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Another slow news week…yawn. Uh, no. With so much to talk about, we present another super-sized Ricochet Podcast clocking in at just under 90 minutes. We’ve got our pal David French, who wants us to Stop Making Terrible Arguments for Blind Loyalty. That’s followed by two Ricochet members (that’d be Robert McReynolds and Max Ledoux) who wants us to give the President the benefit of the doubt at least some of the time. Seems reasonable, but you won’t want to miss the debate that ensues. Who won? Tell us in the comments. Also, RIP Roger Ailes, the whip smart, innovative, and yes, controversial, creator of Fox News (the Michael Wolff piece Rob refers to about Ailes is here).
Music from this week’s podcast: Happy Family by The Ramones
The all new opening sequence for the Ricochet Podcast was composed and produced by James Lileks.
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Bryan didn’t say he liked Putin or approved of Putin. He just stated a fact: Putin is a strong leader. It seems to me that “strong” is an obvious way to describe someone who has been in charge of Russia for 17 years. “Strong man” is a synonym for tyrant, dictator, etc., after all.
This probably gets to the heart of the matter more than anything. I’m perfectly happy for Trump to “be Trump” when it comes to telling Clinton it’s a good thing he isn’t in charge of the law because “you’d be in jail”, or not apologizing for failing to attach “-American” to the word “Mexican.” I didn’t even get uptight about the “so-called judge” tweet. They’re inappropriate things to say, but he was more or less correct on the merits. The problem with Trump being Trump comes in when he either A) attempts to speak with authority on a subject of which he very obviously has no functional knowledge, or B) makes his entire administration look clownish because he happens to think it helps him.
One is the guy callin’ ’em as he sees ’em; the other is him failing to grasp the job, or get through a mundane controversy without sticking his foot in his mouth, and an indication that he’s still flying by the seat of his pants.
I agree that he probably wasn’t praising Putin so much as bashing Obama. But, given the general tenor of most of his interviews and speeches, it appears he didn’t know how to deal with the question, and simply reverted to bashing Obama because it was his easiest out. Like the “you think we’re so innocent” comment on O’Reilly; one does not get the impression that is his considered opinion. More likely, he heard Putin said nice things about him, figures having foreign leaders say nice things about him is a good thing, and didn’t think about the issue much beyond that. So, answers like “Well, he doesn’t respect Obama, does he?” or “you think we’re so innocent?” sound kind of like a defense for the moment, and besides, someone else will come up with an explanation on his behalf later, so case closed as far as he’s concerned.
That might have been all well and good when he wasn’t the President, but now he is, and I think the Nevers would like to see some indication that he’s learning enough on the job to at least answer a few tough questions without going all over the map. The pro-Trumpers seem willing to shrug and say “well, Trump’s Trump”, which is true, but I think everyone agrees the guy is capable of straightening his tie, getting his feet off the desk, and getting a little more serious.
Now who’s being naive, Kate?
And what most leaders in human history have been.
Though I am sure Jamie knows all about running an organization, and can lecture me on the fine points.
You know I’m COO of a software company right? That you aren’t the only person around here that runs an organization? Are you saying that you run your company like Putin runs Russia?
I do, too.
Oops. I re-read this, and it sounds as though I’m saying I also have difficulty tolerating him. I’m saying it sometimes seems to me, as well, that the reason many on our side are against him is that they can’t tolerate his verbal clumsiness.
Bookmark.