6/16/2009

In the Ten Minutes Between Jet Planes:
The Rude Pundit is between flights and only has time for a few words before being trash compacted into his seat.

This morning, driving to the Nashville airport, he was listening to mad, mad Glenn Beck's radio program. Here was the first half-hour of the show: Beck reading a letter from a listener in Arizona listing the dozen or so things that need to be done to make America a good place "again" - by the time the Arizonan got to some nutzoid babble about the threat to America posed by ACORN and the repetition of the phrase "we are coming for you," while insisting it wasn't about violence, the Rude Pundit was ready to give Arizona back to Mexico. ("Fuck it, here, have fun.") This was followed by an ad for Beck's forthcoming book, which he has titled, in a move so hubristic it made Donald Trump go, "Goddman, that fucker's a narcissist," Common Sense, a la the Thomas Paine revolutionary pamphlet. This was followed by Beck warning us about the collapse of civilization and the need for gold, which was, of course, an ad for a company that wants to sell you gold. And the Rude Pundit was a half-hour older.

And the Rude Pundit wondered: is this how we were during the Bush administration? Prostrate to our anger? Unwittingly giving our opposition as much ammunition as they needed?

The answer to that, and more, starting tomorrow. Fuck, gotta get to the plane.

Correction: In a previous incarnation, this post contained a screw-up in saying "Obama administration" instead of Bush. That's what you get when you're in a sweaty North Carolina airport.