William Safire plays the Scarecrow - "If I only had a brain"

[Woodstock]

Please tell me where this gentleman placed his brain - he is clearly in need of it. I've never read anything quite so MINDLESS as this, "convoluted reasoning" indeed - my head is still spinning that a person could go through life thinking such drivel, much less writing about it. Yes, Safire, I know you want your master to win, and you think you are being clever, but my God, this is just very, very sad. Again, I have to ask - if the Republicans are so sure fire wanting Dean to win the nomination so Bush will have an "easy victory", then why don't they stop bashing him to hell? Oh, I get it, implying that someone will bust up his own party is supposed to HELP his chances of getting the nomination, my bad. Willy Boy is scared, just like the rest of them, and speaks with forked tongue. I just wish he'd try to do a better job of indicating the presence of intelligent life that's typing up what passes for an article in the process.

http://www.iht.com/articles/122765.html

{lots of stupid drivel where the author is smirking about how clever he is by serving his master so well and gloating about Democrats like they are morons was snipped}

What if the Old Democrat center, revivified as a stop-Dean movement and helped by the pendulum press, actually stops Dean? Could happen. Then what? He is not the sort who gives up easily. Nor is he likely to ask Clark or whomever in a smoke-free room for the No. 2 slot. Dean has grass-roots troops, a unique fund-raising organization, the name recognition and the fire-in-the-belly, messianic urge to go all the way on his own ticket. Politronic chatter picked up by pundits monitoring lefty blogsites and al-Gora intercepts flashes the warning: If stopped, Dean may well bolt.

That split of opposition would be a bonanza for President George W. Bush. In a two-man race, the odds are that he would beat Dean comfortably, but in a three-party race, Bush would surely waltz in with the greatest of ease.

Here's my problem: Such a lopsided, hubris-inducing result would be bad for Bush, bad for the Republican Party, bad for the country. Landslides lead to tyrannous majorities and big trouble. Which is why I worry about Dean not getting the Democratic nomination.

[Jack Rabbit]

1. Safire has a very good brain

I wish he would put it to better use.

However, you're right. This time, he seems to have given it the day off.

[Woodstock]

2. This time?

http://www.discourse.net/archives/2003/11/william_safire_tactics_over_truth.html

I read Safire’s column regularly. Not because I think it’s accurate. Not because my blood pressure really needs the stimulus. But because it’s so transparently tactical. Today’s column, Never Love a Stranger is a prime example of the genre. Naturally, no Safire column would be complete without some germ of truth. Here, it’s used up in the opening: there doubtlessly are a lot of DC insiders who are not pleased at the idea of a Dean victory. Outsiders can be threatening.

But after that, it’s all tactical positioning in which Safire transparently (do you think he thinks we aren’t on to him?) tries to define, or mis-define, the folks he dislikes. You know that the Republicans must actually be worried about Dean if Safire feels a need to try to label Dean as McGovernite (pity this meme turns up in more sensible places too). It ought to be tough to paint a balanced-budget guy whom the NRA likes as a McGovernite, but I guess that’s the strategy; or the tryout at least. (Note how Safire subtly denigrates the balanced-budget Democrats as (1) all being for it, so it’s not interesting, and (2) worrying that Bush will luck out and there will be a boom.

And of course, there’s yet another outing for that Republican pet dream, Hillary for President. Republicans would love that — run against the candidate with the high negatives. Odd thing is, there are no Democrats supporting this plan, but that doesn’t stop it being a Safire hobbyhorse.

I wish Safire would turn his gifts to actual reporting, instead of constantly trying to (mis)characterize things. But perhaps his formative years as a pitchman for kitchen goods just left too strong a mark.

[xchrom]

3. safire has been dipping

into the lsd again.
he is the most transparent journalist/editorialist and this bit is simplistic beyond belief.
dean is crazy -- dean will behave as a spoiled brat and bolt the party and spank all dems, leftys, and liberals i lieu of being his rightful place.
please -- where the fuck is the evidence for this besides in safires brain.
what the repukes want is any candidate that won't talk about 9-11 and the bush connection, no child left behind and where is the money?, veteran benefits cut, homeland security, patriot act -- oh wait that just about eliminates everyone but lieberman.