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Ben Stein's Diary
A Nice Day Ruined
Friday at the Nixon Library was wonderful — but that was before the President appeared on C-Span from Chicago.
Friday
Up very early, before dawn, to prepare for the trip from Beverly
Hills to Yorba Linda for the Pat Nixon Centenary celebration at the
Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace.
It was a dreary, overcast morning. My wife looked great, though, and that lifted my mood. We had our usual great driver and I slept almost the entire way. You cannot imagine how well I sleep in a moving car. It is my favorite place to sleep.
At the Library, there was a big crowd of wholesome men and women waiting for a serenade by a group of little girl singers from the Patricia Nixon Elementary School in Cerritos, which is what Mrs. Nixon’s home town, Artesia, has become. (Renamed for some reason I don’t know.) The little girls sang “My Wild Irish Rose” and sang it very well indeed.
Then another group of cute little Girl Scouts cut a ribbon and the exhibit was opened. There were many photos of Pat Ryan as a beautiful young girl, doing hard work as an X-Ray technician, a retail clerk at Bullocks-Wilshire (one of the great buildings in Los Angeles, now Southwestern Law School), driving a car. Then lots of love letters from Mr. Nixon to Pat Ryan. They were touchingly imploring and vulnerable.
He was madly in love with her. When they married, they had no wedding photographer because they were so poor.
My wife and I were startled to see that the engagement ring and wedding ring were in a little ring box from the late great Julius Garfinckel, the premier department store in the Washington, D.C. area (where I spent a lot of my youth reading books, waiting for my mother to shop). But it turned out that Mrs. Nixon had kept the rings in that box but they had been bought at Bullocks-Wilshire.
At the lunch, my wife and I mostly talked to David Eisenhower. He was full of stories about World War II. We talked especially about The World at War, which has become my obsessions. David said it was the standard in war documentaries and altered the way historians thought about war. That’s because the documentary talked so much about how the war affected civilians and how important politicians were in war decisions.
David talked about a day in early 1945 when his grandfather was extremely unhappy because American forces had been making slow progress against greatly outnumbered German forces. He was also disgusted by American desertions and self-inflicted wounds and compared them adversely with the Germans’ fanatical determination to fight. Also that day, “Ike” had signed the death warrant for Private Slovik, the only American executed for desertion in World War II (or maybe in Europe). Ike was downcast.
A British general literally grabbed Eisenhower by his lapel and said something like, “Look, General, the Germans are fighting on their home territory. The Americans are four thousand miles from home and half of them have no idea why we’re in the war at all. Considering that, they’re doing miracles.”
David said that Ike perked up and felt much better after that. Private Slovik, not so much.…
The lunch was surprisingly good. Fresh salmon. We were served by a breathtakingly beautiful young woman named Ivonna from the former Yugoslavia. Wow. She was a knockout.
But still David was a brimming pot of stories of World War II (not surprising when you think that his father fought in World War II and his grandfather was Supreme Allied Commander). The bombing of St. Lo, the desertions of Americans in Paris. I feel happy just to know someone who knows as much as David. He gets very animated when he talks about it, too.
David spoke to the luncheon very briefly. Julie spoke briefly. Then I spoke the speech that’s already been published here. Hint to whoever the GOP candidate might be: I got wild applause when I talked about people who worked for a living rather than organized their communities to get more from the taxpayers. That business about working really resonates with middle-class working people for some reason. Also, lots of applause for talking about spending billions on solar power projects that go nowhere.
Tricia Nixon was there, too, and was very cordial. For some reason, she had to go back to New York before the lunch but still she was very pleasant.
Marge Acker was there, who had worked with Rose Woods. So was Dwight Chapin, who had a limp from tripping over his dog. So was Jon Hoornstra, who helped get out the stupendous daily news summaries we all marveled at day after day back in White House days. How they did that is still a mystery. A miracle wrapped in a mystery.
About the Author
Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He writes “Ben Stein’s Diary” for every issue of The American Spectator.
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SGT Baker (native Coloradoan)| 3.19.12 @ 6:29AM
We allowed this to happen, that is what
Trish Trotter| 3.19.12 @ 8:26AM
Hi,
My name is Trish Trotter, and I'm at home alone. I told my mother I was too sick to go to school. But I'm not really sick. I'm just sick of school.
Anyway, my father left the computer on this page, and I thought I would chat a while.
I have the cutest puppy. He's a French bulldog, and his name is Bogey.
I just love puppies. Are any of you out there just mad about warm, fuzzy little puppies?
We can chat right here on this page. If you have a puppy, tell me about it.
I'll be checking this page throughout the day to see who responds.
Looking forward to hearing about your darling, little puppies.
Trish
Trish Trotter| 3.19.12 @ 8:40AM
I thought I ought to tell you that I am what is called a compulsive liar.
I really don't have a puppy because the last time I had one I flew into a rage when my mother would not take me to the skating rink and gave him a kick.
