Jane Wins Again – the explanation*
Nov 25th
Over at JOM the women are a covetous group. We choose our men based on brain power. Rarely a day goes by when someone doesn’t call dibs on the guy who said the smartest thing, or made us laugh, or just made us want to have an extended conversation. Before he entered the witness protection program, Mark Steyn was the guy who was most universally coveted. We fought over him a lot, including threatening a mud wrestling match or two, to call him our own.
The competition was tough particularly with that Clarice in the mix. Smart guys flock to her, and she is oh so willing to have them over to one of her fancy dancy gourmet Washington big wig dinners to seal the deal. Being in Massachusetts the whole thing was “no contest” until the 2008 NR Post Election cruise. It was me and Mark Steyn (and 800 of our closest friends). And to prove that the contest was now over, Mark insisted on holding up a sign that said: “JANE WON”. First he implored Maddie to create it, and then he gleefully showed it to the entire world.
That horrid Clarice immediately accused me of photoshopping the picture. Well that is what jealousy does to you, I guess. Since Steyn was nowhere to be found this year tons of brilliant men begged to step into his shoes and carry my new sign: “JANE WINS AGAIN”.
Take that Clarice!
*In my pomposity I spelled “explanation” wrong. Thanks to Ex for pointing it out before I suffered further humiliation!
Night Owl – like none before
Nov 24th
NR cruises always feature a couple of night owl sessions, where the speakers get funny – some have the sole purpose of being funny (Gutfeld) and some combine it with other talents (Breitbart). Regardless, when it is the night owl session you appoint someone to leave dinner early so you get the best seats. So we were all pretty excited about Monday night’s session which featured Andrew Breitbart, James Lileks, David Kahane (AKA Michael Walsh), and Bernie Goldberg.
The first thing I noticed was the scowl on Bernie’s face. He looked like he was taking constipation to a new level. I was glad he didn’t have a gun.
Things started funny enough. Lileks asks a question which I have since forgotten and Beitbart hits a double while David Kahane knocks it out of the park. Now it’s Bernie Goldberg’s turn and he starts to lecture us on Fox’s media bias, pretty much saying that we are all too stupid to realize that Sean Hannity is not a real reporter.
In general, insulting your audience, by so completely misunderestimating them is not funny. But Bernie goes on and on making it clear he has a bug up his ass about Sean Hannity while pushing his book “Bias” which was written sometime in the 1920′s.
Breitbart tells Goldberg that if he has a problem with Hannity he should send a letter to Hannity rather than take it out on us. Most in the audience are jumping to the conclusion that his problem with Hannity is that he is not invited on the show anymore. (And if he is never invited on another NR cruise will he say it is because NR crusiers are biased?)
Finally Jonah Goldberg (no relation) stands up in the audience and brings it home – well at least makes us laugh. Shortly thereafter we head off to our cabins wondering first, what happened, and secondly should we put Bernie on a death watch to make sure he doesn’t jump overboard when he realizes how poorly he went over?
The Elections: What Happened and Why?
Nov 23rd
Panel: Jim Geraghty (moderator), Rich Lowry, Ralph Reed, Pat Toomey, Bob Costa, Chris Chocola (president the club for growth), Cal Thomas.
What do you remember most about 2010?
Rich: The Tea Party movement, spending as a cultural issue, American public opinion is the 8th wonder of the world.
Ralph Reed: Bad political atmosphere for democrats; full throated repudiation of administration and Obama. Obama’s plummeting job approval ratings. Tea party is a social reform movement that started in Facebook. Internet is a reflection of intensity on the ground.
Pat Toomey: Intuitive good judgment of the American people.
Bob Costa: Tea party – how do we keep them in the fold? (ask me)
Chris Chocola: Politicians have a listening problem not a communication problem.
Cal Thomas: Republicans are on vacation. We need to demonstrate principles work. We need a copyright on optimism and success.
Take away lessons of the election?
Rich: Importance of a ground game.
Toomey: Distrust of the establishment; primaries matter.
Costa: Don’t let the republicans meddle.**
Thomas (or maybe Reed): Dems get in trouble when they govern according to their principles; R’s get in trouble when they don’t govern according to their principles.
** Thanks Centralcal
