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Sullivan Slams Clark for his Attack on McCain

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Shortly after posting my piece wondering if the sensible Andrew Sullivan were returning, I checked his blog a little more regularly as had been my wont in recent months. It seemed I had a little premature in heralding the return of the blogger who was once my favorite.

While Andrew still did occasionally offer insightful observations from time to time, he was too often cheerleading Obama or demonizing W, seeming ever careful to avoid offending his new left-wing fan base. Today, he seems to be trying to split the difference.

When checking the referrals on our sitemeter, I found we had a lot of incoming links from Andrew’s blog; he had linked my first Heller piece. While at his blog, I was delighted to see that he had taken on General Wesley Clark for attacking John McCain’s military record, calling the one-time Clinton supporter’s comments “revolting” and “repulsive.”

He’s right. Clark’s attack is that low. It shows how far the left will go to demonize John McCain, seeking to destroy any chances that good man has to win the presidency.

Unfortunately, Andrew call Clark’s attacks “swiftboating” to compare them to the ads the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth aired in the 2004 presidential campaign criticizing then-Democratic nominee John Kerry. Theirs was hardly a hit job as Kerry and his supporters have yet been able to to disprove anything in those ads.

So, while we see some signs of the old Andrew Sullivan returning, the “new Andrew” is careful to couch his criticism in terms that shows his continued commitment to castigating conservatives.

UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds disagrees with charges that John McCain is being “Swift Boated:”

For this to be a “Swift Boating,” people who stayed at the Hanoi Hilton would have to say that McCain was lying about what he did there — or perhaps that his repeated claims that events there were “seared, seared” in his memory are false, and he was never actually there at all — and those people would have to be telling the truth.

Comments

  1. Darn few people jump from conservative to liberal. When they do, like David Brock, they find it necessary to be the most pious convert in the church.

    Sullivan is so narcissistic that his readers are his posse. I would not expect him to jump across the divide and then jump back. Unless, of course, he can sell a few dolts on the idea that he is mole posing as a double agent.

  3. So, while we see some signs of the old Andrew Sullivan returning, the “new Andrew” is careful to couch his criticism in terms that shows his continued commitment to castigating conservatives.

    Maybe that’s the best we can hope for, a glimmer of rationality from time to time. But now that he has been accepted by MSM and gay groups, he won’t jeopardize that.

  4. Of course Obama wants to put an end to Patriotism as an issue, because Obama is the one who’s patriotism is in question! He conveniently condems questioning patiotism, but where was he when his hatchet men came up with General Betray Us??? Also, why isn’t Iraq, or Afganistan on Obama’s upcoming itinery? Obama knows he can’t compete with McCain on the issue of patriotism, so he’s trying to make it a non issue. Obama has no experience, except to listen to God Damn America for 20 years!

  6. Oh, god. I don’t know what’s worse. The conservatives who can only hoot and holler about how crazy that ol’ Andrew Sullivan is and how much he’s changed just so he can be loved by the “left”. Or the crazy winger Pinky Bear, who is either the exception that proves the rule, or the counter example that disproves it.

    Ok, actually, I do. Everyone who is not Pinky is better by a fair margin.

    But seriously, can you get past the point where everyone who disagrees with you is simply brushed off as irrational, or crazy, or just a suck up? It gets tiresome to read it again and again (and again).

    You want irrationality? Look at #7, not The Daily Dish.

  7. can you get past the point where everyone who disagrees with you is simply brushed off as irrational, or crazy, or just a suck up?

    When they stop behaving irrationally, acting crazy and sucking up?

    By the way, you forgot ignorant and just plain stupid. 🙂

    But in all seriousness, no one ever claimed everyone who disagrees with conservatives is any of those things — just a good portion of them. I’m tempted to believe that the remainder — those who support such a demonstrably wrongheaded ideology and failed, truly harmful policies without being irrational, crazy, ignorant or stupid, are either evil or soulless. What do you think?

  9. The conservatives who can only hoot and holler about how crazy that ol’ Andrew Sullivan is and how much he’s changed just so he can be loved by the “left”.

    I am confused. If ol’ Andrew Sullivan did not tack hard left, how come I came to that conclusion all by my lonesome, without any outside help?

    There is a big difference between thinking a person’s actions or ideas are crazy and thinking the person is crazy.

    I think a lot of Obama’s ideas are crazy and harmful for the nation. I can explain why. I do not think Obama is crazy. I can explain why.

    The conservatives who can only hoot and holler about how crazy that ol’ Andrew Sullivan is …..

    Conservatives “hoot and holler” that “ol’ Andrew Sullivan” has gone over to the land of liberal, socialist hog wash and the crazy ideas that abound there. Conservatives know that “ol Andrew Sullivan” is crazy like a fox.