"The fact is, it’s not a question of whether can Mitt Romney win. The statement is, Mitt Romney has to win for the sake of the very idea of America. Mitt Romney has to win for liberty and freedom. We have to put an end to this Barack Obama presidency before it puts an end to our way of life in America," – Reince Priebus, RNC Chair.
A glossary of Dish Awards can be found here.
"I don't know whether Barack Obama was born in the United States of America. I don't know that. But I do know this, that in his heart, he's not an American. He's just not an American," – Congressman Mike Coffman (R-CO) at a recent fundraiser. Coffman immediately apologized when the recording of his words surfaced last night, but his apology repeats the big lie that Obama denies American exceptionalism.
"Americans find Kim [Jong Il] mythology endlessly funny for two reasons: first, it’s outlandish; second, it’s desperate. In the United States, allegiance to elected leaders isn’t obtained with fairytales, historical embellishment, and mandatory celebration. It’s earned with responsiveness to popular sentiment, sound leadership, and policy results. Gimmick-laden personality cults are for self-appointed paranoiacs who can’t deliver the goods. Which is probably what Americans are thinking about since Seth’s discovery yesterday that Barack Obama has inserted his name into White House presidential biographies starting with Calvin Coolidge’s…[it's] a wholly foreign understanding of what it means to be a good elected official," – Abe Greenwald, Commentary.
"This reaffirms my conviction that Mr. Obama is by far the most left-wing person to ever hold the office of the American presidency. He believes in an ever-expanding state, irrespective of debt; he believes in using presidential power through unaccountable “czars” to carry out his wishes; he does not believe in American exceptionalism (the left-wing FDR did); and he supports same-sex marriage, the most radical social experiment in modern history," – Dennis Prager, NRO.
“I look at what happened between President Obama and President Karzai as a 1930s, Chamberlain, Hitler moment. There is not going to be peace in our time,” – Congressman Allen West.
West has already accused many Democrats of being closet communists (with no reprimand from the GOP). The question here is who exactly is Hitler and who is Chamberlain? Or when you're dealing with someone whose grasp on reality is as fragile as West's, does it really matter?
"The conclusion I’ve come to is that [Obama] is doing this purposefully because he believes that the U.S. needs to be punished for being a racist nation. He is out to punish the United States for being racist," – Bryan Fischer, an increasingly marginal figure the Romneyites are scared of.
"In the late 19th century, Bismark [sic] waged his “Kulturkamf,” [sic], a culture war against the Roman Catholic Church, closing down every Catholic school and hospital, convent and monastery in Imperial Germany. Clemenceau, nicknamed “the priest eater,” tried the same thing in France in the first decade of the 20th Century. Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services, and health care. In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama – with his radical, pro abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path," – Bishop Daniel Jenky.
Words fail. It is not encouraging when a reference to nineteenth century Germany cannot get the spelling of Bismarck or Kulturkampf right. But this is the current hierarchy. They weren't selected for their intelligence, which, after all, could be a liability. They were selected for their subservience to their superiors.
And the good, if intellectually challenged, Bishop is comparing a deliberate policy of minority Catholic persecution in Germany in the nineteenth century, when thousands of Catholics were thrown in jail, with a tiny provision in the first universal healthcare law in America (a longstanding Catholic goal) that would include contraception in health insurance paid for by the insurance company. No woman would be forced to use it. And yet 98 percent of Catholic women still consult their consciences and do. The Vatican's own commission on the subject came to the same conclusion as these Catholic women – only to be vetoed by one celibate man, Pope Paul VI. If this is a totalitarian attack on religious freedom, then I am a proud heterosexual.
What it actually is is a dyspeptic eruption from an all-male "celibate" hierarchy about the loss of its power over its employees, Catholic and non-Catholic. And it is a terribly depressing sign that the Catholic hierarchy, like much of the evangelical leadership, is now in danger of becoming a front for one political party.
As I read about Burke and the French Revolution, it is hard not to think about Obamacare
— James Pethokoukis (@JimPethokoukis) April 17, 2012
"In other words, [Obama]’s a racist hatemonger. Just to be clear. So much for hope and change. Hope is what he promised. Hate is what he’s delivering," – Glenn Reynolds.
The post is given extra nutball juice from having been written at 3.18 am.
A momentary but vile visual at the 0:39 mark:
Alex Klein is queasy:
Rick Santorum just released an incredibly weird campaign ad, complete with empty playgrounds, spinning clocks, and ghostly daguerreotypes. But beyond dystopia, there's something else that's deeply off-putting about the video: a rapid jump cut between the faces of President Obama and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In a subsequent post spotlighting Herman Cain's latest piece of performance art, Klein comments: "There must be something in the water, as kooky, creepy, post-modern dystopia is becoming a common theme in a lot of Republican ads."
The Dish 