Joe Klein on GOP Presidential Candidates: “American Embarrassment”

March 31, 2011

0Points

Just in case you missed this piece by Joe Klein, it's awesome. Here's a highlight, but definitely read the whole thing! Sharia law! Break out the burqas! Even Pete Wehner is appalled. I mean, what are these guys smoking? (Nothing so benign as marijuana, I would venture to say.) This is my 10th presidential campaign, Lord help me. I have never before seen such a bunch of vile, desperate-to-please, shameless, embarrassing losers coagulated under a single party's banner. They are the most compelling argument I've seen against American exceptionalism. Even Tim Pawlenty, a decent governor, can't let a day go by without some bilious nonsense escaping his lizard brain...There are those who say, cynically, if this is the dim-witted freak show the Republicans want to present in 2012, so be it. I disagree. One of them could get elected...And so I plead, as an unflinching American patriot--please Mitch Daniels, please Jeb Bush, please run. I may not agree with you on most things, but I respect you. And you seem to respect yourselves enough not to behave like public clowns. Please, in the name of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, run.I'll tell you, when rightwingers like Jeb Bush and Mitch Daniels are looking like sane, reasonable Republicans compared to the John Birch Society/Teahadist rest of the field, that really tells you how crazy the Republican Party has gotten these days. Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, two of my all-time American heroes, must be rolling around in their graves...

Just in case you missed this piece by Joe Klein, it’s awesome. Here’s a highlight, but definitely read the whole thing!

Sharia law! Break out the burqas! Even Pete Wehner is appalled. I mean, what are these guys smoking? (Nothing so benign as marijuana, I would venture to say.)
This is my 10th presidential campaign, Lord help me. I have never before seen such a bunch of vile, desperate-to-please, shameless, embarrassing losers coagulated under a single party’s banner. They are the most compelling argument I’ve seen against American exceptionalism. Even Tim Pawlenty, a decent governor, can’t let a day go by without some bilious nonsense escaping his lizard brain…There are those who say, cynically, if this is the dim-witted freak show the Republicans want to present in 2012, so be it. I disagree. One of them could get elected…And so I plead, as an unflinching American patriot–please Mitch Daniels, please Jeb Bush, please run. I may not agree with you on most things, but I respect you. And you seem to respect yourselves enough not to behave like public clowns.
Please, in the name of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, run.

I’ll tell you, when rightwingers like Jeb Bush and Mitch Daniels are looking like sane, reasonable Republicans compared to the John Birch Society/Teahadist rest of the field, that really tells you how crazy the Republican Party has gotten these days. Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, two of my all-time American heroes, must be rolling around in their graves…