The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Glenn Beck, American At Large

Posted on | December 6, 2011 | 24 Comments

by Smitty

Along with Limbaugh, Beck is going to be remembered as one of the voices that helped turn this country around. His audience draw actually got may parents to buy an interface and subscribe to GBTV, a miracle that could only be topped by Stacy McCain installing TweetDeck.

While busy with all precocious ~17 lbs. of The World’s Youngest Blogger, I missed the bun fight with Newt Gingrich, though I did tune in for the Michele Bachmann piece, where Michele called Newt a ‘frugal Socialist’. Mitt speaks in bumper stickers. Newt speaks in scholarly digressions, and seems drawn to arguments for their own sake, irrespective of any real-world impacts. Has either man internalized the fact that the Tea Party cares about liberty, and neither of those big government, nominally conservative chumps is exciting?

Beck, on the other hand, engages in random acts of patriotism and sensible acts of honor. The advertisement for Thursday’s show embedded below hints at a major announcement. I haven’t the foggiest clue what he’s got cooking, but if it involves a large gathering on the Mall sometime this Spring, then I am totally there. Another idea might be the 1,000 day anniversary for that useless clown of a Senate Majority Leader to have failed to pass a budget, rolling by in about 7 weeks. But even a grizzled event planner like Stacy McCain would have a challenge stringing that together, so that’s unlikely. Tax Day in April?

Update: clownface Newt due to Jaded Haven. Remember, conservatives: the Left swooned over BHO’s wonderful baritone. How well or poorly a candidate emits words, while not nothing, should not be the main reason for fancying their campaign.

Category: Glenn Beck

Comments

24 Responses to “Glenn Beck, American At Large”

  1. newrouter
    December 6th, 2011 @ 7:41 pm

    my allah smitty mr. newt has a phd we must bow to.

  2. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 7:55 pm

    “the Tea Party cares about liberty, and neither of those big government, nominally conservative chumps is exciting?”

    Gallup says you’re wrong.

    Among Republicans in general, Gingrich and Romney are the only two candidates whom a majority deem “acceptable,” with Gingrich way out front at 62% and, more importantly, the only candidate with “negatives” under 35%.

    Among Tea Partiers specifically, Gingrich is the overwhelming favorite with 82% saying he’s “acceptable” as a GOP nominee — 24 points ahead of his closest competition, Romney, at 58%. Bachmann’s the only other candidate “acceptable” to a majority of Tea Partiers, at 52%.

  3. richard mcenroe
    December 6th, 2011 @ 7:56 pm

    Piled Higher and Deeper.  I had a job where I used to do that.  No one bowed to me.

  4. smitty
    December 6th, 2011 @ 8:02 pm

    We’ll see how it develops.

  5. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 8:15 pm

    We already have seen how it develops.

    If the Tea Party was really about liberty, they’d have shaken the Republican dust from their feet over Scozzafava/Thomson.

    Instead, only two months later, the Tea Party fell right into line on the GOP’s command to support liberal RINO Scott Brown instead of the pro-liberty third party candidate for US Senate from Massachusetts.

    The Tea Party made its bed, lay down in it with dogs, and now wonders why it has fleas.

  6. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 8:25 pm

    Scott Brown didn’t campaign as a RINO as he collected Tea Party support. Now that he’s in office, his true colors have shown. The Tea Party will remember this. Well, this Tea Party-er will. My donations will go elsewhere next round. I don’t believe the Tea Party to be infested.

  7. smitty
    December 6th, 2011 @ 8:28 pm

    Bogus call. The Tea Party is slowly realizing just how utterly baked the situation is.
    Your suggestion would be to repeat the Perot 1992 mistake.
    The situation is screwed in a way that is going to take time to fix, unless we take some non-starter revolutionary route.
    The Tea Party demonstrates some degree of savvy here. How about some love for the patience on display?

  8. Anonymous
    December 6th, 2011 @ 8:36 pm

    Smitty,

    I’m not suggesting that the Tea Party abandon the GOP.

    I’m suggesting that the Tea Party either abandon the GOP or make peace with that fact that the GOP is, in fact, the GOP and likely to remain the GOP.

    The polls say they’ve done the latter.

  9. TR
    December 6th, 2011 @ 10:50 pm

    Smitty, I agree with you , mostly.  Glenn Beck gave a speech at CPAC in 2010 (when I met you!) and he was received with “medium aplomb”.  He suffers from his need to be the scrutinizer of all.  Probably because he is self-educated this need to probe and dissect is his talent and shortcoming as those personality quirks tend to go in pairs.

    It was just like chalk across the famous blackboard when he started in on Scott Brown’s unusual public candor and lack of “New England discretion” when Scott was jousting with his daughters.  Not surprisingly Scott revealed later that he has a personal issue with sexual intimacy (bad experiences that gave him an unusual reference point) so his lack of the typical public discretion is understandable.  Moral of the story, thats life!  Beck sensed the weak point in Brown’s personal life and exposed that to millions well before Scott Brown did so himself in his own bio.  But this does not make a Beck a great man, or a conservative.  Just someone who is making millions from his rapid-fire observations that unfortunately are often without thoughtfulness or consideration of the objects of his scrutiny.

    Beck and his 50 Million/yr enterprise is a loaded gun.  Luckily he is a good man at heart and working on our side just like Andrew Breitbart.  Neither one is a political conservative in the Mark Levin category of learned dialetic and legal scholarship, but again all good men and glad to have then on our side.

  10. AngelaTC
    December 6th, 2011 @ 11:35 pm

    The TEA Party  told themselves that Brown was a TEA Party candidate, but those of us that actually pay attention saw that he distanced himself from that out of the gate.  The point there was to try to beat the health care bill down. He promised he would vote no, and he kept his word. 

