Scott McClellan
We have had a number of Bushites, who in disillusion about their own careers, or angry that they were becoming scapegoats, wrote memoirs at odds with their former pronouncements. But never have we witnessed someone who made the about-switch so abruptly in a matter of months, going from official megaphone to court Procopius— and so blatantly forcing the reader to choose between “he’s lying now” or “he was lying then”, since his own admissions are antithetical to one another. And when McClellan talks about “my truth,” as opposed to a universal truth, we understand how the Foucouldian/Lacanian postmodernist hocus-pocus filters down to the half-educated and gullible like McClellan.
Ultimately, the President would have been far better off not to have selected so many on the basis on “loyalty” rather than competence, since he got neither loyalty nor merit, and missed the eternal truth that the incompetent (McClellan was the worst press secretary of either party since Ron Ziegler) are ultimately the most disloyal.
All we need now is the ex-felon John Dean and mastermind of the Watergate cover-up, as the voice of conscious, to comment on the McClellan case.
Europe
I’m currently in Carbourg lecturing and visiting the Normandy battlefields and monuments. The weather is stormy and rainy as it was in 1944, and very little seems to have changed in the surrounding communities.
Driving through the dense hedgerows gives instant understanding to how the Americans could have lost 80,000 casualties while going almost nowhere in the two months after the brilliantly successful landings—but still leave one perplexed about how such thorough planners at SHAEF could have neglected the effect of the well-known bocage on mobile operations.
This tragedy evokes ‘my brilliant three-week victory over Saddam, your foolish flawed occupation”, albeit the deaths were in the former case in the tens of thousands. Perhaps had only 1/100 the time spent on designing the ingenious Mulberry artificial harbors at Omaha and Gold beaches been invested in equipping Shermans with rhino spikes from the beginning, or training troops in the brush of England rather than the plains, or practicing B-17 bombing runs on enemy formations, then we might have had the breakout in mid-June rather than late July—and therefore reached the Siegfried line a month earlier when the weather was good and the days longer.But then here we go again with baby-boomber third guessing about a prior generation’s heroic decisions.
Obama—at Last!
After reading a number of essays and talking to a number of liberals, I would sum up the Obama madness this way:
At last the hopes and dreams of the 1960s are in our grasp. McGovern imploded. Carter was hopeless and suspect. Mondale was inept; Dukakis a punching bag. Clinton carried the torch, but only by triangulating and betraying the dream. Gore was cheated out of his victory; Kerry Swift-Boated.
But at last (if that damn Hillary would just get out of the way!) we have the perfect candidate—charismatic, young, fresh, multiracial, and we know that he is the furthest on the left of the entire bunch and the most likely both to win and actually make the long-overdue changes in America—tax the rich (get those income rates back up to 40%, subject all income to payroll taxes, restore all death taxes, up capital gains), subsidize the needy (more welfare, food and housing subsidies, universal state health care, more federal loans, more farm aid, more government programs to aid the middle class), change the government (more ideological appointments who will enforce an equality of result, more liberal judges and bureaucrats), follow international leads (more “soft” power, less military bellicosity, more deference to the UN, a true partnership with the UN, a backing off from hot spots that put us on the wrong side of history, get out of Iraq, more “balance” with the Palestinians, talk with Iran, Venezuela, etc who are misunderstood progressives anyway, follow the intellectual and cultural lead of the foundations and the universities (more candid support for gay marriage, abortion on demand, gun control, affirmative action, revisionist views of U.S. history, more emphasis on “oppression studies.”)
The left likewise is, to its credit, willing to take a big gamble. This year, for a variety of well-discussed reasons, almost any experienced mainstream Democrat should win. But why go with the sure thing Hillary who will only bring you another Clintonian compromise, when you can roll the dice with the unknown candidate, squeak by and might get 100% of the agenda?
That means, of course, that after nominating Obama, progressives understand that they are on thin ice—3-4 or more Obama gaffes, another Wright or Ayers disclosure, a Michelle outburst, or an off-the-record “clingers” or “typical white person” quip from a mid-October meltdown.
So Democrats are gambling on a virtual unknown. Both Carter and McGovern were transparent quantities. We are in the middle of something entirely new now. Never in recent American history has someone with so little state and federal experience come so close to being President of the United States—with the likelihood of so radically changing America at home and abroad.
Fascinating times.
