Comments on: Americans Pick Wrong President–Again

By: Rodney Dill

Rodney Dill — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 02:42:35 +0000

Obviously much as his detractors.

By: Ralph

Ralph — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 02:10:16 +0000

The founding fathers were independent thinkers...they created an admirable country. Bush is not. He freeloads on their creation and the public buys it.

By: vnjagvet

vnjagvet — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 21:19:47 +0000

The self-appointed intellegentsia continue to manifest this type of tut-tutting which has erupted regularly since the republic began. My first personal recollection of the phenomenon was in the 50's when Eisenhower cleaned the "egghead" Stevenson's clock twice, to the consternation of university faculty and the elite media commentariat.

Fortunately, the founding fathers were not so squeemish of the messiness which ensues when the will of the electorate is made clear.

Fortunately, these snobs almost never are right. Hence, Jackson, Lincoln, Truman, Eisenhower, Reagan, and now GWB.

Hooray for another "Pauline Kael moment".

By: Rodney Dill

Rodney Dill — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 20:58:14 +0000

Yes I have looked at the map and concluded that people from the supposed cultural centers were stupid enough to vote for Kerry and those from BFE had the common sense to vote for someone with strength of will, values, and courage.

By: Ralph

Ralph — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 19:31:02 +0000

I agree as evidenced by the approx 56 Million that voted for Kerry even though the truth about him was public knowledge.

...right Rodney...56 million did vote for Kerry...did you look at the map? Most were in cultural centers...i.e. Chicago, NYC, LA, SF...My comment refers to the ass backwards country rednecks

By: Steven Taylor

Steven Taylor — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 19:24:56 +0000

As I commented over at PoliBlog--DeLong should know better than to try and generalize from such a small sample. Further, he never really states what "unknown" means--to whom? to what degree? Of the candidates in question, only Carter strikes me as an "unknown". Even Clinton was known in the DLC crowd and was featured in a prominent policy book that had some mainstream sales by Osbourne (Laboratories of Demcoracy) in 1988. And the Reagan southern thing, SoCal or not, is plain silly, category-wise. Even Bush isn't as "southern" as Clinton or Carter. There is some West there, too--which is a different kind of conservatism than Deep South conservatism. And Carter and Clinton were Southern moderate-to-liberals.

By: Rodney Dill

Rodney Dill — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 19:15:22 +0000

cant you see that Brad is merely pointing out the stupidity of the American public and their lack of independent thinking

I agree as evidenced by the approx 56 Million that voted for Kerry even though the truth about him was public knowledge.

By: Ralph

Ralph — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 19:10:28 +0000

Joyner...really , canÂ´t you see that Brad is merely pointing out the stupidity of the American public and their lack of independent thinking. Truly and unfortunately, America is a country in decadence.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 17:52:08 +0000

How do people like DeLong get to put out such nonsense without an editor?

Bush was far from an "unknown" governor from the South.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 17:25:00 +0000

Governers are executives. Presumably they have some experience making decisions. A senator plays politics. Kerry was labeled a flip-flopper but its possible he was merely indecisive (anti-decisive even). This is a big turn off in a leader.

By: McGehee

McGehee — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 16:59:52 +0000

If Brad wants to run for Appointer of Presidents, I'll run against him. I'm an unknown from the South, so by his logic I should be heavily favored.

By: PoliBlog

PoliBlog — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 16:16:28 +0000

Brad DeLong isn't Happy
Economist Brad DeLong thinks we need a different system for picking the president. His logic:The pattern is clear: when there isn't an unknown southern governor running, an incumbent president can win reelection or an incumbent vice president can win...

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 15:26:12 +0000

Brad doesn't suggest an alternative model. I guessed from reading Brad's post that he was nominating himself for the job of appointing presidents. Another tragic victim of Bush Derangement Syndrome. In the same post he characterizes Richard Nixon as an unknown in 1968. Apparently DeLong has never heard of Alger Hiss, the Checkers speech, Nixon's serving as Vice President, Eisenhower's heart attack, Nixon's first presidential campaign, or his campaign for governor of California. Does BDS cause memory lapse?

By: Rodney Dill

Rodney Dill — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 15:09:06 +0000

And on top of it he just floats out an absurd claim without challenge.

We were luck two times, Reagan and Bush,

and unlucky with, Slick Willie and Mr. Peanut

By: Teri

Teri — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 14:32:31 +0000

Never mind. I went to his site. He's assigning Reagan to Southern California. Technically accurate but misleading.