Is Roger Cohen a liberal mugged by reality? http://blogs.jta.org/ENTRY_PERMALINK_HERE/is-roger-cohen-a-liberal-mugged-by-reality/ Is New York Times columnist Roger Cohen a liberal mugged by the reality of the Iranian regime’s authoritarianism? asks Guernica blogger Jordan Hirsch. en-us uheilman@jta.org Copyright 2009 2009-08-06T;21:15:01-05:00 Comment by Gena Raivich g.raivich@ucl.ac.uk Roger Cohen isn’t a liberal mugged by reality, he is simply silly. In essence, there are different ideologies, and if you have the wrong one, you are simply blind. This is how people earn money on the stock markets - those that have the right ideas earn the money, those that have the wrong ones lose it. Same thing all over, applies to opinion columnists too. In effect, it is a good thing that some opinion columnists are plain silly - this way we can easier see which ones earn money, so to speak, and which ones don’t. So while I am full of pity for him, I don’t like Roger Cohen to change. A wrong prognosticator is much more valuable than a wimp like Peggy Noonan, who is utterly useless. And as for Obama, it is of course much better, if for all his lighteweightness and puffery he simply fails in 2012, than suffer him bumbling along for another 4 years. Roger Cohen isn’t a liberal mugged by reality, he is simply silly. In essence, there are different ideologies, and if you have the wrong one, you are simply blind. This is how people earn money on the stock markets - those that have the right ideas earn the money, those that have the wrong ones lose it. Same thing all over, applies to opinion columnists too. In effect, it is a good thing that some opinion columnists are plain silly - this way we can easier see which ones earn money, so to speak, and which ones don’t. So while I am full of pity for him, I don’t like Roger Cohen to change. A wrong prognosticator is much more valuable than a wimp like Peggy Noonan, who is utterly useless.

And as for Obama, it is of course much better, if for all his lighteweightness and puffery he simply fails in 2012, than suffer him bumbling along for another 4 years.

]]> 2012-05-24T;14:04:00-05:00 Comment by AVRUM FINE filmamerica@comcast.net During Obama’s run last year, I became somewhat of a pariah when I suggested to my fellow Jewish friends that Obama was an incredible lightweight and all puffery.  What got their goat was my “outrageous” claim that he would be dangerous in office because of his incredible global naivety, and his fascist domestic policies. Well… boogety, boogety! Look what we have! During Obama’s run last year, I became somewhat of a pariah when I suggested to my fellow Jewish friends that Obama was an incredible lightweight and all puffery.  What got their goat was my “outrageous” claim that he would be dangerous in office because of his incredible global naivety, and his fascist domestic policies.
Well… boogety, boogety! Look what we have!

]]> 2012-05-24T;14:04:00-05:00 Comment by Marshall Butow marshb1@verizon.net I suspect that as the Obama administration continues with the rhetorical flourishes which rendered him impervious to mainstream media criticism meets the reality of a world far more complicated than his fundamentalist followers have thus far envisioned a larger and larger percentage of his support both among voters and the media will begin to erode.  One sees signs of this happening in small and larger ways.  A New York magazine article (one which I have not read) is entitled “The selling and selling and selling of Obama” This was a magazine solidly behind the President.  Further many personal friends of mine who were solid supporters are far more skeptical of his abilities to manage based on his performance.  The extremely naive idea that altering the basic behavior of the mullahcracy through engagement, now reveals itself as an idea at best ill conceived.  One hopes that the President himself comes to a change of heart and change of policy before the possibility for real change in Iran is forestalled for another generation.  The momentum suggests that straightforward pressure from the Administration would result in the collapse of a regime which terrorizes its own populace and exports terrorism to the rest of the world. I suspect that as the Obama administration continues with the rhetorical flourishes which rendered him impervious to mainstream media criticism meets the reality of a world far more complicated than his fundamentalist followers have thus far envisioned a larger and larger percentage of his support both among voters and the media will begin to erode.  One sees signs of this happening in small and larger ways.  A New York magazine article (one which I have not read) is entitled “The selling and selling and selling of Obama” This was a magazine solidly behind the President.  Further many personal friends of mine who were solid supporters are far more skeptical of his abilities to manage based on his performance.  The extremely naive idea that altering the basic behavior of the mullahcracy through engagement, now reveals itself as an idea at best ill conceived.  One hopes that the President himself comes to a change of heart and change of policy before the possibility for real change in Iran is forestalled for another generation.  The momentum suggests that straightforward pressure from the Administration would result in the collapse of a regime which terrorizes its own populace and exports terrorism to the rest of the world.

]]> 2012-05-24T;14:04:00-05:00