Friday, October 10, 2008

Cue the Seven Horsemen

Noted satirist and National Review columnist Christopher Buckley, son of William F. Buckley, has endorsed Barack Obama. Explaining why he published his endorsement at The Daily Beast rather than NRO, he notes,
Dear Pup once said to me sighfully after a right-winger who fancied himself a WFB protégé had said something transcendently and provocatively cretinous, “You know, I’ve spent my entire life time separating the Right from the kooks.” Well, the dear man did his best. At any rate, I don’t have the kidney at the moment for 12,000 emails saying how good it is he’s no longer alive to see his Judas of a son endorse for the presidency a covert Muslim who pals around with the Weather Underground. So, you’re reading it here first....

But having a first-class temperament and a first-class intellect, President Obama will (I pray, secularly) surely understand that traditional left-politics aren’t going to get us out of this pit we’ve dug for ourselves. If he raises taxes and throws up tariff walls and opens the coffers of the DNC to bribe-money from the special interest groups against whom he has (somewhat disingenuously) railed during the campaign trail, then he will almost certainly reap a whirlwind that will make Katrina look like a balmy summer zephyr.

Obama has in him—I think, despite his sometimes airy-fairy “We are the people we have been waiting for” silly rhetoric—the potential to be a good, perhaps even great leader. He is, it seems clear enough, what the historical moment seems to be calling for.

So, I wish him all the best. We are all in this together. Necessity is the mother of bipartisanship. And so, for the first time in my life, I’ll be pulling the Democratic lever in November. As the saying goes, God save the United States of America.

5 comments:

Will Divide said...

I lovvvve how these "see the light" conservatives insist that Obama conform to their expectations, as if there is no price to pay for being wrong for years.

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The Pop Culture Hymnbook said...

To quote a greater man than me:

"Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!"

Anonymous said...

Will makes a good point. There is a shocking lack of contrition or remorse on the part of the Right for the mess they have made of things, even among those, like Chris Buckley, who have decided to jump ship and vote for Obama. Nevertheless, hey, it's nice to have the author of the rather witty "Thank You for Smoking" on team Obama. Although CB seems a bit of a prick from what I have heard about his, er, complicated "family life."

Neddie said...

Yeah, the reason I was moved to point out Buckley's apostasy wasn't the horse-race angle, but the fact that "even a Buckley" has seen through the plentiful horseshit of the McCain campaign. The lack of contrition for the state of affairs is irritating, I'll grant, but there now appears to be ample time in front of us to rub some very important noses in the shameful intellectual poverty that has pervaded the Buckleyan Weltanschauung for the last twenty-thirty years, which has driven us all nearly mad. That profoundly irritating "I’ve spent my entire life time separating the Right from the kooks" business has got to be slaughtered in its bed. Young Mr. Buckley has, it seems to me, struck the first blow.

Now, a few more blows...