Footnote on Europe
I went to a beautiful Catholic blessing of the harvest service at the historic cathedral at Rouen. Some observations: the service was quite moving—the Latin mass, the singing, and the tolling of the bells at the end. But there was a touch of sadness as well. There were not more than 5-6 under 60 in the crowd of well over a thousand (maybe a noontime Weekday explains the absence of the young?). In Rouen itself and its environs one sees not very many, if any, new homes; few are pregnant; couples with children are rare, and usually with only one child. Middle-Eastern families are pretty common, always with several offspring. One does not have to be a demographer or an alarmist to see that in 40 years such historic services might well be rare—and a great deal of what had always been the West, in the cultural sense, could be lost.
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27 Comments
1. The Historian:McClellan is a very small, small man. He is somewhat reminiscent of a prior rather small man named McClellan in American history.
At least the General had the stones to run against the President he turned against for the office itself. Don’t expect Scott to do anything courageous however.
May 29, 2008 - 4:35 pm 2. BRussell:Europe is lost. Finished.
That was the price we paid for throwing our lot in with the Soviet Union in 1941.
The socialists of Europe killed Catholicism and the rest of Christian Europe.
I have no love for the Nazi’s, but they did say it would end up very similar to this.
Time to reap the whirlwind my friends.
May 29, 2008 - 7:25 pm 3. RuleTopia:Explaining the appeal of Obama to leftists is easy. Explaining the abandonment of limited government by the Republican party is a head scratcher.
It’s not like the incremental roll-back of government by Reagan was a failure. It lead to massive economic growth and a clear renewal of self-confidence by Americans.
What, in contrasts, are the fruits of socialism? The pornification of our culture? Crummy schools at every level? More and more children growing up without fathers in their lives? The growth in black-on-black violence? Tell me, where are the benefits?
May 29, 2008 - 9:00 pm 4. Ron Kean:There was an ACORN expose today. Then a white Catholic priest was stirring up the crowd.
C’mon Scafe. C’mon Pickens. Murdock deserted us. McClellan took a dive. Just bring the truth out. Let everyone see and hear over and over who we’re dealing with.
I’ve made phone calls. I’ve written emails. But the McCain organization seems to have dropped the ball in St.Louis. I was hoping to be able to help out here.
I really liked Paris in 1972 and the latest article, ‘…about ME’ on RCP was out of the park.
Thanks for sharing.
May 29, 2008 - 9:19 pm 5. Jim Rockford:Yes Europe is already lost. There won’t be any more French babies being born retroactively, it’s already a Muslim nation in all but name. England is the same way, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy also (though the Italians will probably fight harder and longer).
Europe, nearly all of it except a few bits in Eastern Europe, is already defacto a Muslim continent.
As for Obama, his latest erruption is the Rev. Michael Pfleger, speaking at Trinity. First he rants and raves about how Wright and Farakkhan are America’s greatest religious figures, and then about how Hillary embodies “white privilege” and how “white privilege” is also defined as a corporate job, 401K plans, a house, etc. That being middle class and white means you are guilt of racist oppression in the past.
It’s all over YouTube.
President John Sydney McCain.
May 29, 2008 - 10:56 pm 6. M.E.:Dr. Hanson talks about Obama almost in every post. His information and opinion are precious. But sometimes I think that Obama has become an obsession for Americans. And now the entire world is contaminated (not enchanted) by this obamamania.
Dr. Hanson says: “Carter and McGovern were transparent quantities”. But also Obama was from the beginning transparent quantity, at least from the political point of view (his defence of a terrorist organisation like the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, opposition to Iraqi War etc.). Wright-Ayers scandal only had confirmed Obama’s politics that was clear enough from his first appearance on the big political scene.
Dr. Hanson says: “we are in the middle of something entirely new now”. I am not sure. Our Western World knew many “popular delusions and the madness of the crowds”. Only people, gone crazy, can elect an Obama as supreme leader of the country. It reminds me the old poetic image of the sea troubled on the surface and tranquil in the profundity, especially when I imagine the farmers of Ohio or the cowboys of Texas.
May 30, 2008 - 4:23 am 7. Minerva:Pfleger said Thursday that his sermon was “inconsistent with Senator Obama’s life and message.”
Er, how about inconsistent with Christ’s life and message?
“…and the radical priest came to get me released…”
Finally, is Andrew Sullivan beginning to step back from Obama?:
“My major worry about Obama is the ghost of Jimmy Carter. Will Obama be too reflexively diplomatic?”
May 30, 2008 - 9:12 am 8. Cornhead:1. Scott McClellan’s father wrote a nutty JFK conspiracy book so when his son was appointed as press secretary I thought it was a huge mistake.
