1. gq:

“Obama Is Stupid”: The Stupid Thing Conservatives Love To Say
Over at Death Race 2012, GQ’s blog about the presidential election campaign, we asked one of our favorite writers, a mischievous man who goes by the name Mobutu Sese Seko, to figure out what’s behind one of the conservative punditry class’s favorite attacks on President Obama: namely, that he’s dumb. Rarely has an argument that is so self-evidently, well, dumb gotten so much traction. What gives? A peek at Mobutu’s dismantling of it is below. Click here to read the full piece.

Newt boasts that these debates will be conducted without  teleprompters—a shallow dig at Obama that feeds the president’s critics  two satisfying lines of assault. For conservatives and liberals  infuriated by Obama’s measured cadences and insistence on rhetorical  balance and compromise, it suggests that his unflappability is all  pretense, unsustainable in the real world that real men inhabit, where  spitting is permitted and there are Islamofascists to wrestle shirtless.  But it also suggests something far more satisfying to the GOP base:  Newt, ever the cherub-faced and gloating prick, is implying that Barack  Obama is stupid.



GOP pundits have trotted out  the “Obama is stupid” charge regularly since 2008, but it’s always felt  like filler—some meaningless lobbyist conjunction added before launching  into another bit of pre-fab mendacity. In the last few months, however,  it’s seemed more like rescue. As the GOP campaign swarmed to flat  taxes, Iran and Israel—like children playing soccer, shambling  slackjawed after the ball—the safe rhetoric of “OBAMA DUMB!” has risen  to a kind of Hulk-smash ejaculation of thoughtlessness. It’s  name-calling of such inane finality that it makes rational debate cease.  It obscures unsustainable policy and off-message waffling. Whenever  Mitt Romney’s think-tank goblins need to change the narrative from  whatever message they can’t agree on, they can switch to the message  that Obama’s a stone dummy. That’s what Romney’s really saying whenever  he trots out his applause-line chestnut that Obama is a good man who is  “in over his head.”

    gq:

    “Obama Is Stupid”:
    The Stupid Thing Conservatives Love To Say

    Over at Death Race 2012, GQ’s blog about the presidential election campaign, we asked one of our favorite writers, a mischievous man who goes by the name Mobutu Sese Seko, to figure out what’s behind one of the conservative punditry class’s favorite attacks on President Obama: namely, that he’s dumb. Rarely has an argument that is so self-evidently, well, dumb gotten so much traction. What gives? A peek at Mobutu’s dismantling of it is below. Click here to read the full piece.

    Newt boasts that these debates will be conducted without teleprompters—a shallow dig at Obama that feeds the president’s critics two satisfying lines of assault. For conservatives and liberals infuriated by Obama’s measured cadences and insistence on rhetorical balance and compromise, it suggests that his unflappability is all pretense, unsustainable in the real world that real men inhabit, where spitting is permitted and there are Islamofascists to wrestle shirtless. But it also suggests something far more satisfying to the GOP base: Newt, ever the cherub-faced and gloating prick, is implying that Barack Obama is stupid.

    GOP pundits have trotted out the “Obama is stupid” charge regularly since 2008, but it’s always felt like filler—some meaningless lobbyist conjunction added before launching into another bit of pre-fab mendacity. In the last few months, however, it’s seemed more like rescue. As the GOP campaign swarmed to flat taxes, Iran and Israel—like children playing soccer, shambling slackjawed after the ball—the safe rhetoric of “OBAMA DUMB!” has risen to a kind of Hulk-smash ejaculation of thoughtlessness. It’s name-calling of such inane finality that it makes rational debate cease. It obscures unsustainable policy and off-message waffling. Whenever Mitt Romney’s think-tank goblins need to change the narrative from whatever message they can’t agree on, they can switch to the message that Obama’s a stone dummy. That’s what Romney’s really saying whenever he trots out his applause-line chestnut that Obama is a good man who is “in over his head.”

     
  2. If CNN were around when Edison invented the light bulb, they’d be writing doomsday articles about the candle industry.
    — Commenter J.d. Free on today’s story about the PC market’s miserable holiday season. (via cnnmoneytech)
     
  3. bananarepublic:

    While this post has been going around for a bit, it’s always nice to have a refresher in good manners, gentlemen (especially if, like us, you plan on cutting loose this weekend)!

    Tom Ford’s five easy lessons on how to be a modern gentleman:

    1. You should put on the best version of…

     
  4. Too Cool

    Too Cool

    (Source: anewsky)

     
  5. Go Owls…

    Go Owls…

    (via pygmypelusapuff)

     
  6.  
  7. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then us not an act but a habit
    — Aristotle
     
  8. Chasing

    Chasing the dream seems to be common words used by many many people, but how many really are “chasing”? Most really see something they want and have dreams, dreams are only a reality not worked towards. What’s the difference between Bill Gates and the bum asking for money? Bill Gates put the work in necessary, he saw his vision through, didn’t let bumps in the road stop him.

     
  9. Just Do It

    We’ve all had that great idea, or thought that we felt if we shared could benefit the people around us. But why do many people keep it to themselves? Fear of rejection, fear of failure, bottom line fear and risk keep everyone from just doing it. The fear shouldn’t be of failure but, the fear of doing nothing. We need to all start ‘doing” and I’m sure the results will be great.

     
  10. The biggest risk we all face is not moving forward with what we’ve learned