Is Cory Booker All Right?
Yesterday on Meet The Press, Newark mayor Cory Booker was asked about the Obama campaign's attack on Bain Capital. The Obama surrogate went off script:
"I have to just say, from a very personal level, I'm not about to sit here and indict private equity," Mr. Booker said. "To me, it's just we're getting to a ridiculous point in America, especially that I know I live in a state where pension funds, unions and other people are investing in companies like Bain Capital. If you look at the totality of Bain Capital's record, they've done a lot to support businesses, to grow businesses. And this to me, I'm very uncomfortable with."
"The last point I'll make is this kind of stuff is nauseating to me on both sides," Mr. Booker continued. "It's nauseating to the American public. Enough is enough. Stop attacking private equity. Stop attacking Jeremiah Wright."
The left flipped out and called him a traitor and stuff. And the Obama campaign got Booker in line by this morning, forcing him to record what some have joked resembles a hostage video:
Yikes. I hope they don't have him tied up in a basement or something. Should we send some help?
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Comments:
Dec '10
Re: Is Cory Booker All Right?
If he moved his left arm we would have seen the gun pressed against his ribs. Was the original statement an incident of unintended honesty?
Jan '11
Re: Is Cory Booker All Right?
This is a job for ... [dramatic pause] ... Christie.
Re: Is Cory Booker All Right?
Classic Kinsey gaffe, yes.
Jun '10
Re: Is Cory Booker All Right?
Joe Scarborough, with whom I regularly disagree, said the recantation looks like a hostage video.
The only questions left: who talked to him? Axelrod? Obama? Rezko?
What did they say? We know where you live. Corey, how are the wife and kids. Corey, remember that little federal grant we were working on.
He made the cardinal political mistake. He got caught on TV describing how he really feels. Thus the recantation back into the normal political world.
Edited on May 21, 2012 at 5:42pmRe: Is Cory Booker All Right?
Cory...needs...money.
He can get some from private equity, and he can get some through the Dem machine.
He's dancing in the middle.
Apr '11
Re: Is Cory Booker All Right?
This video should be analyzed to see if Mr. Booker is blinking in Morse Code.
Aug '10
Re: Is Cory Booker All Right?
After this example of independent-mindedness, is it fair for the centre-right media to keep referring to Booker as an "Obama Surrogate"?
Isn't that kind of labelling the same kind of Alinskyite tactic that we usually abhor?
Re: Is Cory Booker All Right?
As I understand it, the Obama campaign had to edit the video to make it look like a recantation -- which, in fact, it was not.
This whole thing is idiocy on the part Obama's supporters. It makes them look like Stalinists.
Dec '10
Re: Is Cory Booker All Right?
Hostage video? More like the forced confession of errors so familiar to those who remember the USSR (or observe present-day China and Cuba).
Aug '10
Re: Is Cory Booker All Right?
Did you notice how many times Booker used the word "Forward" in this video?
It's like one of those Soviet Confession videos.
Jun '10
Re: Is Cory Booker All Right?
Booker is a pretty darn good guy, from what I have seen of him. That said, his first statement on MTP Sunday for which he is being praised as honestly expressing his true belief on Bain Capital did not impress me as much as it seems to have horrified the left. The reason- Booker equated a highly inflammatory ad the Obama campaign actually ran concerning the bankruptcy of a Kansas City steel mill owned by Bain Capital with a concept for an ad about Rev Wright which the Romney campaign never even produced. The Republicans such as Boehner, McCain, and Romney himself all slithered off to find the nearest rock as soon as it became public that they were even contemplating aggressively attacking Obama from this angle.
Edited on May 21, 2012 at 8:03pmAug '10
Re: Is Cory Booker All Right?
Booker is a local politician, he can't afford to disdain the people he knows actually help the economy. "Jobs created" are just abstract numbers to the pols at the national level; to a mayor, jobs are tangible benefits to people he knows personally. Class warfare doesn't work so well when the rich guy you need to villify lives down the street, employs your neighbor, and sponsored your son's Little League team through his company.
Mar '11
Re: Is Cory Booker All Right?
The only surprise here is how long it took him to do an about-face. Less than 24 hours. His masters slapped him back into line, quickly.
It really does remind me of the old "confessions" the North Vietnamese would film in the Hanoi Hilton. Which leads me to believe this video is as much a warning to others that would stray off the party plantation as it is an exercise in PR for the public.
Mar '12
Re: Is Cory Booker All Right?
Makes me wonder what might have been, if a guy like this, a real American who happens to be black, and who has actually run something, were our first black President. Instead, the Democratic Party fell in love with an exotic multi-culti academic with no prior executive experience, whose attitude toward private business is resentment bred of equal parts envy and contempt.
Oct '10
Re: Is Cory Booker All Right?
Instead, the Democratic Party fell in love with an exotic multi-culti academic with no prior executive experience, whose attitude toward private business is resentment bred of equal parts envy and contempt.
It's useful to remember that Dems were dramatically split in 2008 between Clintonistas and Obamniacs. It was the far Left that (correctly) saw Obama as one of their own. Dems are driven by symbols, especially symbols of grievance. Race/ethnicity grievance trumps gender grievance because the latter symbols have a lot of figuratively disqualified Whites among them. A typical Dem just cannot look himself/herself in the mirror if perceived to be on the wrong side of a race or ethnicity issue. The far Left knows this about their erstwhile cohorts and exploits it mercilessly, witness the eclipsing of Hillary Clinton and the sidelining of the Clintonista machine. What the Left is exploiting is the visceral fear of ostracism a typical Dem has, for they are conformists by nature. You can gauge their level of conformity by how much time they spend in self-congratulation for ‘speaking truth to power’ and other acts of penitence prescribed by secular socialist dogma.
Oct '10
Re: Is Cory Booker All Right?
Misthiocracy: After this example of independent-mindedness, is it fair for the centre-right media to keep referring to Booker as an "Obama Surrogate"?
Isn't that kind of labeling the same kind of Alinskyite tactic that we usually abhor?
Is this a trick question?
Why would one "abhor" a tactic (except as a way of propagandizing)? This isn't a normative debate, it's a culture war. The point is to understand the enemy’s tactics and to use this understanding to develop your own tactics which effectively counter his.
If your enemy develops blitzkrieg tactics you must find a way to counter them; expressing your abhorrence won’t gain victory. You have to be better at blitzkrieg or find some way to neutralize his blitzkrieg advantage.
Sure, publicly decry the al Qaeda tactic we label as "terrorism" for being barbaric, cowardly, etc. But although this might be important to your information campaign, it won't bring you victory. You have to be better at terrorism or find some way to neutralize his terroristic advantage.
The point is to neutralize the Dems Alinskyite tactics, not to indulge moral outrage—save for its utility in marshaling the support of others.
Nov '11
Re: Is Cory Booker All Right?
I saw Booker on Charlie Rose awhile back, and he impressed me. Some of my other recent impressions of Charlie Rose interviewees:
Jon Huntsman: snake oil salesman
John Boehner: marble-mouthed go-along-to-get-along
Benjamin Netanyahu: awesome!!!!!
I don't live in Newark, and I have no idea if Booker's actually doing a good job, but any politician that can do something other than repeat talking points is welcome.
It's a shame about the people currently running the Democratic Party.
May '11
Re: Is Cory Booker All Right?
Mollie,
Did you steal that pun from Arrested Development?
Nov '10
Re: Is Cory Booker All Right?
Maybe Christie needs another scene for this hilarious video.
"What's that Mitt? Need me to prove how out of touch they are? How about 'nauseating'? Yep, that's the ticket ... uh ... dang ..."
... "Booker!"