September 13, 2016

"If one is willing to grant Clinton a bit of comedic license ('basket of deplorables' really is a funny line), her change in tone might actually help her in the long run."

"The two candidates are polar opposites; Trump can't build a wall between his brain and mouth, while Clinton is painfully lawyerly and cautious. This was a rare moment where it appears she said something she actually thought, not something that had been run through the Public Opinion-o-Tron 3000 before being fed into her mainframe."

Writes Christian Schneider in USA Today.


My opinion is: She said something she actually thought because she incorrectly believed it would serve her cause. I don't give credit for that. As for Trump, he's not saying everything he thinks, and if you think he is, congratulations, you are his dupe. 

68 comments:

rhhardin said...

Trump is going the hail fellow well met guy thing on Hillary, which is not so much sincere as inbred. It's more reliable than sincerity, which might change in an instant.

rhhardin said...

Women don't get it because they're into feelings. Men are into obligations.

rhhardin said...

Men build themselves out of obligations.

Black youth picks up the wrong obligations but they still build with them.

Tom said...

I was talking with a liberal friend this week. She's big Hillary supporter but agrees she's a mess as a candidate. But, she truely believes Trump is a racist idiot. I first got her to admit the war on women meme against Mitt Romney was BS. Then, I asked her to accept the premise that Trump is an exceptionally bright human being - smarter than both of us. She said that's possible. Then, I asked her to analyze his behavior off that premise. She then said he's running a brilliant campaign, attracting voters with whom she strongly disagrees. I suggested that for her side, dismissing him as an idiot racist is a mistake. Romney didn't know how to win a fist fight. Trump lives only for fist fight.

By the way, I'm a Johnson supporter. I do not want Trump or Clinton as president. That said, Trump is running an amazing campaign. Clinton might win with a major assist from the MSM. But Trump is not Romney - he's got some fight.

Ann Althouse said...

"Men build themselves out of obligations."

So you feel.

Hagar said...

The Clinton campaign may think that the morally superior college educated versus the Neanderthals is a winning strategy.

fivewheels said...

If it really were a funny line, you wouldn't have to insist at us that it's a funny line.

rhhardin said...

So you feel.

It's a matter of poetic accuracy. There are women's poems and men's poems.

Feelings vs accuracy.

Kevin said...

Are the dupes the despicables, or is this another Vox Venn diagram thing?

khesanh0802 said...

No matter how you dress it a pig is still a pig. Clinton's comment was a pig. If you have seen Trumps ad "The deplorables" ( linked here yesterday) then you know how the statement is going to play. It was a stupid thing to say and her apology was no apology at all. There are wack jobs in both parties, but it does no one any good to shit on them.

rhhardin said...

Did you hear the one about the blind man passing a fish market?

He said, "Hello, girls."

- pickup line in French movie

Ron Snyder said...

I am sure that Clinton meant it to be funny vs the way she thinks of most Americans.

richard mcenroe said...

"Basket of deplorables" sounds like something written for the Dowager to say to the Bright Young Thing in a black and white George Stevens movie. No way that wasn't scripted. Hillary has never said anything that witty in her life.

eric said...

The problem the Democrats have is they didn't expect Trump. Normally, you get guys like Romney and McCain who play by a certain set of rules. The rules of "polite society" maybe. And they are holier than thou about it. The Democrats love this. Because they can then hit below the belt and expect the Republicans not to reciprocate.

They've gotten so used to playing by two sets of rules, they don't know what to do with Trump. Trump is supposed to say, Ok, sure, maybe some of my followers are deplorable. I'm sorry. Please forgive me.

And he is supposed to spend a week or two of the campaign doing an apology tour on the network shows denouncing these deplorables.

Instead, he has taken the curse and thrown it right back in their face.

And they just don't know how to deal with that. I expect they are already moving on to plan the next attack.

And you can always tell which attacks are planned with the MSM. Because theyll all repeat the same lines. Just like they are all saying "power through" today like good toadies.

