Matt Taibbi

you can still spot the familiar red (it was red back then) cover of Fear and Loathing ’72 poking out of the duffel bags of the reporters... on the journalistic Siberia known as the Campaign Trail.

unconsciously making villainous Nixons, or Quislingian Muskies, or Christlike McGoverns out of each new quadrennial batch of presidential pretenders.

gah why whyy

each new quadrennial batch of presidential pretenders (it was red back then) on the journalistic Siberia known as the Campaign Trail.

nooooooooo

"Quislingian"!

Good stuff:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/this-presidential-race-should-never-have-been-this-close-20120925

Although I think he misses the other obvious point, which is that none of the serious Republican contenders want to run against Obama, who is ridiculously good at winning elections.

All the more reason it shouldn't have been this close, no?

eh, I question whether "shouldn't have been this close" is meaningful in presidential elections, as though it were equivalent to the Miami Heat only beating the Washington Wizards by a point or something.

Taibbi proves his worth when he writes lines like this imo:

Unless someone snags an iPhone video of Obama taking a leak on Ohio State mascot Brutus Buckeye, or stealing pain meds from a Tampa retiree and sharing them with a bunch of Japanese carmakers, the game looks pretty much up

taibbi confusing the american public w/ 300 million matt taibbis

god he is so bad at this stuff

I don't think the serious contender thing is necessarily true schwantz. this is actually prob one of the more 'winnable' elections heyo 8% unemployment and if they didn't want to run it was prob more because they didn't think they'd beat romney

If the clichés are true and the presidential race always comes down to which candidate the American people "wants to have a beer with," how many Americans will choose to sit at the bar with the coiffed Wall Street multimillionaire who fires your sister, unapologetically pays half your tax rate, keeps his money stashed in Cayman Islands partnerships or Swiss accounts in his wife's name, cheerfully encourages finance-industry bailouts while bashing "entitlements" like Medicare, waves a pom-pom while your kids go fight and die in hell-holes like Afghanistan and Iraq and generally speaking has never even visited the country that most of the rest of us call the United States, except to make sure that it's paying its bills to him on time?

wow cool sentence, now what if the cnn cliches *aren't* true, o crap

whoa, what if.

sorry I forgot yr a big fan right

what is your favorite of his long sentences

so many republicans would switch parties if Obama put bankers on trial

i like his short sentences actually. although the long ones can be funny too. what can i say? taibbi got jokes.

taibbi confusing the american public w/ 300 million matt taibbis

― iatee, Tuesday, September 25, 2012 11:44 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

one weird trick for winning the presidential election

Taibbi proves his worth when he writes lines like this imo:

Unless someone snags an iPhone video of Obama taking a leak on Ohio State mascot Brutus Buckeye, or stealing pain meds from a Tampa retiree and sharing them with a bunch of Japanese carmakers, the game looks pretty much up

― look at this quarterstaff (Hurting 2), Tuesday, September 25, 2012 9:37 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hah to each his own but its sort of unfathomable to me how anyone anyone enjoys these smug comedy histrionics, and hes so sloppy too, is honda any sort of boogyman anymore at all, someone needs to update their incisive lefty quips spreadsheet

I'm always surprised to see him get slammed here -- his stuff basically reads like ilx zings.

the ilx house style is way pithier

not that there arent some terrible tabbi style stylist around

wow cool sentence, now what if the cnn cliches *aren't* true, o crap

what is your favorite of his long sentences

oh goodie – a sentence lecture from the author of these sentences. We're waiting, chin on fist.

comparing rolling stone articles to off handed message board posts *chin on fist*

j/k not really chin on fist

just a chin on fist thinkin bout things...

guys let's all admit we're the worst and move on

What part of your bod is your chin on right now [Started by lag∞n in September 2012, last updated 8 minutes ago by Ned Raggett on I Love Everything] 61 new answers POLL closes: September 28 (in 1 day)

http://image.blingee.com/images18/content/output/000/000/000/6f6/675542200_1774310.gif

tbf we're writing in the style of an ilx post on ilx, rolling stone isn't an ilx board, last I checked

The point is that iatee, as usual, is being a rude asshole.

to matt taibbi?

This election isn't close enough, with 0-0 being the most rational outcome.

I thought the basic premise of the Taibbi piece was fine--basically, what's the matter with Kansas? once again--except, unless I missed it (I read quickly), he completely disregards race. The idea that Obama would be getting some monstrous percentage of the vote if he were a better candidate, and if millions of putative Republicans wised up to their own interests, is rather naive. Give it whatever number you want, but there's some significant percentage of Republicans who just aren't going to vote for a black candidate--I never quite get why a writer like Taibbi just glides past that.

fwiw I apologize to matt taibbi and have sent him some cocaine and desperate russian girls as an apology

that was v big of you

This election isn't close enough, with 0-0 being the most rational outcome.

Picturing it:

http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/social_assets/nfl/Week_3/Packers_Seahawks/PackersCoach_FistPump.gif

taibbi's a smug libertarian misanthrope, but he can be pretty funny too. he tends to upset pedantic, self-serious weenie libs who make terrible posts - the iatees of the world

damn

http://farm1.staticflickr.com/132/382294911_1f38e42988_z.jpg

the taibbi piece we're talking about is a blog post btw.

Pictures of people who are not mh imo ^^

sorry guys forgot to tell you I'm matt taibbi

matt haibbi

mh I accidentally sent you ukrainian girls and not russian girls I hope its okay

my preference, really

wait, who's in Alfred's pic, that's not Taibbi, lol

I am sorry guys, I admit, I am some guy's friend who has become an ad hoc stock photo. Not Matt Taibbi. Ukrainian girls still appreciated

i think in some ways he traffics in indignation porn - kinda like when i mistakenly tune into democracy now in the car in the morning and hear the daily litanies of outrage - and i like to be as indignant as the next person (i love long-gone protest folk and get a thrill out of long-gone recitations of atrocities in protest folk songs for some reason. i should probably see someone about that. a punk rock anger thrill. not thrilling in the atrocities. and those kinds of songs DO inspire me. to do what i have no idea. mostly they confirm over and over again what i already know and have known for decades.) but does it effect things positively or creatively? or is it just enough to print crimes/stupidities in print and let them sit there in print and be read by people who love to be proven right about how wrong people can be? maybe anger is enough. as a motivator for people to act or opt out or start something of their own. i wonder sometimes. when you add funny to the equation it even becomes more problematic for me because i DO read taibbi as entertainment. i dunno...

haha, i am totally listening to phil ochs right this second in the store! and it didn't even occur to me while writing that!

taibbi is michael moore doing a hst impression

Greenwald does the same, and writing for The Guardian has crystallized his indigna-porn tendencies. I don't read him daily anymore, especially when I know one of the other liberal bloggers or even Conor Friedersdorf will pick up one of his arguments.