Andrew Sullivan Gets Wobbly

[Snellius]

Andrew Sullivan has come back from vacation with a new tan and evidently a new outlook. He's still completely, how should one say it, completely "psycho-illogical", but at least he's begun to realize that Bush may just be as stupid as everyone says:

Tuesday, September 02, 2003

MISSION UNACCOMPLISHED: And then there's the war. I could forgive this administration almost anything if it got the war right. But, after a great start, it's getting hard to believe the White House is in control of events any more. Osama bin Laden is regrouping in Afghanistan; Saddam, perhaps in league with al Qaeda, is fighting back in Iraq. The victims of terror in Iraq blame the United States - not the perpetrators - for the chaos. And the best news of the war - that Shi'a, Sunnis, and Kurds were not at each others' throats - is now fraying. Worse, the longer the impasse continues the harder it will be to get ourselves out of it. About this we hear two refrains from the White House: a) everything is going fine, actually; and b) this new intensity of terror in Iraq is a good thing because it helps us fight the enemy on military, rather than civilian, terrain. The trouble that we're discovering is that a full-scale anti-terror war is not exactly compatible with the careful resusictation of civil order and democratic government, is it? And if we are in a new and vital war, why are we not sending more troops to fight it? And why are we not planning big increases in funding for the civil infrastructure at the same time? The response so far does not strike me as commensurate with the problem, and I say this as a big supporter of this war. What to do? I'd be hard put to express it better than John McCain Sunday: more troops, more money, more honesty from the president about the challenges, swifter devolution of power to Iraqis, and so on. And yet the White House in August decided to devote the president's public appearances to boosting his environmental credibility. Are they losing it? So far, I've been manfully trying to give the administration the benefit of the doubt, especially given the media's relentlessly negative coverage of Iraq. But they're beginning to lose me, for the same reasons they're losing Dan Drezner. They don't seem to grasp the absolutely vital necessity

Wednesday, September 03, 2003

BUSH-HATRED REVISITED: Yep, there's barely a soul in Provincetown who doesn't hate George W. Bush. The stores are fully of fatuous t-shirts, lamenting Bush's alleged stupidity. I know of about five people who support the war on terror. People randomly express their hatred of the president on all sorts of occasions and expect you to chime in. There really is a phenomenon here. I'm not sure it's worse than the loathing some parts of the right felt for Clinton but it's disturbing - and way more stupid than Bush could ever be - nonetheless. But the trope that has really caught on among elites is the notion that Bush is a liar.

And see his defense:
WOBBLY? MOI?

http://www.andrewsullivan.com/

[DavidDvorkin]

1. If they got the war right!

Ja, I can forgive Der Fuehrer everything else because he did such a good job with the invasion of Poland. Victory against a smaller, weaker victim trumps domestic abuses and the question of the illegality of the invasion itself.

With that sentence, Sullivan proves himself to be still a complete shithead.

[fizzana]

2. But he's still a lying, distorting little weasel.

From his Sep 3 entry

"Yep, there's barely a soul in Provincetown who doesn't hate George W. Bush. The stores are fully of fatuous t-shirts, lamenting Bush's alleged stupidity. I know of about five people who support the war on terror."

He's using the standard right wing canard that if you disapprove of Bush in any way you are against the 'war on terror'. I fully support the 'war on terror', I do not support 'the war to generate even more terror' which is what is currently happening in New York.

and secondly

'But the trope that has really caught on among elites is the notion that Bush is a liar.'

All I can say to this is..."no shit Sherlock."

[el_gato]

3. hmmm... where is Provincetown?

sounds pretty cool to me.

[Narraback]

4. The tip of Cape Cod, Mass...

[lanlady]

5. used to be a very cool hippie colony

in the 60s/70s. That's the way I'll always remember P'town.

Now evolved into an artistic/creative talent kind of place with a large gay population.

[KoKo]

6. I don't know this quote from Sullivan's article: Negative Media Coverage??

"Are they losing it? So far, I've been manfully trying to give the administration the benefit of
the doubt, especially given the media's relentlessly negative coverage of Iraq. "

What negative reports could he have seen? There have been no negative reports....so I wonder....what does Sullivan watch that we don't and why does he feel it necessary to throw that lie into his article? RW appeasement?

Aplogia for his "questioning the Invasion" qualified by saying....ohhhhh I'm so upset with this media....but even "I" have some questions......" DUH.....................

[realFedUp]

7. It's a good thing to get out of DC every once in awhile...

different perspective.

[grasswire]

8. provincetown