Tuesday, March 03, 2009
‘The authority to repudiate’
Here's an intriguing look at what makes a great American president, i.e. a president who follows a failed president. There are exceptions to the rule -- Gerald Ford following Richard Nixon, etc. But Nixon's failures were personal in nature. Repudiation of a personality doesn't count. Ford also had no intention of boldly breaking away from Nixon's policies. ... Stephen Skowronek's "authority to repudiate" theory sounds like my Theory of Alternating Economic Theories. It seems Skowronek was for my idea before it was my idea. ...
David Brooks issues a call to arms for moderates to resist "endless war of the extremes" between Limbaughism and Obamaism. As an evil centrist, I wish him luck. But moderates, almost by definition, don't eat, drink and breathe their politics and we're suckers for bi-partisan head fakes, similar to the ploy being pulled now by Obama, as he lays the groundwork for his own cause's eventual repudiation. The repudiation may take a generation to occur, so great were the failings of the Bush administration. But it'll happen, perhaps sooner than past history suggests. ... If you have to read one repudiation of Limbaughism, make it Rod Dreher's fisking smackdown of Rush's bombastic CPAC speech. Talk about eating, drinking and breathing one's politics.
Update -- Tens of thousands of new federal workers may be needed to implement the president's ambitious plans. Remember the contradiction.
Here's an intriguing look at what makes a great American president, i.e. a president who follows a failed president. There are exceptions to the rule -- Gerald Ford following Richard Nixon, etc. But Nixon's failures were personal in nature. Repudiation of a personality doesn't count. Ford also had no intention of boldly breaking away from Nixon's policies. ... Stephen Skowronek's "authority to repudiate" theory sounds like my Theory of Alternating Economic Theories. It seems Skowronek was for my idea before it was my idea. ...
David Brooks issues a call to arms for moderates to resist "endless war of the extremes" between Limbaughism and Obamaism. As an evil centrist, I wish him luck. But moderates, almost by definition, don't eat, drink and breathe their politics and we're suckers for bi-partisan head fakes, similar to the ploy being pulled now by Obama, as he lays the groundwork for his own cause's eventual repudiation. The repudiation may take a generation to occur, so great were the failings of the Bush administration. But it'll happen, perhaps sooner than past history suggests. ... If you have to read one repudiation of Limbaughism, make it Rod Dreher's fisking smackdown of Rush's bombastic CPAC speech. Talk about eating, drinking and breathing one's politics.
Update -- Tens of thousands of new federal workers may be needed to implement the president's ambitious plans. Remember the contradiction.
