Evan Smith and Erik Tarloff

Reader Response from The Fray (to be read after the final entry):


I'm afraid that regarding Texans as dumbasses is by no means restricted to members of the media [Wednesday]. But if y'all will start cleaning up your own political messes and stop inflicting presidents and beauty queens on the rest of us, we might reconsider. To that end, keep it up, Evan.

--Tee

(To reply, click here.)


One hopes that the Texans with heads bowed in prayer were praying for forgiveness for themselves [Wednesday].

I'm unable to watch the Convention for long periods. So I'll ask the more determined viewers for context.* When McCain cited as an example of Bush's patriotism that his father had served in the Pacific war, was he serious or speaking in a deep dark irony?

--Nick Nussbaum

(To reply, click here.)
[* Nick, quite right to ask here, this is exactly what you read Slate for; for a quick reply see below--Fray Editor.]


I think there was a great deal of "deep dark irony" in McCain's speech that was completed with "And I am haunted by the vision of what will be." Another interesting thought was: "They believed that if America is worth dying for, then surely she is worth living for."

--Crash Davis

(To reply, click here.)


That story about the baseball game [Wednesday]. George W at that point had probably seen 4-500 baseball games in person. The fact he stayed so long at a meaningless All-Star Game says more about his perseverance than anything else. Ever go on a cruise ship at sea? You look around magically, amazed at all the beauty. However, the minimum wage crew, smoking a butt on break, hardly seems to notice the breathtaking world around them. It has everything to do with what you are used to (and tired of), and nothing to do with a lack of proper appreciation. Get real.

--Sean Fitzpatrick

(To reply, click here.)


Am I the only human being and person who finds it curious that George Bush the Elder threatened "to tell the nation what I think about [Clinton] as a human being and a person"? Are they two separate thoughts? Can one be a good human being and a bad person, or vice versa?

--Robert Rothman

(To reply, click here.)
[Jim said Bush Sr was just "having a little trouble with the language thing."]

(8/2)

Anyone who gives non-binding congressional resolutions slightly more weight (dare I say "gravitas") than trivia is spending way too much time listening to/reading their fellow pundits [Monday's entry]. Furthermore, any commentator who seriously believes that JFK, given his short span in office (and little items like Bay of Pigs and Vietnam on his resume), can qualify as one of the century's better Presidents, is so blinkered as to render their writing trivial. Yes, I know many historians still do so, to the profession's embarrassment. It will be another 20 years before the heavy breathing school of JFK analysis closes. Finally, the idea that any party has even come close to winning the sanctimony sweepstakes is preposterous. As long as Al--which family member's tragedy can I exploit/demagogue for a soundbite during this cycle?--Gore has his preening mug on television, Bill Bennett will be a mere valet.

--Will Allen

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[See Tuesday's entry for Erik Tarloff's response to this, and here for Mr Allen holding firm--as who would expect otherwise.]

(7/31)


To Will Allen:

Your attempt to trivialize the vote (a tack taken by Cheney himself this weekend) only heightens the perversity--you mean on a non-binding Congressional resolution, Congressman Cheney couldn't find it in his heart to support freeing a man held in prison for decades expressly because of his beliefs, just because said non-binding resolution might imply to his constituents in Wyoming that he was tolerant of an organization with some communists in positions of leadership? Wow, that's a guy who really fears the red menace!

--Aaron Yeater

(To reply, click here.)


Bill Clinton's greatest fault is he gave self-righteous mosquitoes like Bill Bennett the opportunity to obscure the lengthy list of accomplishments of the Clinton presidency. Bennett and others who buzz in the same poisonous nest (DeLay, Gingrich, Armey, George Will and so on), simply don't like Clinton. They have parlayed this dislike into disgust and then into a vendetta of Mafioso proportions. It has been uncomfortable, to say the least, to watch these tortured souls wrap their venomous accusations against Clinton in Biblical aphorisms. Now if you match Clinton's record with, say, Cheney's record, who would win? Bennett would say Cheney, excusing his votes against Head Start, gun control, and Mandela while emphasizing (pick one) Whitewater, Travelgate, Filegate, etc. If Clinton had only kept the interns on the right side of the desk, Bennett would have quickly faded away. Then we would have been spared his awful anger, and public discourse would have been greatly improved.

--Jim Miara

(To reply, click here.)


[Notes from the Fray Editor: Who'd be good for a dinner date? The Fray likes that kind of question, and Tipper was mentioned, and then there were the jokes about Monica... But then JG said that was the problem, we shouldn't be picking our President on the basis of who would be fun at a party.

We liked the names dept: Click here for a post from The Only Liberal in Lafayette IN. And if possible we liked even more Eloise Hellspawn's post because it was called "Wallowing in Premature Clinton Nostalgia" and contained this line "my own ancestry, although ethnically identical [to Bush's], is usually designated as White Trash to distinguish us from the insects".

And Tyce Bedford bought Mr Tarloff's book Face Time on the strength of this "Breakfast Table", and liked it.]