Sunday, August 24, 2008
Pit Bulls
I'm up to the part in Nixonland about "effete and impudent snobs," which is from a speech Vice President Agnew gave in 1969. Nixon and Agnew used to play "Good Cop, Bad Cop" with the press. One of Nixon's enemies--like the Communists, the Democrats, the media, the Kennedys, Groucho Marx, you, me--would piss him off, and he'd send Agnew out to make these blistering speeches. Then Nixon would go in front of the TV cameras and come off as this conciliatory, avuncular guy.
Agnew was Nixon's pit bull.
Dick Cheney picked himself for vice president. He was his own pit bull.
So now Obama's picked Joe Biden to be his pit bull. Biden's actually the candidate I supposedly agree with most on the issues, according to yet another one of those online quizzes I took a few months ago when the candidates numbered in the double digits. I was surprised and disappointed, because I figured there was no way in hell he'd get the nomination: Like Howard Dean, he's a loose cannon with a big mouth, but unlike Howard Dean, he's a hawk and would never rally the base.
The fact that I'm going around writing stuff like "rally the base" means it's time to stop reading political blogs. In a presidential election year with the Democratic Convention starting tomorrow. As if.
BTW, there was a record entitled "Effete and Impudent Snobs" by a band called Cows back in 1990.
Agnew was Nixon's pit bull.
Dick Cheney picked himself for vice president. He was his own pit bull.
So now Obama's picked Joe Biden to be his pit bull. Biden's actually the candidate I supposedly agree with most on the issues, according to yet another one of those online quizzes I took a few months ago when the candidates numbered in the double digits. I was surprised and disappointed, because I figured there was no way in hell he'd get the nomination: Like Howard Dean, he's a loose cannon with a big mouth, but unlike Howard Dean, he's a hawk and would never rally the base.
The fact that I'm going around writing stuff like "rally the base" means it's time to stop reading political blogs. In a presidential election year with the Democratic Convention starting tomorrow. As if.
BTW, there was a record entitled "Effete and Impudent Snobs" by a band called Cows back in 1990.