  11. Joe
    December 6th, 2011 @ 11:36 pm

    Knappster:  Settling for the chick fifteen minutes before closing is generally not love.  Just saying

  12. AngelaTC
    December 6th, 2011 @ 11:41 pm

    “Has either man internalized the fact that the Tea Party cares about liberty, and neither of those big government, nominally conservative chumps is exciting?”
    What I don’t get is what makes you think they care?  As long as they can get us to hold our noses and vote against the damned dirty democrats, they don’t have to care one iota about what we want.

    I said it before, and I’ll say it again:  Newt Gingrich helped orchestrate getting a Democrat to change parties in an attempt to beat Ron Paul out of his Texas seat back in the 80’s.  Don’t you get it? They’d rather have liberals in their own party than  small government conservatives. 

  13. richard mcenroe
    December 6th, 2011 @ 11:41 pm

    But the end result is going to be the same for at least one party involved.

  14. Joe
    December 6th, 2011 @ 11:42 pm

    Bullshit.  RINO Scott Brown was the best move (in fact the only move for that piece).  Taking Ted Kennedy’s seat with a vote against Obama care? And he has a decent chance of getting reelected.  Every seat counts.

    But there are exceptions. 

    The tea party went on principle over Christine O’Donnell.  Getting rid of that douchebag Castle was a good thing.   Unfortunately she was a green weak candidate, but they bucked the party elites and tossed Castle anyway.    

  15. Joe
    December 6th, 2011 @ 11:57 pm

    http://www.northstarwriters.com/2011/12/05/everything-you-think-you-know-about-herman-cain-is-wrong/

    Check this out Smitty and Stacy. 

  16. ThePaganTemple
    December 7th, 2011 @ 12:26 am

    The only thing that surprises me about that is Bachmann’s numbers being so low among Tea-Party folks. But I’m guessing that’s probably based in part on concerns over her electability and parts on hang-ups over what’s between her legs. Sadly, far too many conservatives can’t get past the notion of where the “little woman” belongs.

    As for Romney, remember, the key word is “acceptable”, which is hardly a ringing endorsement.

  17. ThePaganTemple
    December 7th, 2011 @ 12:30 am

    Exactly, that’s what its going to take, patience, and the resolve to either start a third party movement or be content with gradually taking over the Republican Party in incremental stages, including the state and local, precinct levels. And that’s going to take T-I-M-E!!

  18. Anonymous
    December 7th, 2011 @ 12:38 am

    Can’t help ya there — I don’t know what’s up with Bachmann’s low numbers either. I expected her to do pretty well.

    And of course it ain’t over yet.

    Heck, maybe the polls are just complete gas and the results will look nothing like them. 

    Iowa in particular is harder to gauge since caucus-goers have to do more than drop by the polling place and punch a card. Enthusiasm and organization make bigger differences there.

  19. Anonymous
    December 7th, 2011 @ 3:43 am

    The comments there are warm…but also sad…in that…as Smitty mentioned here…we are in a tough spot…

  20. Anonymous
    December 7th, 2011 @ 3:45 am

    Her initial rise was all the result of media coverage. 

    She was getting compared to Sarah Palin initially.  And even though most of that coverage was negative, it was good for her among Conservatives.

    The media elects our Presidents.

  21. K-Bob
    December 7th, 2011 @ 4:06 am

    No, they didn’t “tell themselves” that, at all.  The warnings were out on Brown before the election.  You have to remember that his was the election that proved Obama’s BS was being rejected – right in the middle of a very Blue state.

    The Tea Party just needed any victory to get them ramped up, and Brown’s at least did that.

    The celebration after he won was not about Tea Party values, it was about the fact that momentum had clearly shifted.

  22. Bob Belvedere
    December 7th, 2011 @ 9:24 am

    Dead-on accurate.

  23. Tennwriter
    December 7th, 2011 @ 10:35 am

    You’re right.

    And when I say that Libertarians would rather lose to the RINOs, and then lose in the general election, then win with the Socons, I’m right too.

    Hatred, its whats for breakfast.

    RINOS hate Libertarians and Conservatives.  They have position and organization and money. Unfortunately they have no principles.

    Libertarians hate Socons.  They have purity and knives. Unfortunately, they’re reality challenged, and have very few people.

    Socons hate RINOs.  They have lots and lots of people, energy, and real conservatism.  Unfortunately, they’re also too respectful of authority, and a bit gullible.

    This is why the hate on for Rick Santorum, and the rather lame attacks.  Do you hear me shouting that Gingrich has jowls? No, because I’d be embarrassed to attack a man with such lameness. 

    Now attacking him as Angela just did is perfectly valid, and fits well with RSM’s analysis of the Scozzafava situation.

    ===========

    Knappster was interesting in his analysis of Brown and the Tea Party, but K-Bob and others pointed out where he was wrong.

    We all knew Brown was a RINO, but we were flexible for good reason (because we’re not libertarians and hence have an immunity to reality.) as one poster pointed out about momentum.

    I say that a lof of folk are thinking….ok, GOP, here’s your one last chance to do the Right thing before they take the dog out back of the barn with a shotgun in hand.

  24. nottd
    December 7th, 2011 @ 8:40 pm

    If after all the good work over the last two years our reward is Newt I, and a lot of other right thinking people, will simply not vote.  Those of us old enough to have been an adult during his Speaker days remember the course he followed:  1) Talk big (contract), 2) Fail to follow through (bills were not even proposed for most points), 3) Get bogged down in beltway bullshit (most items from the contract which came out never called for vote) , 4) Lose every public battle with Clinton; and 5) Compromise.       President Newt will be too happy to seek a Grand Compromise – which means selling us out.  He’ll probably have Pelosi sitting next to him on the love seat when he announces it.  KMN.