Eric Loomis is too kind:
Jimmy Carter may have been well to the right of the Democratic majority in Congress and tried to create policy from such an untenable position.
Bill Clinton may have signed NAFTA, created Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and ushered in welfare “reform.”
Barack Obama may not have lived up to the dreams of those naive enough to believe any president could bring in hope and change.
But at least the Democratic Party has never elected someone as antithetical to its core principles as the British Labour Party and Tony Blair, who is a terrible human being.
On his headstone, they should write, “Here lies Tony Blair. No better than Lanny Davis.”
So where did Blair get his leftist credentials? Why is it that (to British audiences) he will always be indelibly associated with the Left-libertarianism of the Swinging ’60s? There is an answer, and it is a fascinating one. Go look it up.
As a Yank who lived in England much of the time from just before Thatcher through the mid-80s, and has been back several times since then, I find your question fascinating. Maybe I was not there at the precise moment of greatest exaltation, but I have always found the phenomenon of Cool Britannia largely FoS, redolent of money and little else. It was pretty obvious to me, because I couldn’t afford it.
So, not sure if I’ve found the answer, but perhaps it’s something along these lines?
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/mar/29/cool-britannia-g20-blair-brown
http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/6.10/netizen.html?pg=3
OK, I think the exact answer is:
Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell.
http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1392199.ece
By the way, nobody ever mentions where the term “Cool Britannia” actually came from. It is the title of a 1967 piss take by Viv Stanshall and the Bonzo Dog Doodah Band. Stanshall had a wonderful sensor for bullshit, and this is a classic. Of course the message was lost on Blair and Co. (Ltd.).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZioiHctAnac
[BLOCKQUOTE]Mr Blair, who is paid millions of pounds a year to give advice to Mr Nazarbayev…[/BLOCKQUOTE]
See ya’ in a few days, gang. I’m on my way to Kazakhstan to sell my collection of twelve Yugos to Nazarbayev for only a million each. He seems to be the type who would jump at the chance.
Means the bribes are funneled through Tony Blair. He in turn pays “consulting fees” and “fees for legal advice” to the real targets.
Jimmy Carter may have been well to the right of the Democratic majority in Congress and tried to create policy from such an untenable position.
What? I thought that the calculus was that while the Democratic Party of that time might have been the majority, they only had that majority at all because of Southern Democrats.
Characterizing Jimmy Carter’s administration as a right-of-center sellout is inapt; the liberal wing was at its weakest and only going to get weaker for the next thirty years after Nixon gave the Democratic Party both barrels with the Southern Strategy shotgun. That liberals could even pretend that they had any power was an accident of Watergate and political inertia.
If not for Chappaquiddick, Teddy Kennedy would have been president instead of Jimmy Carter. History would have been different. Of course, that alternate history may well have included the third Kennedy assassination.
Whoops! I mean instead of Ronald Reagan.
History would have been different.
Different how? Would Kennedy have used his magical Green Lantern powers to overcome the fact that while the Democratic Party was just barely hanging on, conservatives were a majority in Congress then?
I think that Dick Chenney has the lead over Blair in the Penthouse of Hotel Hell.
He’s the proprietor.
Wait. No.
BURY Lanny Davis alive with Tony Blair, and do it tomorrow.
Of course, this cannot be done until they co-write an editorial for the Wall Street Journal justifying our actions.
We’ll bury them in a tomb with a writing desk and a dial-up modem.
Unbelievable.
Really terrible.
Although I would like to see John Terry take a nice pineapple to the melon.
What’s the deal with soccer? Why is there so much thuggish behavior among its fans?
○ Tony Blair, British Petroleum And The Lockerbie Deal
○ Official secrets and UK publication ban
○ I find Blair A Disgusting Political Animal on July 16, 2005
In my post of July 2005 about war rhetoric of PM Blair Decries Extremists’ ‘Evil Ideology’ could be posted today with the same Sunni terror of ISIS. The crisis has worsened. The murder of Tim Foley was Obama’s Fallujah moment of Bush with the murder of four mercenaries.
○ Blair’s Utter Incompetence
○ Bill Clinton: Trust Tony’s Judgment
“In the post-cold war world, America and Britain have been in tough positions before: in 1998, when others wanted to lift sanctions on Iraq and we said no; in 1999 when we went into Kosovo to stop ethnic cleansing. In each case, there were voices of dissent. But the British-American partnership and the progress of the world were preserved. Now in another difficult spot, Prime Minister Blair will have to do what he believes to be right. I trust him to do that and hope that Labor MPs and the British people will too.”
Bill Clinton was the 42nd president of the United States [dd. 18 March 2003]
BTW I am certain Hillary Clinton has an equally poor judgement on crucial matters of American interests and homeland security. All these politicians lack vision and morality, no courage.
○ Tony Blair sacked Ambassador Craig Murray to Uzbekistan, a whistleblower on torture and CIA rendition
Remember how he said, “George Bush is the most intelligent man I ever met”. Right there one knew that he was a mega-liar, nay, a giga-liar.
How some people sleep at night is a mystery.
No conscience. Sociopath. That’s what they turn out at those English “public” schools.
Point of order, Fettes is a Scottish ‘public’ school.
Glennzilla tweeted this out, meaning the Blair story with the Torygraph link. Anyway, guess who RT’d GG’s tweet? Robyn Hitchcock and Johnny Marr! Music lovers ought to know both of them, especially Marr. But yeah, people are waking up to Blair severe lack of morals.
Nice. Terse. Exactly on point.
When someone has to publicly state “I am not Bush’s Poodle” you can bet that they have kibble on their breath.
Clinton ignores questions on Ferguson
/ Westhampton Beach, New York (CNN) – Hillary Clinton, who has yet to comment about the protests over the death of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, ignored questions about the incident on Sunday. After signing more than 700 books at Books & Books in Westhampton Beach, Clinton was asked by two reporters for her reaction to the controversy.
Clinton ignored both questions and left the bookstore. Liberal activists and civil rights leaders have asked Clinton for her response, saying she is the presumed front-runner for her party’s presidential nomination in 2016 and that she has commented on major news stories in the past. /
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/08/24/clinton-ignores-questions-on-ferguson/
But never forget, Sen. Clinton is going to automatically get Obama’s coalition in the primary without having to move to the left because, you know, reasons.
Also: Sen. Clinton was able to get 2/3rds of the Latino vote in the 2008 Democratic Primary against Obama. If she’s running against O’Malley (who has one of the strongest pro-Latino records in her country) then positions like these are going to let her replicate that performance in 2016 because, you know, reasons.
It’s just business USA style.
Step one: hire one of more elite, prominent politico/corporate mover/shakers to guide you on how to talk western and quell any liberal objections to the running of a dictatorship.
Step two: get approved to buy all sorts of cool weapons for domestic use. Purchase bonus, training of military elites at a USian military facility.
Step three: do was USians tell you to including, if so deemed necessary, serving as a proxy for a USian war. Buy more military hardware and stash your cash in London and NYC. Set up covert USian military facilities.
Failure to follow directions and attempt to circumvent the requirements of step three will result in Nursultan Nazarbayev being labeled the new Hitler who must be eliminated. The USians have this model down pat — Noriega, Saddam, Ghaddafi (wasn’t it Blair and Sarkozy that set him up for his final demise?).
New rule: Blair’s name may only be mentioned as part of the phrase “the odious Tony Blair”.