Rick.T. said...

Yesterday was my wife's birthday so she got several FB cards/notices/whatever featuring the Minions. She posted back that she appreciated the sentiments but she was more of a "Deplorable" than a "Dispicable."

YoungHegelian said...

This was a rare moment where it appears she said something she actually thought, not something that had been run through the Public Opinion-o-Tron 3000 before being fed into her mainframe."

Her mainframe?

Talk about finding shit from the late Neolithic!

How old is this author --- 80? Or, does he just not have a clue about IT at all?

Oh, yeah, there are mainframes out there, in banks & government agencies & whatnot. But, in a campaign? Naaaaaaaah!

rhhardin said...

They're trying to get Trump on David Duke, wresting out headlines. Trump refuses to renounce David Duke, and on down a list of all the Trump supporters they can find.

Accuracy is the reply. It's a free country, David Duke can vote for me if he wants.

rhhardin said...

Men building themselves out of obligations is why a woman should show her man she's satisfied with him.

An affirmation.

n.n said...

The honesty is refreshing. They can have their baby and abort it, cannibalize it, too.

buwaya said...

Hilary Clinton is campaigning against Pepe the frog -

http://www.infowars.com/hillary-declares-war-on-pepe-the-frog/

Hillary Clinton has officially declared war on Pepe the Frog, a popular Internet meme.
The embattled candidate has dedicated an entire page on her campaign site about the cartoon frog she believes is “racist.”
“That cartoon frog is more sinister than you might realize,” declared HillaryClinton.com. “Pepe is a cartoon frog who began his internet life as an innocent meme enjoyed by teenagers and pop stars alike.”
“But in recent months, Pepe’s been almost entirely co-opted by the white supremacists who call themselves the ‘alt-right.’”

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Huh? Watch her say it - she is as robotic as ever.

jacksonjay said...

Sounds like The Donald is channeling his feminist daughter Ivanka today! Spend my money on msternity leave! Pandering! Democrat! Dupes indeed!

Will Ivanka be the de facto Chief of Staff? ValJar?

Dust Bunny Queen said...

It's a matter of poetic accuracy. There are women's poems and men's poems

I think poems are a waste of time, ridiculous and, to me, mostly unfathomable. There might be 5 or 6 poems worth thinking about and considering. Mostly I just don't see the reason for a poem. Get to the point of your thoughts. I hated every moment of English Lit when we had to read poems and analyze them. Emily Dickenson in particular! Maybe if we had some more modern poets....nah....probably would still not get it.

Clinton wasn't making a joke. She was saying what she really thinks. The American people, who aren't voting for HER, are deplorable, irredeemable, racists. She really hates a large swath of the public.

Wince said...

Never mind a license, I wouldn't grant Hillary a comedic learners permit.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

DBQ!

Virgil Hilts said...

Imagine Hillary bringing up the David Duke thing at a debate (if there is one). Trump fires back - you've taken millions and millions and millions of dollars from governments and regimes and from dictators that impose the death penalty on gay people, that throw gay and lesbian people off buildings in front of cheering crowds. When are you going to denounce those people. When are you going to give them their money back?
Look, everyone knows that there are sick and disgusting people that back both parties - there always have been and there always will be. The difference here is I didn't go to these people that execute gays and beg money from them. I really, really don't know why you get a pass for that.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Don't y'all love American ingenuity and the free market at work.

Already there are web sites that are selling the Basket of Deplorables merchandise.

Here you go You can even buy it through Althouse's portal. And another http://www.zazzle.com/basket+of+deplorables+gifts

LOL

Thanks Hillary!

buwaya said...

" I hated every moment of English Lit when we had to read poems and analyze them."

They taught us the "Charge of the Light Brigade" in the fourth grade. Thats how to do it, with little boys anyway. Kipling, Tennyson, Longfellow, that sort of stuff. Poetry is fun if it is the RIGHT sort of poetry, and is intelligible. But I went to much better schools than you usually find here and now.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

As Hillary sputters off all the phobes' in her deplorable speech - it's as if even she wholly understands how tired and lame is all sounds.

