Adam Smith’s comment “there’s a lot of ruin in a country.”

  33. Daniel Freeman
    September 25th, 2015 @ 1:35 am

    I appreciate both your rhetoric and his dialectic. I’m just sayin’, you were completely talking past each other.

  34. Ilion
    September 25th, 2015 @ 7:38 am

    Artfully Disingenuous: “Initially claimed? You mean a squib written by a publicist when he was about 30?”

    Where did this publicist get the idea that Obama was born in Kenya? From Obama himself.

    Where did Mrs Obama get the idea — which she has repeated in public on more than one occasion – that Obama was born in Kenya? From Obama himself.

    So, it seems, when Obama found it advantageous to have been born in Kenya, that is where he claimed to have been born. And now, when he finds it advantageous, and necessary (*), to have been born in America, that is what he claims …

    Artfully Dense: “ There are no mysteries about Obama’s birth or parentage, which are as well-documented as that of any other mope born in Honolulu in 1961.”

    … meanwhile, he hires lawyers to *prevent* the public
    being presented with any actual documentation of his life (should any exist).

    Are you claiming that *you*, you alone of all 300 million
    Americans, have seen actual documentation of where he was born? If so, that’s ok for you, but why should *I* take your word for it any more than I take his?

    (*) due, in part, to his own partisans intentionally muddying the waters by hyping the secondary question so as to distract ignorant persons (or whom I expect you are one) from even thinking about the primary question.

    Artfully Disingenuous: “The problem is that there alternative scenarios …”

    Have I made any claims at all about where he was born? I’m quite sure I haven’t.

    Rather, what I have said is that –
    1) *No one* has publically seen any evidence to substantiate his present claim in have been born in America;
    2) *He* has in the past, and multiple times, claimed to have been born in Kenya;
    3) His *wife* has publically stated that he was born in Kenya;
    4) *where* he may have been born is not the fact disqualifies him from holding the office
    of the presidency.

  35. Shawn Smith
    September 25th, 2015 @ 9:46 am

    Yeah, Latin America “elects” their leaders. What kind of governments do they elect? Generally some of the most corrupt governments in the world outside of Africa. Who do you think they’ll continue to vote for once they get here?…More disgustingly corrupt governments!

  36. Ilion
    September 25th, 2015 @ 11:02 am

    It seems to me that Bush’s “misrule” amounted to constantly, and foolishly, trying to appease the leftists/Democrats.

  37. pumpernickel
    September 25th, 2015 @ 12:49 pm

    At the time of Trayvon Martin coverage, there were several articles by black authors discussing ‘the Talk’ black parents give sons with regards to the police. If you look at the actual article at Taki, several such articles are linked in a preface to Derbyshire’s own take on the matter. It was not a parody of ‘NPR-type white journalists’ imaginings, but rather a parody of actual claims by black authors.