The Other McCain

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

Don Surber Makes The Tactical Point, Misses The Strategic

Posted on | March 11, 2012 | 34 Comments

by Smitty

I concur with Don Surber here, particularly where issues such as birtherism are concerned:

One truism from the Internet is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of crazy. Unfortunately, many conservatives are driving themselves crazy over Barack Obama’s past. This did not work in 2008 and it will not in 2012.
In 2008, there was more and better ammo against Barack Obama. If his association with the Weather Underground and Jeremiah Wright could not sell him as a radical how can a video that shows him hugging a college professor prove that he is some sort of Manchurian Candidate for the Black Panthers now that he is in the fourth year of his presidency?
This won’t work. Derrick Bell did not throw bombs, not even verbal ones. He was a college professor with wild ideas. Einstein was a college professor with wild ideas, too. Shouldn’t colleges teem with college professor with wild ideas? The purpose of college is to expose young people to ideas — and the crazy people who have them.

However, there is a growing, non-tinfoil-hat understanding that Western Civilization in general, and the United States in particular, is under attack. The ideas of Derrick Bell and his ilk are not merely ‘wild ideas’: they represent an assault on History and truth itself. Now, I am by no means advocating censorship here. However, a vigorous, public review of everything this sad pack of jackwagons on the Left have been up to for the last half century is long overdue.  Pretending that this is a distraction, and already was covered in 2008 is just giving #OccupyResoluteDesk a booster shot on the immunization he received from the media.

But the bigger point remains: the media deliberately and systematically worked to foist this fool upon us. The media itself has to be judged in the court of public opinion, not just #OccupyResoluteDesk. In passing, we voters, asleep at the switch these decades, have to be reminded that no one holds the media accountable except us.

The alternative to grinding out the history, exposing risible tools like Soledad O’Brien, &c, is to leave the Ruling Class with the impression that all they have to do is be patient and run out the clock to win. Our task is to prove them wrong.

via Insty

Update: Bill Quick links, with a pessimistic note. I see his pessimism, and raise him a “So?”. Anyone can sit around and offer the Full Allahpundit. But, after we have collectively been kicked, in the face, while we are down, by the iron boot of Progressivism, we still have to do something. Or else we are tacitly concurring with the Commies.

Category: Barack Obama, Don Surber

Comments

34 Responses to “Don Surber Makes The Tactical Point, Misses The Strategic”

  1. Jeff C
    March 11th, 2012 @ 10:02 am

    did Surber or you even read Breitbarts book ?  Good lord, the Bell video is not an attack on Obama and his radical past.  It is an attack on the MSM’s credibility …  and its working …  hamstring the MSM and you can get to Obama over his record …  don’t and they’ll be able to defend his record by misdirection …

  2. It’s Too Late For Exposure to Kill The Malignancy | Daily Pundit
    March 11th, 2012 @ 10:26 am

    […] Too Late For Exposure to Kill The Malignancy Posted on March 11, 2012 8:26 am by Bill Quick Don Surber Makes The Tactical Point, Misses The Strategic : The Other McCain The alternative to grinding out the history, exposing risible tools like Soledad O’Brien, […]

  3. rosalie
    March 11th, 2012 @ 10:27 am

    One thing I noticed with the Left, they stick together.  Maybe it’s because they’re indoctrinated and can’t think for themselves.   Our side, not so much.  I can only imagine how strong we’d be if we did.

  4. McGehee
    March 11th, 2012 @ 10:44 am

    One truism from the Internet is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of crazy.

    I’ve actually found that when it comes to sufficiently advanced technology, doing the same thing over and over again in the hope of a different result, is a viable and disturbingly successful tactic.

    Which just goes to show that sufficiently advanced technology not only causes insanity, it encourages and validates it.

  5. The Wondering Jew
    March 11th, 2012 @ 10:55 am

    Totally agree with JeffC and Smitty.  It is very much worth doing this– as long as we don’t expect it will have big effects on Obama in 2012.  It’s all about the long game.

  6. Leslie Eastman
    March 11th, 2012 @ 10:59 am

    Smitty:  I would like to share this with everyone who has ever pondered the birth certificate question:

    Arizona sheriff finds Obama presidential qualifications forged

    http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/07-03-2012/120708-arizona_sheriff_obama-0/

    Granted, it is from Pravda.  If anyone missed Seriff Arpaio’s presser, this is well worth reading.  For skeptics, I offer these two items to consider before you dismiss it entirely:

    * Unlike our press, the Russian press has no desire to protect Obama from the truth of his past.