(*the racist homophobe card again - OK I'll play it*)

This is more prog-media running to her rescue. It's deplorable.

rhhardin said...

@DBQ try The Blue Booby by James Tate

Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I'm with DBQ. Poetry is excruciating.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Virgil Hilts @ 5:52

Wish Pence would have said that to CNN's face last night. It needs to be said.

Stan Smith said...

DBQ:

Here's a poem you'll like, by the poet laureate of England, no less. (Slightly more accessible than Maya Angelou, no?)

They f**k you up, your Mum and Dad
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were f**ked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who were half the time soppy-stern
And half at each other's throats.

Man hands on misery to man;
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as quickly as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.

--"This be the verse" Philip Larkin

Now THAT'S a poem.

GT said...

Actually, I believe it is scripted and vetted in the usual Clintonian way. "Basket of deplorables" is a lighter way to refer to something a bit darker than the "bitter clingers" that Obama used against Hillary in a very similar setting (remarks at a fundraiser aimed at the elite, or at least the rich who view themselves as elite). I'm sure that "bitter clinger" remark stung Hillary at the time, as she surely viewed herself as elite and the embodiment of all that is enlightened in our society.

Obama was a narcissist who appealed to the narcissism in others, and Hillary is trying to replicate his success. Hence the attempt to characterize Trump support as being part of the Alt Right -- or, in this instance, "deplorable." Nothing feels better than the thrill of being assured that you are a valued part of the favored group, far superior morally, intellectually and in every other way to those racist Alt-Right Neanderthals who support that horrible déclassé Trump.

rhhardin said...

The Griefs of Women

The griefs of women are quiet, rustle
like crinoline or whisper like
the tearing of old silk;

hum like appliances, give off the sharp sweet smell
of burnt out motors; tap like typewriter keys.
The strengths of women are quiet,
but hardy as the weed that finds its cranny
between the concrete block of the sidewalk
and the concrete slab of the wall, and grows there,
and blooms there.

Men are bums.
We're really better than they are.

(David R. Slavitt, doing Adrienne Rich)

Stan Smith said...

Or this one, that I remember poorly, and don't know who the author was:


The giraffe is disappearing from the world
Without a trace.
Who are we to say it runs
Strange as a rocking chair in a dream?
Think of a girl with six fingers on one of her hands.
You must let that strange hand
Touch you.

Bruce Hayden said...

Expect that this too is going to backfire with Crooked Hillary. The problem, for her, is Trump. In two days, over the weekend, they got an ad out and ready to run that beats her over the head with it. Starts with saying that she said this in front of a group of rich donors. Then with the camera panning over an immense crowd, he tells the crowd that she insulted hard working Americans, by them deplorable. I think that it was a much better counter than the original ad.

traditionalguy said...

Did you just call me a Dupelorable?

wildswan said...

The Donald has done his usual thing of forcing his opponent to try and copy his style as they see it. This results in their destruction. Remember Marco Rubio and being short in various ways? (Probably Rubio cannot imagine why he started saying those things.) Suddenly Hillary chooses to characterize a group of American voters who disagree with her as deplorable, irredeemable, and not American - this after trying to campaign against Trump because Trump, according to her, called people ugly names. Now Hillary is copying Trump's supposed tactics - he's inside her head and SHE calls people ugly names. And, as always, the result is more people rally to Trump. It's deplorable but then Hillary is rapidly becoming a basket case anyhow

Joe said...

"She said something she actually thought because she incorrectly believed it would serve her cause."

True, but she also said something she mostly believes. Mostly, in that Hillary thinks it's a 100%, not just because she's an arrogant leftist, but because she's a genuine narcissist.

readering said...

