Comments on: The Anti-Cult of Personality

By: » MATT TAIBBI

» MATT TAIBBI — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:10:54 +0000

[...] MATT TAIBBI [...]

By: larryp

larryp — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:18:32 +0000

“It’s almost as though the haters have an emotional attachment to the notion of Obama as being guilty of and responsible for everything, from bad weather to the lack of good movies outside of District 9 to the flattening out of Brandon Webb’s sinker.”

You could just as easily replace Obama with Bush in that sentence when Bush was still in office.

Whether it’s Bush Derangement Syndrome on the Left or it’s Obama Derangement Syndrome on the Right, what does it matter?

Both are deranged mindsets.

By: Paul Tullis

Paul Tullis — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:02:08 +0000

Marty Peretz is hardly the person to talk shit about someone ELSE being a clinical narcissist.

By: libertyinvt

libertyinvt — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:51:15 +0000

I agree completely. The Right is completely brainwashed. The only people making principled, coherent arguments against Obama are the libertarians. (Disclaimer: I am a libertarian). The Right, contrary to all evidence, believes that Obama is soft on terror. Apparently a section of society will always believe the rhetoric from 2002-03. We are the best country ever, we can’t let the terrorists win, we are the world’s moral police, and those terrorists hate us for our freedoms. It couldn’t be that they hate us for our foreign policy the past hundred years!
Meanwhile, the media is providing cover for the administration by focusing on *gasp* the outrageous thing Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh said last night, or what Sarah Palin had for dinner last night. No mention of the bombs falling in Pakistan or Afghanistan. No mention of the Patriot Act renewal, or FISA renewals. No mention of the corporate bailouts and the new political spoils system referred to as “stimulus.”
Rachel Maddow has even taken to saying things to the effect that some GOP Senators are treasonous for telling other countries that the US Gov’t. lies in its statistics. Shocking, right!

By: cruss

cruss — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:46:08 +0000

This is off-topic, but Charlie Gasparino on CNBC just now referred to Matt’s vampire squid line as “one of the greatest lines I’ve ever heard.” That is not an exact quote, but it is close.

By: thatfuzzybastard

thatfuzzybastard — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:37:09 +0000

For the record—Stalin actually *was* a decent poet, at least by late 19th-century standards, and at least in Georgian. His stuff was kind of soupy/sentimental, but precocious; he was actually anthologized by the time he was 17, though that may have been because he was one of the few living poets writing in the Georgian language at the time. What made all his later literary accomplishments so ludicrous was that they were supposedly in Russian, a language he never did manage to speak without an accent or write at all gracefully.

By: djpav

djpav — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:23:06 +0000

Matt,

Marty Peretz is an Israel-first, neocon (or more correctly, a ziocon). Everything he cares about is Israel. Everything he writes about is in reference to Israel – whether directly or indirectly.

The main point to be taken in the quote you provide from him is the “strutted in Cairo” part. That should explain it to you. Peretz hates Obama because he does not trust him with regards to his position on the Israel-Palestine conflict. He couldn’t and he doesn’t care less about anything else.

It is really as simple as that.

By: mayberrymachiavellian

mayberrymachiavellian — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:54:38 +0000

Carolyn:

Obama stuck his neck out politically by going to Copenhagen. He and his staff knew Chicago was a long-shot, and that if the Olympics went to another city that his critics would jump all over him for being “weak” because he could not reel in this prize.

This is not narcissistic behavior.

By: stevehaas

stevehaas — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:57:36 +0000

Racism has transformed itself to a complete rant full of distortions,lies, and irrational fear, that, this type of political dialogue seems acceptable. Our President is very cool about this way of talking,say, accusing him of instituting a healthcare socialistic plan: like,”Yeah, We true American should pay more money for our incomplete Heathcare, continue to have insurance companies be in control of how and who will receive healthcare; and this “option plan” does not have a “death panel”, but insurance companies will drop you once you are very sick, and in the meantime you will lose your job ( funny, insurance companies want only clients who work in companies who can afford their preimiums but not to cover everyone and single-pay). But our President is trying to institute socialism into our economy. I wonder if a white President would receive the same treatment. I really feel for our President, give him a chance and let work out the many issues we have and listen how we will do it,c’mon now, let’s get the show on the road. Way back when I was a kid in a Bronx grade school and everyone was white, jewish,italian,or irish if you call me a “commie” I would kick your ass until you cried home to mommy and everyone would follow you and humilate you and slap you daily for being such a stupid ass until you learned better; it took about a year to straigthen you out.I want to the same towards some lobbyist and some republicans. How is that for fear? Let the President do his job–Please.

By: jennofark

jennofark — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:52:00 +0000

Maybe sometime I’ll tell you about the email exchange I had with Victor Davis Hanson.