Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Patrick Buchanan is an idiot

Failed ex-presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan is using San Francisco as a symbol of how Barack Obama is out-of-touch with mainstream America. Never mind that Obama has never lived here; he was here when he made his controversial remarks about bitter workers clinging to guns and religion for consolation. Buchanan won't let you forget that it was "behind closed doors to the Chablis-and-brie set of San Francisco, in response to a question as to why he was not doing better in that benighted and barbarous land they call Pennsylvania."

The people of San Francisco are not unacquainted with hardship. Indeed, within recent memory pretty much everyone has gone through hardship. Remember the dot com bubble? If we are to imagine it as a burst gum bubble, we'd see the very most gum over the faces of everyone in San Francisco and its surroundings. Nearly 20% of the population left. Landlords slashed their rental rates. Developers were devastated. Homeless shelters were overwhelmed. I could go on and on.

But never mind that: Oh, my poor idiotic Patrick, Chablis and Brie are FRENCH products. Here in San Francisco we take great pride in our local products. We are the Zinfandel and Cow Girl Creamery set, precious, and don't you forget it.

8 comments:

Silliyak said...

Hillary said it also, SF! OMG!
I'm so sick of the whole bunch...

hughman said...

crazy old pat probably hasn't been there since the 1904 earthquake.

Silliyak said...

Well there IS a nice Brie made in West Marin, Rouge Et Noir, quite good actually.

hughman said...

technically there are only 2 Bries officially liscensed by the French government and both of those are from France. otherwise, it's just a soft white cheese.

like Champagne. "real" Champagne only comes from France, anything else is "sparkling white wine". i will say, however, that my favorite sparkling white wine does comes from Northern California.

so there. ppppffffffttttttt. :)

Silliyak said...

Pardon moi,

West Marin cow phelegm ala Brie

JKG said...

News flash...

Freewheel said...

As I'm sure you know, all references made to San Francisco by Republicans are code for "gay & commie." The fact that Obama expressed disdain for guns & religion in front of an audience of gay commies makes perfect fodder for conservative pundits.

2amsomewhere said...

The phrase "San Francisco Democrat" is often attributed to Jeane Kirkpatrick, who made it the rhetorical centerpiece of her address to the 1984 Republican National Convention. It was in reference to the fact that the Democrats had held their national convention there.

As Freewheel notes, it has survived the political context of the time, and continues to be used as a throwaway line when Republican partisans want to take on the air of faux populism.

Why any of Buchanan's utterances should so distress you so is beyond me. His increasingly vitriolic remarks on matters of race and ethnicity have made him a pariah among those whom he once counted as allies. He is a non-force in this age.

As for me, I'll just say that I find Mr. Burdon's praises of the people and city of San Francisco to ring true to this day.

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2amsomewhere