RIP Jack Kemp

Unusual guy. Being Dole's VP candidate in 1996 must have felt ridiculous.

r.i.p.
http://assets.espn.go.com/photo/2009/0320/pg2_g_jkemp2_600.jpg

go directly to Hell

http://www.loiterink.com/photos/products/182_3424_500x500.jpg

Unusual guy. Being Dole's VP candidate in 1996 must have felt ridiculous.

I remember Kemp being a fairly rock-ribbed conservative, at least on economic issues. Is that early senility/failing memory on my part?

Yeah, he was adored by the right.

maybe he meant it felt ridiculous to be on such a losing ticket when he himself probably would have been a more likely to win candidate for president.

More or less what I meant (but he wouldn't've won either) and mostly in the sense that he had to have been thinking to himself 'this is the biggest waste of time I have ever been involved in.'

Dole picked Kemp as a bone-toss to supply-siders, so I'm sure he felt pretty ridiculous too.

Judging from his role in Dole and McCain's campaigns, deficit hawks must have found him the least threatening of the OG supply-siders, the one to go to when you need to surrender your common sense to try and win a republican nomination. Really hope this guy was all-there and watching the news til the end, keeping an eye on his legacy.

I have no idea how sharp his intellect was in session and behind closed doors, but, like Bill Bradley, Kemp's public appearances made him look like a visiting Rotarian struggling to remember the talking points he memorized ten minutes before "Meet the Press."

Oy. The Palin analogy didn't take long, did it?

Completion [John J. Miller]

In the summer of 1996, when Bob Dole was running for president, conservatives were bracing themselves for the Election Day drubbing that soon came. At the time, I was a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, finishing a year-long job. When Dole made his surprise pick of Kemp as his running mate—as I recall, Kemp was on fewer pundit short lists than Sarah Palin was last summer—he delivered a jolt to a jaded movement. The Heritage interns roamed the halls with bright eyes and smiles, sharing the news as if they were hocking papers on city streets. One of the think tank's wise men, who had seen Kemp up close, cautioned against placing too much faith in the man. It turned out he was right to share this warning. But Kemp had a rare ability to energize idealistic young conservatives of an intellectual bent. In 1996, he was like a long bomb to the end zone—a flash of hope and excitement, usually followed by disappointment, but also often by applause for an attempt well made. Nobody has matched him since.

Ehhhh . . . from what I remember, in terms of smarts, articulateness, ability to think on his/her feet and react quickly, and political savvy: Kemp >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Palin.

Maybe that will change, over time. Maybe Palin will get better, sharper, and more formidable. Stranger things have happened.

Or maybe she'll just complain about how Levi doesn't do a damn thing but get her daughter pregnant.

lol. Yeah, she's kind of dug a huge hole for herself in and after the 2008 election.

But, I dunno. Ned/Alfred, did you ever see Palin debate in the Alaska Governor races? I swear to you, she didn't come off badly at all. She seemed bright, on top of the issues, articulate, and there was none of this "you betcha"-type silliness. That's something she seems to have picked up either to cover her being ill-prepared to be the VP nominee or part of a cultural-connection she's cultivated in order to win her support from the GOP's national base.

ANYWAY, RIP JACK KEMP.

Sorry to derail thread.

Supply Side Economics and the Laffer Curve were the first signs that the right was going batshit. If I remember right, no respectable economist, even the diehard Milton Friedman disciples, ever took those ideas seriously. but some on the right saw them as a stealthy way to cut taxes and thereby cripple federal services and weaken regulatory oversight. Kemp seemed like a genuinely nice man, but his ideas had some nasty consequences.

he was a fuckin' QB who got sacked too many times

reagan's embrace of supply-side economics was the last straw for my dad -- after a lifetime of moderate-republicanism (yes it existed) he switched parties in the early 80s. don't want to diss the recently deceased (too much) but seeing a picture of kemp in his football days reminds me of my dad LOL-ing at the TV during the 1996 campaign. the republican candidates were making an appearance somewhere, they come out on the stage waving and pointing at the crowd and then kemp mimes throwing a pass and my dad just explodes in laughter and contempt. "this guy is a MALLETHEAD." maybe you had to be there, but it was funny.

uh, anyway, RIP.

then there's the gay stuff:

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2009/05/anti-gay-former-rep-jack-kemp-dies-at.html

I never valued Kemp's contributions to public life. What else can one say? I hear he was good to his mother. He had much hair. He was a better QB than many NFL second-stringers.

yall

guess what college this dude went 2

rip

I didn't know about teh gay stuff. Ouch.

fuck him and his supply-side ashes

Wasn't there a Dole quote about Kemp to the effect of "once there was a football player who took too many hits to the head and then he woke up talking about supply-side economics"?