Political Hippo Circle Jerk - America, farg YEAH!

[Munson]

Brilliant article. Then you read the comments and realize just how correct it is.

[Magical_Retard]

One of the commentator actually claimed Obama was also inexperienced.

WTF? So doesn't that by default make him an outsider just like the average Americans getting elected? No wait he is well educated, something to be celebrated, so he can't be an average Joe.

[Diomedes]

lol

meg whitman gaffe reveals very strange video

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/politics/Tweet-Typo-in-a-Whitman-Campaign-Message-105268963.html

[Rome]

lol

meg whitman gaffe reveals very strange video

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/politics/Tweet-Typo-in-a-Whitman-Campaign-Message-105268963.html

wtf?

[phattymatty]

Runyan was in a debate yesterday and was asked to name a recent (10-15 years) supreme court case that he disagreed with...and he said Dred Scott.

[Rome]

haha...

wait, really?

[Diomedes]

Realizing he couldn't name one, he uttered "Great Scott!!"

Everyone heard 'Dred.'

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Runyan was in a debate yesterday and was asked to name a recent (10-15 years) supreme court case that he disagreed with...and he said Dred Scott.

The issue of head injuries in the NFL isn't going away on its own.

[General_Failure]

You must admit, this is not the way to get Congress to look into it.

[ice grillin you]

god i love maher


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9jSAX-pjcY

[SD]

god i love maher


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9jSAX-pjcY

Best show of the season.

[ice grillin you]

hes the only thing i miss about not having hbo anymore

[smeags]

haaaaa, excellent. lost his job to a mexican. maher is the man.

[rjs246]

Liberal venting for the Hippos.

This is what makes writing about policy so frustrating. The answer to Jon's question is pretty obvious. Conservatives have no problem in general with mandating behavior. Nor do they have any problem with mandating affirmative behavior. In the context of healthcare reform, many of them have supported the individual mandate in the past. And the smart ones, at least, understand perfectly well why a mandate is necessary in order to make the broader healthcare reform package work.

Their opposition isn't based on any special principle. It's based on the fact that (a) they don't like healthcare reform and (b) people don't really like being forced to do stuff. This makes the mandate a convenient point of attack. Most non-libertarians don't really care about the mandate, but once Glenn and Sean and Rush have them suitably foaming at the mouth about Barack Obama's relentless attack on all that we hold dear in this country, getting them upset about the mandate is a pretty easy upsell.

But you can't just say this, even though it's plainly true. You have to pretend to take conservative arguments about this seriously. You have to write detailed responses, complete with quotes from law professors and health experts. You have to pretend that this is an actual issue, not just a handy attack point. And so we all spend mountains of time in a sort of pundit fantasyland where we all agree to talk about stuff that we all know nobody truly cares about.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

And so we all spend mountains of time in a sort of pundit fantasyland where we all agree to talk about stuff that we all know nobody truly cares about.