Lots of emails about the chat with the president-elect the other evening. But the chat was off the record, and I'm a stickler for that shit. Also, you can't prove it didn't happen, the WF-Obama Summit Chat. But rest assured it is very good news that Obama is willing to hob-nob with a bunch of dirty fucking hippies as well as the mentally ill, a bunch of head-up-their-ass douchenozzles, and Rachel Maddow. I can't give details, but just allow me to say that the man is pretty much a commie (for reals!), and he thinks Andrew Sullivan's geyser-like gushing is very, very embarrassing for everyone involved.
UPDATE. Here's the unofficial list of the Important Opinion People from the Right on the one hand, and the Nowhere Especially on the other, with whom Obama has met:
George Will, Charles Krauthammer, William Kristol, Larry Kudlow, David Brooks, Rich Lowry, Peggy Noonan, Michael Barone, Paul Gigot, E. J. Dionne, Eugene Robinson, Gerry Seib, Ron Brownstein, Frank Rich, Maureen Dowd, Andrew Sullivan, and Rachel Maddow.
With all due respect to Maddow, who is the only unexpected and arguably non-insider-y person here, this is a genuinely unimpressive A-List of American public intellectuals. Some (most) of these people are stone crazy, some (most) have a history of being spectacularly wrong. But pretty much all of them are lightweights. If someone wants to compile Krauthammer: The Complete Works, I'd imagine that tome would only have any value right now, in the sense that to get the book out, he'd have to stop writing altogether immediately, and that would be very welcome. But nobody's going to be teaching Krauthammer in decades to come, though he'll probably get cited in future dissertations for much the same reason I cited editorials from the Catholic Bulletin in my own dissertation: as evidence of just how bananas a particular time and place actually was.
It is genuinely appalling just how flat-out stupid the official discourse of the nation is, not so much because the people who produce it are stupid (though they often are), but because willful stupidity is so remunerative.
But the chat was off the record, and I'm a stickler for that shit.
As well as for conspicuous name-dropping, it would seem.
Oh well, it would appear that Obama charmed him quite effortlessly into silence, which is nothing new for Sully.
Posted by: Me | January 14, 2009 at 11:27 PM
it would appear that Obama charmed him quite effortlessly into silence, which is nothing new for Sully.
With all due respect, silence would be a new and very welcome innovation for Andrew Sullivan.
Posted by: Thers | January 15, 2009 at 12:15 AM
Like a lot of people I have spent time of late reflecting on the Bush years. If there is any one overriding theme to my musings, it is ongoing and utter astonishment that so many of the members of our elites are so mediocre, or so dishonest, or so driven by emotion, ideology, and/or conventional wisdom as to reveal themselves to be ... ordinary morons. Of course, I tend to look at political institutions, big business, and the media. But even trivial b.s. like the recent baseball Hall of Fame voting seems to be the province of sentimentality and ignorance (some of it willful ignorance), and thus, ends up being yet another form of malpractice, albeit harmless malpractice.
I think what crushes me most is that there's never accountability. Kill people. Rip off millions. Print cocktail chatter as your "column." Use steroids. And all you fucking do is prosper....
Posted by: KC45s | January 15, 2009 at 12:29 AM
"...not so much because the people who produce it are stupid (though they often are), but because willful stupidity is so remunerative."
You got that so right. Take the money away and blathering bugfuck wingnuts 'd have to return to school and learn a useful trade. This Joe the Plunger fool is the latest example! Blink and he'll have a senate seat.
Posted by: Lesley | January 15, 2009 at 01:57 AM
If giving blow jobs to right wing pundits can help Obama get his program passed, then Obama has the constitutional duty to give blow jobs to right wing pundits.
Posted by: rea | January 15, 2009 at 06:42 AM
I'm kind of with rea on this. Its not because the ages will be reading Charles fucking Krauthammer's ouevre that he needed the stroking, its because people will still be reading that shit for a few years to come. Oddly enough, a more sensible thing for Obama to do would be to realize that these guys are all *hired guns* and to have had dinner with Murdoch (is he dead yet?) say and simply offered to give him whatever he wants in exchange for favorable press. Bill O'Reilly and the entire bought and paid for right wing corps of flying wingnuts would instantly execute and about face and start singing Obama and the dems praises to the skies.
aimai
Posted by: AIMAI | January 15, 2009 at 07:58 AM
Talking to a guy like Kristol, who is a complete & utter cynic who will say anything that will garner him money & attention is one thing; but Krauthammer is certifiably insane, and such people are not noticably open to persuasion.