What does it mean to be a Trump dupe? What could it be that he's thinking and not telling that is duping people? (Other than the fact that he's convinced this campaign will be profitable for the Trump brand, win or lose?)

Limited blogger said...

This is comedy? Must be the new comedy, which isn't funny.

wildswan said...

DBQ
Why do you hate Emily Dickinson.

"I'm nobody
Who are You?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there'a pair of us.
Don't tell. They'd banish us, you know
How Dreary to be somebody
How public - like a frog
To tell your name
The livelong day
To an admiring bog."

Doesn't that make the point and make it quickly? Also it's memorable. And what you remember affects whatever else you read - all those words get a slight overtone which helps protect them against mental rot from surrounding jargons. You instantly hear jargon about "othering", for example, as stupid and barbaric even ahead of understanding that its content is spoken from and to "an admiring bog."

Chuck said...

Who is watching Trump right now on FNC? [A little after 8:00 pm ET.]

He's doing the "new, Presidential Trump." Reading carefully from a teleprompter, and saying stuff about how Washington politicians have for too long squabbled about petty things and now he is going to get things done, with everyone working together. (He's not talking about "great deals" tonight because that is Old Trump without the teleprompter.

Are all the Trumpkins happy with that? Making budget deals with Schumer, Reid and Durbin? Working with Nancy Pelosi to get stuff done?

I fear that myself, actually. That Trump would cave on a vast array of Democrat demands, just so that he could, say, build another 900 miles of border wall. (And thereby get to talk about how he's "building the wall."

Now that we've all seen the real Trump -- the birther, vaxxer, truther ignoramus -- this new slicked-down Trump is even more unctuous.

I guess it really is true. The hard part is "sincerity," and once you know how to fake that, you've got it made.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

The same people Hillary now calls deplorable are the ones she was drinking shots with in Ohio in 2008. Remember her telling them her dad used to take her duck hunting?

When the white blue collar crowd vote Dem, they're salt of the earth Tom Joads, the folks Bruce Springsteen sings about. When they vote GOP, they're trailer park trash.

Their betters are deeply disappointed in them.

FullMoon said...

AprilApple said...

Huh? Watch her say it - she is as robotic as ever.

Yep. No humor involved. Anyone who actually watched her little speech knows it was offensive. Of course, her audience laughed, like they were supposed too.

tim in vermont said...

It's great comedy, like all of the "Pollack" jokes in Flashdance.

Trump said she was a bigot. He was right.

MadisonMan said...

There is no humor in Clinton that she can relate to others. Maybe she's great at telling jokes in private, but her public persona is charmless and humorless.

Bad Lieutenant said...

T in v: Trump said she was a bigot. He was right.

And you're voting for her!

Or not to defeat her, which is the only choice that matters.

But I don't mean to press you. I believe many will come around in time. Perhaps you need to preserve comity. It's all right. Just remember, you're all alone in the voting booth.

Bad Lieutenant said...

"We came, we saw, he died" is her idea of a good joke. Just remember that.

rcocean said...

"I think poems are a waste of time, ridiculous and, to me, mostly unfathomable."

Haha. DBQ revels herself to be Professor Gradgrind.

Here's some poetry, manly stuff, pertinent to 2016:

It was not preached to the crowd.
It was not taught by the state.
No man spoke it aloud
When the Saxon began to hate.

It was not suddently bred.
It will not swiftly abate.
Through the chilled years ahead,
When Time shall count from the date
That the Saxon began to hate.

rehajm said...

Nothing about her comment will help her in the long run.

rcocean said...

I completely flummoxed by the "basket of deplorables" comment. I wasn't offended, I didn't think it was funny, I didn't think it was clever.

It just seemed weird. Deplore is such a schoolmarm word. And basket? Who the hello has baskets anymore.

Jupiter said...

I don't get all the surprise. Hillary hasn't got an idea in her head that wasn't put there by some exponent of Stalinism. Her list of "phobias" is simply the standard indictment her ilk have constructed for those of us they find inconvenient. Of course she hates us. Of course she intends us ill. Naturally she deplores every breath any free human being ever breathed. That's why this is the Flight 93 Election. The boot stomping on a human face forever is on her foot, and she likes the feel of it.