    * The author seems well credentialed: Dianna Cotter is a Senior at American Military University, a 4.0
    Student, the recipient of the Outstanding Student Essay of 2009, a
    member of Delta Epsilon Tau and Epsilon Pi Phi Academic Fraternities and
    on the Dean’s and President’s Lists for academic achievement. She has
    published at Examiner.com, in American Thinker, Accuracy in Media, and Family Security Matters.

  7. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    March 11th, 2012 @ 11:06 am

    Did you see this comment by Thomas Sowell?Great post by The Virginian (linking to Breitbart)

  8. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    March 11th, 2012 @ 11:09 am

    The problem with the birth story is it  is very unlikely Barack Obama was born elsewhere than Hawaii.  It is undisputed his mother was a U.S. Citizen.  He is president so the only way to remove him from office is impeachment or voting him out.  And the birther argument politically makes Barack Obama more sympathetic, not less.  

    We need to focus on the bad things Barack Obama did as an adult.  

  9. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    March 11th, 2012 @ 11:10 am

    You mean repeating the lie over and over again until it has legs?  That is what the left does all the time.  

  10. ThomasD
    March 11th, 2012 @ 11:14 am

    He was a college professor with wild ideas. Einstein was a college professor with wild ideas, too.

    Shorter Surber:  Ignore that Gramsci fellow behind the curtain…

    Which is not only silly, but also very short sighted.  He’s not the alone though.  There are plenty of other voices ‘on the right’ who are making similar arguments – that we need to stay focused on what matters – the economy, jobs, energy, etc.

    All ignoring that those ‘central issues’ are really only symptomatic of the greater problem – the ongoing assault on personal autonomy and liberty.

  11. Moneyrunner
    March 11th, 2012 @ 11:38 am

    Rush Limbaugh is no Julius Caesar, but I can’t help but be reminded of Shakespeare’s play and the HBO series “Rome.” When Julius Caesar walks into the forum and the conspirators begin stabbing him, the final killing blow is struck by his “friend” Brutus. One thing you can always depend on is that if you are a Conservative, if you create controversy, if you become a target, if you are wounded, people on your side will finish you off with the sort of smug satisfaction that reminds you of the townspeople in “The Scarlet Letter.”

  12. smitty
    March 11th, 2012 @ 11:46 am

    I admit that I have ordered, but not yet received, Breitbart’s book.
    Wombat read it and liked it enough to post on it, though.

  13. smitty
    March 11th, 2012 @ 11:50 am

    The Left sticks together because they are taught to despise individuality and liberty.

  14. smitty
    March 11th, 2012 @ 11:50 am

    Repetition is the key to breakthrough. Repetition is the key to breakthrough. Repetition. . .

  15. smitty
    March 11th, 2012 @ 11:59 am

    Leslie,
      Assert, for the duration of this reply, that all of the birthers are quite correct.
      You are requiring the entire federal government, all three branches, to admit that they have tubed it mightily.
      Lady, they can’t even be honest about the obvious things like turning in a balanced budget. What makes you think our government is capable of viewing any birther argument honestly?
      This is just not a viable line of argument for at least another half century, when all parties directly involved are pushing up daisies, and someone can write whatever is appropriate.
      For the current day, this is a distraction that will be turned into a raaaaacism call by the Left.
    Cheers,
    Chris

  16. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    March 11th, 2012 @ 12:07 pm

    The left sticks together because they assume if captured we would do to them what they would do to us.  

  17. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    March 11th, 2012 @ 12:09 pm

    I thought Einstein was a patent clerk with wild ideas?  Wasn’t most of his great work already done by the time he became a college professor.  

  18. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    March 11th, 2012 @ 12:11 pm

    This is pretty good today too!  http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/2012/03/11/#006450

  19. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    March 11th, 2012 @ 12:20 pm

    http://sistertoldjah.com/archives/2012/03/11/meeting-young-obama/  Sister Toldjah has a very good post here.  Yes this vetting may be late, but it is critical it get done. 

  20. Adjoran
    March 11th, 2012 @ 12:50 pm

    Comparing Bell to Einstein is just stupid. 

    The point, of course, is that the media covered up this stuff during both the Democratic primaries and general election last cycle.

    Anyone who has watched Breitbart’s methods in the past knows that there is more, too – he would never start off with  the most powerful stuff.  The more the media dismisses it, the more they will hang themselves.

    The real coup would be if he managed to cop a copy of the video the LA Times has been hiding of Obama at a dinner for a Palestinian “activist” – they acknowledged they had it but refuse to release it.  The only reason for their refusal has to be Obama saying something against Israel and/or laughing and applauding when someone else does.
     