Not only was he ineffective, but he was a backstabber.
2. “Obama is the one we have been waiting for.” That’s the near official slogan of the campaign. Check out the creepy posters and prints of St. Barack in the latest “Weekly Standard.”
3. Both George Wiegel and Mark Steyn have documented the demographic and religious implosion in Europe. One a country loses control of its borders, it loses its culture. I guess funding social security is more important than preserving the country.
May 30, 2008 - 10:18 am 9. Minerva:Yes, I remember the “JC can save America” poster from 1976. Back then, Jimmy Carter looking like Jesus was a joke in poor taste. But now that we know that…
“too reflexively diplomatic” = appeasement
— we are in trouble.
May 30, 2008 - 10:30 am 10. TLM:John McCain should take Barack Obama to task for his public proposal a few months ago to insert Special Operations Forces into NW Pakistan. Obama obviously has no clue about the nature and risks of special operations, other than what he has gleaned from watching movies produced by his Leftist friends in Hollywood. I would like to see his military advisors on camera publicly defend using SOF assets in this way, against the current consensus of the Pentagon. Then we would have the chance to evaluate those giving advice to this neophyte would-be cowboy. I suspect his advisors may have a less sanguinary view on this proposal than does General Obama, and worry that if he becomes president he might actually ask them to lead such operations. If that unfortunate scenario transpires, they may wish he hadn’t telegraphed our intentions to the bad guys, which is sort of standard operating procedure anyway. Obama’s military advisors surely understand the repercussions and risks of failure inherent in such operations. If an SF team were captured in Pakistan, the political fallout in that country would be immense. And if Al Qaida were to get their hands on them, we’d be watching our brave Green Berets beheaded on videotape. Remember Black Hawk Down? We redeployed from Somalia shortly thereafter, a fact not lost on Osama bin Laden. How about the disaster at Desert One? Possibly a significant factor in Jimmy Carter losing his bid for re-election in 1980. For whatever reason, failed special operations missions have an undue impact on the American psyche. They are not easily forgotten. They may result in changes in U.S. policy, or shorten the career of the president who orders them. And they should not be proposed willy-nilly by a naive presidential candidate simply because he feels politically vulnerable on military issues when compared to his war-decorated opponent. I think the GI’s in Viet Nam said it best. You wanna talk the talk, you gotta walk the walk.
Addendum: I wrote this previously. Today we heard from CIA Chief General Hayden regarding successes against Al Qaida using the current strategy, including increased use of Predator strikes in NW Frontier of Pakistan. No comment yet from Camp Obama.
May 30, 2008 - 5:52 pm 11. Michael Flood:Some thoughts on the demographic situation in Europe:
It looks like we may be seeing the capitulation of Europe, but that may be only the surface. The media and academia are filled with apologetics about Islam and multiculturalist embrace of everything non-Western, but will that last? In the coming decades I believe we may see a grim repeat of Europe’s past, in fact the past of many, many places that have had influxes of non-assimilating immigrants. Consider the horrific hatred the Germans turned on their own naturalized Jews, people Jewish in descent only. How much more could they turn on people they come to actively consider a threat?
It may take a few years, but I believe we’ll see more and more demagogues and extremist parties coming out vocally against the Muslim populations in their midsts. Increasing exclusion, ghettoization, looking the other way at racist attacks, possibly even mass deportations.
I consider this especially likely if we enter a prolonged economic downturn.
Not that I want to see Europe become an extension of Dar al-Islam, but we must consider with concern the other alternatives. My personal hope is that the increasing distaste for postmodernist claptrap among undergraduates continues and the present generation of pseudo-Marxist sophists fades away.
May 30, 2008 - 6:35 pm 12. ic:in 40 years such historic services might well be rare
Actually, in 40 years historic places such as the cathedral at Rouen will be rare. It will either be replaced with a mosque, or it will be turned into a mosque, like Hagia Sophia in her pre-museum days.
May 30, 2008 - 7:59 pm 13. M.E.:VDH: “Never in recent American history has someone with so little state and federal experience come so close to being President of the United States”.
I am not a political analyst but I don’t believe that B. Hussein Obama has any chance to be elected President. For his worshippers the most elementary logic doesn’t have any hold but for the normal people with some common sense it must be clear that in Obama’s case we have only ideological fantasies and no realistic political idea. Even in the improbable case he won the elections, his position would be very uncertain and his rapid fall inevitable. Like all demagogues he needs a system of police control that is impossible to create in the US. So in the present historical context, a vulgar demagogue, like Obama who preaches tolerance and peace with the criminal Islamofascist and communist dictatorships (Iran, Cuba, North Korea etc.) can only disappear in the Nought from where he came out.