On the bright side, Hillary is dying, fast. Fast!

Moneyrunner said...

Hillary Clinton’s recent attack on Trump voters -- calling them “deplorables” and accusing the GOP nominee of building “his campaign largely on prejudice and paranoia and giving a national platform to hateful views and voices” -- isn’t rooted in reality. It’s just another instance of liberals labeling Republicans as racists.

Something they’ve been doing effectively for decades.

By manipulating white guilt and railroading a race-conscious agenda through every area of American society, including the media, pop culture, and the education system, liberals have stigmatized -- and to a large extent, delegitimized -- conservatism and the GOP. (I made this point in a recent article at The Federalist titled “Conservatism’s ‘Racism’ Isn’t What You Think It Is”.)

As result of this racist labeling, conservatives have lost their moral authority, and their voices have been stifled in the public square.


This chilling effect has been exacerbated during the Obama presidency, as people have been afraid to criticize a black president because they don’t want to be called a racist.

That fear is dissipating, however.

After eight years of America becoming less prosperous, less safe, and, yes, less American, people are lashing out -- and, of course, as predicted, they’re being called racists. This backlash certainly looks nasty at times, but to characterize it as motivated by racism (covert or overt) is to play into the hands of the Left.

To help you see how this labeling by the Left has been transforming political discourse and altering the perception of conservatism in the minds of Americans, I’d like to go back to 1968 to give you a snapshot of labeling and to apply it to the bigger picture.


In 1968, a debate occurred at the Republican National Convention between conservative William Buckley and liberal Gore Vidal. The environment surrounding the convention and the debate was fraught with racial strife. Conflicts between police and blacks had Democrats accusing Republicans of racism, fascism, and neo-Nazism. Slanderous, malicious rhetoric was heavy in public dialogue.

Sound familiar? While the degree of conflict changes, the essence of it doesn’t. Neither do the alarmist and exaggerated depictions of racism on the Right. This was evident to Buckley when, just before the debate began, ABC put on the screen images of “police brutality,” creating the impression that there was a “police state” in Chicago run by racist Republicans.

Buckley challenged this assumption:

There was no evidence of such a thing ... It was all imagery.
Any actual violations by police should be dealt with, Buckley said, and they should be held to account. However, he added:

Don’t do what’s happening in Chicago tonight, which is to infer from individual and despicable acts of violence a case for implicit totalitarianism in the American system.
This was the acrimonious environment in which the debate occurred, and Vidal used it to his advantage.

Instead of delivering sound arguments, he resorted to personal attacks and threw a long list of accusations at his opponent, making it, as Buckley later complained, nearly impossible to counter with reasonable rebuttals. The debate then devolved into, as one reviewer wrote, “personal opprobrium” in which “nothing really was decided other than Buckley’s clear debating superiority.”

The debate hit its lowest and most infamous point when Vidal called Buckley a “crypto-Nazi.”

Buckley retorted with visible fury, unleashing a response that stunned everyone but Vidal himself:

Now listen, you queer. Stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in your goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered.

Hagar said...

Just heard an excerpt from President Obama's campaign speech today. I cannot remember any other departing president using this kind of language about the opposng party's candidate to succeed him.

Hagar said...

BTW, and off topic, on Lucianne Sharyl Attkisson has posted a summary of what she found about Hillary!'s servers (there were three, not just one). It is just a list in bulletpoint format with no commentary, but, man, what a list!

Known Unknown said...

Wow. Lucianne.com is straight outta 1998.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

This was evident to Buckley when, just before the debate began, ABC put on the screen images of “police brutality,” creating the impression that there was a “police state” in Chicago run by racist Republicans."

A nice trick, considering that Chicago has not had a Republican mayor since 1931.

MayBee said...

