"[I am] against this most monstrous of all meddling on the part of authority: the meddling with the subsistence of its people. . . . [One must] manfully . . . resist the very first idea, speculative or practical, that it is within the competence of government . . . to supply the poor with necessaries. . . . To provide for us in our necessities is not in the power of government. It would be a vain presumption in statesmen to think they can do it." -- Edmund Burke, 'Thoughts and Details on Scarcity', 1795.Jon Meacham strikes me as a knowledgeable man. Surely the author of a well-regarded biography of Andrew Jackson knows his history. Ignorance thus cannot explain how the Newsweek editor could with a straight face describe Barack Obama as "the real Burkean in American politics right now." Yet on today's Morning Joe, Meacham effectively depicted Obama as the bearer of the torch of the man often described as the father of modern conservatism . . .
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Discussing the health care debate, Meacham began with this dubious proposition about the president: "I don't think he's an ideologue." He then went from stretching credulity to shattering it into countless tiny shards. [Note that Meacham's tongue-in-cheek references to a book and an author he couldn't quite remember were to Scarborough and his Last Best Hope.]
JON MEACHAM: I read a book—I can't remember the title—The Last Best Hope!
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Yes! A wonderful book: splendid.
MEACHAM: I can't remember who wrote it. Authors all look alike—it's terrible. But I had a conversation with that author, who agreed I think with the premise that the real Burkean in American politics right now is Barack Obama. Because he's dealing with, when he came in, he dealt with reality as he found it, and may have gone too far at this point, but it's September the ninth.
SCARBOROUGH: You didn't read, you didn't read my book. Because I specifically, if you would have just gotten through the introduction you would have known that I said that Barack Obama has overreached, like George W. Bush overreached, and Americans are hungry for a Burkean conservative.
—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.
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→ Burka-man
Wed, 09/09/2009 - 08:24 ET by Cool ArrowObama is all things to all men. This is putrid.
Van Jones is a Quitter - FS
“Jon Meacham strikes me
Wed, 09/09/2009 - 08:36 ET by Newsbusterbrown“Jon Meacham strikes me as a knowledgeable man.
Maybe, but he strikes me as a liar first and utmost.
There are no easy answers' but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.” - Ronald Reagan (1964 Republican Convention)
Meacham most certainly was
Wed, 09/09/2009 - 09:13 ET by HockeyKidMeacham most certainly was referring to William Burke of the Burke and Hare murders, a supplier of cadavers to the medical college of Edinburgh in the late 1820s. He became so skilled at killing without leaving marks (to satisfy the demand for "clean" cadavers) that the term "to Burke" still means to kill without a trace.
Sounds like ObamaCare to me...
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
Name dropping
Wed, 09/09/2009 - 09:18 ET by KC MulvilleDavid Brooks likes to call Obama a Burkean, which has already prompted a NewsBusters post or two. I don't grasp the value of throwing Burke's name around. It strikes me as so much fake intellectualism, as name-dropping instead of serious discussion. And if you know the tree by its fruit, the idea that Jon Meacham and David Brooks call Obama a Burkean ... well that's hardly an endorsement in my book.
No disrespect to Burke, but read John Locke instead. Locke had much more to do with this country's founding than Burke.
Dead right. Why seek to
Wed, 09/09/2009 - 09:27 ET by HockeyKidDead right. Why seek to understand the issues when a few quotes from Bartlett's will do?
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
Re Name Dropping
Wed, 09/09/2009 - 15:45 ET by slickwillie2001Like Richard Belzer on Hannity a couple of months ago.
JON MEACHAM: I read a
Wed, 09/09/2009 - 09:25 ET by Jack BauerSo... let's just digest this Meacham character.
He read a book, he can't remember the title, he can't remember the name of the author, whom he personally spoke to. But he does remember that the forgettable author agreeed with him.
Wow. That's some memorable book. Of course, anyone who thinks Obama shares anything with Edmund Burke is probably suffering a head/brain injury.
That probably explains Meacham's forgetfulness as well.
"But he does remember that
Wed, 09/09/2009 - 09:29 ET by HockeyKid"But he does remember that the forgettable author agreeed with him."
Thus obviously fulfilling the sole requirement to be a great author in Meacham's book. (pardon the pun)
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
"knowlegeable man"
Wed, 09/09/2009 - 09:28 ET by iveseenitallMeacham is a disingenuous "knowledgeable man" and a pandering political hack. To compare Obama to Edmund Burke is ridiculous and he knows it.
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
Maybe this is it
Wed, 09/09/2009 - 10:21 ET by StarAZWas Burke a self-impressed, wussy, egomaniac? Maybe that's the comparison. I don't get it. By the way, that great pundit Maureen Dowd is at it again...The right is so loony, Obama is so misunderstood, but maybe, just maybe, he could have stood up sooner than tonight. Ship, say good-bye to horizon, Maureen.
I try to catch some morning joe every morning.....
Wed, 09/09/2009 - 11:55 ET by connmanto contrast with the knuckleheads at Fox and Friends.Their (msnbc)daily dose of Barry Butt kissing is mostly amusing to me but, I've about had it up to here with Joe. He's a pantywaist interested in bloviating...NON STOP!
Pssssst <whispers> Emperor Barry isn't wearing any clothes!