  21. richard mcenroe
    March 11th, 2012 @ 1:05 pm

     Said Patton at Metz.

  22. richard mcenroe
    March 11th, 2012 @ 1:07 pm

     Even if the certificate is a fake, even if some lapsed imam in Indonesia stands up and says he witnessed the birth, it would make no difference.  John Boehner would never have the stones to bring a bill of impeachment and Harry Reid would never let it come to a vote if it did… and McCain, McConnell, Cornyn and Lugar would applaud him.

  23. DaveO
    March 11th, 2012 @ 1:26 pm

    The target for this campaign is not Obama. Permit the Left to spend their money defending him. Victory is holding the House (with a new Speaker), gaining the Senate, and thoroughly undermining the National-level MSM.

    IMO, the best way of undermining the National-level is to focus on the local. Can’t get page A-1? Then get to the Style section, where ever coupons are printed, and by the crossword puzzle. Emphasize the cognitive disconnect between the National-MSM’s DNC-approved Soros-bought themes of progress and coming prosperity with lack of employment, and spam & ramen meals when one isn’t taking the family to the soup kitchen for supper.

    Hub Pages and other freelance agencies are screaming for articles covering politics to travel to meatloaf.

  24. Adjoran
    March 11th, 2012 @ 3:17 pm

     They didn’t fake the newspaper announcement.    There would have been no point – when Obama was born, no one would believe the son of a Nigerian communist would ever be President.

    The greater questions about his citizenship are the ones unasked for the most part:  did he get into Columbia as a foreign student? (3rd year transfers needed better grades than Obama admits he got at Oxy).  On what passport did he travel to Pakistan?  How did he get into Harvard Law as a grad of Columbia without honors?

    The birth certificate stuff was just a distraction, useful for making conservatives look nutty.

  25. Adjoran
    March 11th, 2012 @ 3:18 pm

     Under what reading of the Constitution would it be impeachable? 

  26. Jack Reno
    March 11th, 2012 @ 4:45 pm

    “Anyone can sit around and offer the Full Allahpundit.”

    Bang. Zoom! Rimshot! Applause! And oh does he deserve it.

  27. SDN
    March 11th, 2012 @ 5:54 pm

    So? Bill’s point, with which I agree, is that you are not going to correct the damage Leftists do to every society they are allowed into by peaceful means. The Left is too fundamentally dishonest to be argued out of its’ errors, and too fundamentally based on enslaving us all to be safely ignored. That leaves only one option, and Bill and I both don’t see the necessary willpower being mustered before the price in blood gets higher. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be working to prepare the battlefield beforehand.

  28. Wombat_socho
    March 11th, 2012 @ 5:58 pm

     My take on what Breitbart was saying in Righteous Indignation was that this is all part of the same culture war – the Left seizes on social issues they can demogogue to their base and also paint as “extreme” to the low-information voters out there. I agree with him that we have to fight the culture war in order to de-legitmize and defang Hollywood and the MSM, and don’t see why we can’t do that while we beat down Obama on his handling of the economy and his imperial pretensions.

  29. Jack Okie
    March 11th, 2012 @ 7:17 pm

     Forget this term.  Would enough states be motivated to keep Obama off the ballot for the 2012 election?

  30. ThomasD
    March 11th, 2012 @ 11:21 pm

     What part of ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ would not encompass lying about one’s citizenship, and therefore one’s qualification for office?

    Regardless, impeachment is an entirely political act – there is nothing black and white about it.

    If there were the votes he could be impeached for failure to walk his dog.

  31. Bob Belvedere
    March 12th, 2012 @ 7:44 am

    That Day By Day is great.

  32. Bob Belvedere
    March 12th, 2012 @ 7:50 am

    A must read.

  33. Derrick Bell: The Man With X-Ray Eyes « The Camp Of The Saints
    March 12th, 2012 @ 10:50 am

    […] influence he had on Barack Hussein Obama is a waste of time [you can read his full reasoning here]. Smitty’s reply to him is dead solid perfect: However, there is a growing, non-tinfoil-hat understanding that Western […]

  34. Joan Of Argghh!
    March 13th, 2012 @ 12:32 pm

    Spend more time swapping thoughts (I’m being kind) on Leftist blogs and less time in our comfy echo-chambers.

    The Right will sit around with brave talk of hunkering down with prep items and guns thinking they’ll finally do something if forced.  Be Breitbart first. There’s still time.