May 31, 2008 - 3:24 am 14. TLM:The prevailing political winds in the U.S. strongly favor a Democrat this election year. By casting their lot with Obama, they are jeopardizing a nearly sure thing. If they win they will divide this country. If they lose they will have divided their own party for no gain. Either way, the divisions will go far beyond racial issues. I agree with VDH that Obama is a huge gamble foisted on the Democratic Party by the liberal Left. They would go for broke on this election. And broke we will be.
May 31, 2008 - 6:33 am 15. TLM:Why do they cling to their guns? “They” being those mythical hard working socially conservative Middle Americans. You know, the ones liberal Democrats would more openly disparage if they didn’t need their votes. Barack Obama and his friends suggest an economic explanation for the phenomena of the gun obsessed lower classes who refuse to vote for him. Unable to adapt to new economic trends, they are stuck in a rut, ridin’ shotgun on the last stagecoach to Nowheresville. With their stagnating jobs based on old industries, manufacturing, farming etc, the poor down trodden blue collar masses have been rendered witless, unable to adapt to the new high tech economy. So “they cling to what they know” says Obama. Religion, xenophobia and their guns. How absurd, and here’s why. No, I’m not about to launch into a diatribe about self-defense, the Second Amendment, nostalgia for the Old West, or the simple practicality of shootin’ a deer rather than whackin’ it with a tomahawk. There’s another reason they hang onto their guns, one that tells us a lot about ourselves and our country. One Senator Obama would do well to heed. (Caveat: True gun nuts may now be excused as what follows is somewhat simplistic. I don’t need the email overload).
Among other things, guns represent to their owners a traditional American value, one that used to be universally accepted in this country. That value is still expressed in phrases like “well made”, “made to last”, “made in America”. But sadly, those phrases no longer ring true in our country. Picture a guy who’s been working on a Ford Motor Company assembly line for forty years. Do you think he believes his company’s “Quality Is Job 1″ slogan? Toyota usurped that reality a long time ago. He goes home at night and cleans his Winchester Model 70 bolt action deer rifle handed down from his father. The gun’s weathered and beaten, but the parts are original and it still shoots true. It was made by Americans who understood the value of things made to last.
Guns embody concepts like that more than any other product made in this country. Don’t believe me? Name an item that is manufactured in America, mass produced, sold to millions of people, which with little upkeep can easily last a hundred years or more. Guns are the antithesis our modern disposable mindset, which itself is a result of an economy predicated on expendability. They have always been built to last. Quality, durability and dependability — what ever happened to those American values? Sound familiar, Senator Obama? That’s why people who own guns hang on to them.
May 31, 2008 - 3:22 pm 16. TLM:A few weeks ago a porcupine wondered onto my property and put my dogs in the hospital. It wouldn’t leave, so I looked around the house for a tool to expedite the inevitable. I finally found what I needed buried in the attic, the Winchester pump shotgun I bought three decades ago. It hadn’t seen use in at least 20 years, but it worked just fine. On the barrel is stamped “Made in New Haven”. It was made by a company whose logo is unmistakably American, a company forced to close its doors two years ago. That’s an economic reality, Senator Obama. And I’m never selling that shotgun.
May 31, 2008 - 3:28 pm 17. Joe Toboni:M.E. is right. Obama is becoming an obsession.
We shouldn’t be attacking Obama, we should be talking about McCain. If we prefer McCain as President that is.
May 31, 2008 - 6:46 pm 18. Jimmy J.:I hope McClellan got big buck$ for the book. He’ll need the money. Tho$e who $ell their $oul$ $o publically for money often find it hard to obtain employment.
Your enumeration of the changes that Obama plans to make, makes cold chills run down my spine. Hopefully that feeling is shared by enough voters to ensure his defeat in November.
May 31, 2008 - 9:58 pm 19. M.E.:TLM: “The prevailing political winds…”
“The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whrileth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits” (Ecclesiastes 6).