Just heard an excerpt from President Obama's campaign speech today. I cannot remember any other departing president using this kind of language about the opposing party's candidate to succeed him.

It's shocking. It's the kind of stuff liberals and the media imagined Bush 43 would have said, but never did.

Achilles said...

I am proud Hillary finds me deplorable. She and her supporters are enemies of freedom, liberty, and the rule of law.

Deplorable is not a strong enough negative adjective to describe Hillary. She is a soulless human being with literally no redeeming qualities. No decent person can actually vote for her with a clear conscience.

There really is no middle ground this election. Hillary will clearly continue to send the IRS, DOJ, EPA, and other parts of the weaponized bureaucracy after the people she disagrees with just like Obama did. The rule of law dies the day Hillary wins the election.

damikesc said...

They're trying to get Trump on David Duke, wresting out headlines. Trump refuses to renounce David Duke, and on down a list of all the Trump supporters they can find.

He should refuse to discuss his followers because Hillary will never be asked about her followers.

Who do you think Glick supports?
Gosnell?
Who do most ex-cons support?

Hint: Not Trump.

...and can somebody explain how the "alt right" is any different than BLM? Seriously, there isn't a difference outside of whose ox is gored.

damikesc said...

It's shocking. It's the kind of stuff liberals and the media imagined Bush 43 would have said, but never did.

No Republican has EVER spoken ill of their potential replacement. Bush Sr came the closest with Clinton, and even his criticism was muted at worst. It's Democrats who violate "the unwritten rule" that Republicans are demanded to follow where Presidents don't criticize their predecessor. Carter did. Clinton did. Obama will should Trump win.

By manipulating white guilt and railroading a race-conscious agenda through every area of American society, including the media, pop culture, and the education system, liberals have stigmatized -- and to a large extent, delegitimized -- conservatism and the GOP. (I made this point in a recent article at The Federalist titled “Conservatism’s ‘Racism’ Isn’t What You Think It Is”.)

Basically. And the "racist" part of the alt-right is, by and large, they don't have guilt.

And why should they?

No whites today owned slaves. No whites' parents owned slaves.
Similarly, no black alive today was a slave. None of their parents were slaves either.

Yes, Democrats treated blacks rather terribly for decades. Not sure how this is a Republican issue.

The alt-right refuses to play the game. Are some racist? Far less than in the BLM movement, IMO. But their biggest sin is not begging for forgiveness for crimes and sins they did not commit.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Achilles,

Deplorable is not a strong enough negative adjective to describe Hillary.

How about "the naked face of evil on the planet?" Best I can do, I'm afraid.

Owen said...

Damikesc: "...But their biggest sin is not begging for forgiveness for crimes and sins they did not commit."

Bingo. And the more furiously the Left demands capitulation, the greater the resistance, and the wider the recruitment.

damikesc said...

My son is now in middle school. He is learning about slavery. When I told him "Most slaves went to Brazil, not to the colonies", he assumed they were later sent to the colonies.

I advised him that no, they did not. They stayed in Brazil. He was stunned that the colonies actually took very few slaves compared to the rest of the new world. He also never considered why slaves were sold, assuming that the slavers just kidnapped people and didn't buy them.

I've told him to respect his teacher, but don't just accept untrue information at face value. It is nice to be able to teach him the skill of research.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

So Hillary takes the same riff Rush Limbaugh has been doing for years -- "they call us racist, bigot, homophobe, xenophobe, chauvinist, extremist..." -- and tries to pawn it off as something she just thought of. That's why we say satire is dead. Rush is using it ironically. She is using it unironically. One might say sincerely, if the duck-walking dowager had any sense of sincerity about her. Instead she recites it like even she can't believe that list of slurs.

As said above, comedic license? I wouldn't even give her a learner's permit.

bigkat said...

speaking of dupes . I know of a retiring law professor who once was a dupee of a law instructor, one BHO the dupor. the rest is history you can keep your doctor et al.