Posted by: Gummo | January 15, 2009 at 09:09 AM
The pundits are very vain and silly people. They live in a world where each and every opinion they pull out of their ass is like a shiny pearl.
This is Obama co-opting the pundits ... make them feel important, like they have some actual input into policy decisions. It's part of the village mentality ... once they meet with Obama and establish a personal relationship, that relationship means more than any silly old policies. Same thing with the O-man meeting Krystal and the wheeled Teutonic Hammer ...
"He's a very nice man, not at all like those horrid Clinton people with their cheeseburgers and their blowjobs."
I can see it now ... Obamalot.
Posted by: zsa | January 15, 2009 at 09:29 AM
Yes, you have to give The Villagers a thrill up the leg or they'll be all over you like stupid on Jonah Goldberg. It won't take much and will reap tremendous benefits.
The Villagers are also getting to be very, very old. Dinosaur old. The young wanna-bes will do a lot to be accepted by whomever is controlling the social power structure/dinner party circuit, and in DC that's the president. There's more than one way to skin a conservative, or co-opt one.
Posted by: Susan of Texas | January 15, 2009 at 09:55 AM
I agree; the more hacks he charms, the better. I mean who gives a fuck whom he has dinner with? Well the hacks do, and that's why he did it. More than anything, though, I'm thrilled that Rachel was there.
Posted by: Davis | January 15, 2009 at 09:56 AM
because willful stupidity is so remunerative.
NOW you tell me.
Damn -- if I'd known that 35 years ago, my career might have been very, very different.
Posted by: steve simels | January 15, 2009 at 11:30 AM
LMAO--it's working already. My god, they're easy. All it takes is dinner and a little slap and tickle.
Posted by: Susan of Texas | January 15, 2009 at 11:41 AM
And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.
And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?
But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
:)
Posted by: rea | January 15, 2009 at 11:54 AM
It is genuinely appalling just how flat-out stupid the official discourse of the nation is, not so much because the people who produce it are stupid (though they often are), but because willful stupidity is so remunerative.
I think you're giving them all way to much credit here. I mean, sure, they're easily bought and their opinions easily swayed, but it doesn't mean they're actually intelligent, calculating individuals.
They are stupid, vapid, and spineless, and more often than not, in my opinion, they all go hand in hand.
Posted by: Duncable | January 15, 2009 at 12:08 PM
All it takes is dinner and a little slap and tickle.
See, this is the difference between liberals and conservatives ... they get dinner.
Posted by: zsa | January 15, 2009 at 12:27 PM
As Menken once observed, no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.
Posted by: DrDick | January 15, 2009 at 12:29 PM
I don't believe it will make one lick of difference, really. Once the howlers start shrieking and flinging poo, these assholes will attack Obama twice as hard to prove they weren't swayed by his obviously desperate sucking up. They know it's not Obama's hand on the food pellet dispenser, it's Murdoch's. Everyone knows 3 hours of lambchops and small talk can't erase years and years of conditioning.
Posted by: iamcoyote | January 15, 2009 at 12:36 PM
Thank God that insufferable Jonah Goldberg wasn't invited. I hope he's been waiting by the phone.
Posted by: uncle noel | January 15, 2009 at 01:07 PM
I'm guessing the Sullivan disillusionment column has already been written -- he's just leaving a few details open to be filled in later -- and he'll publish it when it can do him the most 'good'. It's as inevitable as the tides.
And I don't care that Obama is meeting with the morons. I hate that the other morons writing about this are breaking them down as the conservative meeting and the liberal meeting.
The left was represented in the minds of these jackasses with Queen Dowd, Andrew Sullivan and Ron Brownstein.
What, was Paglia unavailable?
Posted by: Jay_B | January 15, 2009 at 01:34 PM
I may disagree with him at times, and criticize him at times, but his great gift is showing that he does not expect people to change their convictions in order to find common areas of agreement. That's the challenge he's presenting all of us with, wherever we come from ideologically. The challenge is as real for a Krugman as for a Kristol, for Rick Warren as well as Gene Robinson.
If we could only narrow that ideological divide between Botha and Thatcher.
Takes time ... baby ....
And lots of Asian hookers.
Posted by: Douglas Watts | January 16, 2009 at 03:19 AM
When Obama moves in to 1600, he'll have to pay people to read WF. How do I get that job?
Posted by: Rev. Bob | January 18, 2009 at 10:09 AM