Jun 1, 2008 - 2:14 am 20. Judith:Obamamania is a form of collective brainwashing of the naive or distracted voter who becomes accustomed to the omnipresent pretty Obama pictures in the media & substanceless packaging by his Soros/Khalidi/Wright, & other assorted deviant Obama campaign backers. Almost like idol worship institutionalized, where idols are commonly placed on hills, mountain-tops & under shaded trees where the masses gathered or could view even from afar this subliminal exposure. Reminiscent of Mao, Sadam or Stalin w/ their picture posted everywhere encouraging the collective to accept them as their idol leaders. So, yes, please VDH continue exposing the over-exposed Obama to help spare us from the brainwashing of the next Newsweek cover worshiping Obama in all his splendid smiling mediocrity.
Jun 1, 2008 - 3:44 pm 21. Olivia:M.E. and Judith are right. At best Obama could represent something good for Republicans. Every day he alienates more and more of the more moderate and conservative Democrats. These groups can help resuscitate the Republican party. The far left wing of the party can roll the dice but they’ll pay the price for the next decade. Obama will lose and drag a whole lot of Democrat seats with him.
Victor I’ve come to appreciate your blog and articles on National Review. Keep up the good work.
Jun 1, 2008 - 7:32 pm 22. ET:re: The Obama madness – given the fervency of Obama’s supporters with the accompanying vagueness of his speeches – It’s possible to conclude that a substantial portion of this group has already resigned itself to Obama losing the general election. Rather than being disappointed at this prospect, though, they are using it to stoke the fire in their bellies for the next four years, their righteousness refreshed, such that they may continue with renewed zeal their hatred of all things not hard-left. After all, implementing gigantic tax hikes, reversing America’s proactive military stance against terrorism, and adding fuel to the fire of a culture of identity grievance in all levels of society is impractical. Better to roll those dice on the 100% package and lose it all – and then continue with one’s adopted life-purpose of denouncing anything and everything attributable to Western thought and Capitalism.
Jun 1, 2008 - 8:25 pm 23. M.E.:To Judith:
I was born in Moscow in the midst of idols whose enormous pictures spied the people in all the squares and avenues. And I hated them. All idols have short live. Yes, Stalin, like Mao, Saadam Hussein, Ho Chi Minh and many others, ruled almost 30 years. Millions of lives were sacrificed to these idols that always lusted new and new blood. It is the great secret of the idols’ long “life”: if they do not drink human blood they die. Returning to the American reality I see, from one part, an artificial and absolutely empty idol, and from the other, a true personality. What we observe now it is not a fight between a Democrat and a Republican, but between an idol and a human being.
Jun 2, 2008 - 4:25 am 24. TLM:ET:
Your comments about Obama supporters are intriguing. As their idol’s past sees the light of day they realize this is not some idyllic fairy tale they’re living in, where a presidential election brings about the Revolution they fantasize about. The gamble on Obama by the Leftist fringe of the Democratic Party has now been shown to be what it is, a chance to trot out and pay homage to a bunch of leftover 60’s clowns like Pfleger, Wright, Ayers et al. And in all this, Obama has played the fool. He has been duped by his rich Leftist friends into thinking he’s the Joker Card in a poker game where the deck was stacked. His supporters now see, the Joker may be a bit too wild for this game. But they’re having fun, and with their Che posters and fantasies they’ll party on until November 4th. You say you want a Revolution, well you know….it’s not supposed to be a tea party.
Jun 2, 2008 - 5:48 am 25. GeorgeBest:For all the intelligent posts here, it scares me that you people dont see that Obama can easily get elected President. It kind of reminds me of Eddie Murphys joke, when he said he voted for Jesse Jackson on a lark only to wake up the next day to hear that Jesse won. Obama is no joke and is scary for the future of this country. People arent going to vote for him on a lark, they are going to vote for him to get back at every one who they think caused them to fail in life. With gas prices up and war going on, these sensations felt by stupid people are heightened. Obama is the wrong guy at the right time for him. He will be elected and we are all screwed.
Jun 3, 2008 - 2:37 pm 26. VDH parle d’Obama « Notes et Observations:[...] dit, sa remarque sur Obama tombe [...]
Jun 5, 2008 - 7:33 am 27. Bob from Fredericksburg:I am afraid that Obama is as good as elected. We all know he brings nothing to the office, at least nothing positive, but for some reason people read what they want to into the man. One stop stopping to cure everyones ills, from having to fight wars to curing social society. The candidate for those who cannot distinguish between a vote on American Idol and a presidential election. The good news is that his incompetence and ideology will catch up with the expectations of his worshippers, then they will learn as Jimmy Carter’s followers did, but what tragedies will follow from the election of a figurine.
Jun 13, 2008 - 12:48 pm