But I adore puppies, and if you have one tell me about the sweet little pooch.
Trish Trotter| 3.19.12 @ 9:51AM
And I think you should know another thing about me. The week before Christmas I was diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome, and I'm sure you know what that is!
I can really let the profanity fly when I get upset, so please, please, please don't get me upset. Somebody say something about your puppy. Anything.
If I don't hear something soon, I'm afraid I might have a Tourette's episode, and that would not be pleasant.
Dixie Pixie| 3.19.12 @ 10:39AM
Miss Trish, please do not kick Ben Stein's puppy.
It would just ruin his Wonderful, Wonderful day.
Trish Trotter| 3.19.12 @ 10:54AM
What kind of puppy does Ben have? Have you seen a photo of the pooch?
Trish Trotter| 3.19.12 @ 10:56AM
If anyone out there has seen Ben Stein's puppy, please describe it for me.
Thanks,
Trish
Trish Trotter| 3.19.12 @ 6:59PM
I'm waiting for some of you to tell me about your puppies!
My patience is running out!
I know at least one of you has a puppy, and if you were not so selfish you would tell me a little about your doggy.
Selfish! That's what you are!
Trish Trotter| 3.19.12 @ 8:25PM
I'm ready to go into a Tourette's meltdown, and it's not gonna be pretty.
I'll give you a few more minutes to respond.
Erma Watson| 3.19.12 @ 8:31PM
Trish, darling,
Why don't you go to GOOGLE IMAGE and type
Ben Stein's puppy
Ben is so famous and so beloved by millions. A photo of Ben with his puppy just might pop up.
It's worth a try.
So sorry you have Tourette's. You poor thing.
I do not have a puppy; if I did I would describe it.
Harvey S.| 3.19.12 @ 8:34PM
I know Ben used to have an old dog that was sick. The dog slept with Ben and his wife.
I never heard Ben speak of any puppy though. But I think the dog died, and Ben may have gotten a puppy to replace him
Occam's Tool| 3.21.12 @ 6:43PM
Trish:
I have a beautiful Black Lab. Her name is 'Bama, from the State where the most patriotic people in the US are from. She has pretty brown eyes. She loves her daddy.
KnownUnknowns| 3.19.12 @ 2:54PM
What kind of an irresponsible father would leave a BEN STEIN article up on the computer where a young, impresionable child could get to it ?!?!?!?
that's it, I'm calling social services !!!
Appleby| 3.19.12 @ 6:55AM
Well, at least you have your chauffeured junkets and there will always be Beverly Hills.
old white guy| 3.19.12 @ 7:10PM
ben seems to say quite a bit even if he does have a driver. he has worked for it. have you?
Occam's Tool| 3.21.12 @ 5:52PM
OK. Here's some data for Ike and his son. American troops, unlike German ones, got no home visits when on the fighting fronts. American troops, unlike German ones, were not directly defending their homeland. American troops, unlike German ones, when put into existing formations as REPLACEMENTS, knew no one, were unfamiliar with their officers, had been deprived of exercise, and were treated like replacement parts, not humans. GERMAN soldiers who were replacements knew their units, had worked with their NCOs before (that's how the German replacement system worked), and were integrated with men from their general area of Germany to enhance unit cohesion. Americans were taught to be silent in battle; Germans were taught to constantly communicate with each other.
Further, Americans had fewer relief periods when in the line than, say, the British, because the 90 division Army plan was too small to allow for adequate rotation. A combat soldier is good for a max of 240 days in battle before he becomes a wreck. If Ike read his OWN Medical Corps' report on this, he would have KNOWN this.
Considering that Ike, before he became Supreme Commander, was active in the Operations Division under Marshall, he should have known all this. These problems were a major mistake, and some of them can be laid at his feet. I won't even mention the lack of adequate winter clothing for his troops, or adequate footwear for same, during the Bulge. Men need bullets, shoes, clothes, and food. We had ammunition shortages for artillery, poorly designed footwear, and winter clothing shortages during the winter weather he's discussing, Not to mention that the 17 pounder gun was available for the Sherman for American use, and the Americans chose to not use this incredible equalizer against German armor. (Another decision that ultimately involved Ike.)
I thought the American soldiers did damn fine when properly trained and lead. They proved that in the battles involving the Vosges. Any shortcomings of the troops lay in the hands of their commanders, not the troops themselves. A good book to evaluate this is Eisenhower's Lieutenants.
Finally, compared to the Germans, our sides' propaganda regarding our reasons to be in the fight were much less effective. Goebbels was a twisted genius. Much like the current fight with Islamofascism, our side is infinitely better, with the Koran being a much better indoctrination tool.
So, in short, Ike, who NEVER heard a shot on the battlefield in anger in his life, had no real clue what his infantrymen faced. His unrealistic appraisal can be seen in his "Crusade in Europe" 's section on footcare.
Ike was a Great Man, and a Great Commander (at the highest Grand Strategy level)---but he was NOT great on tactics and operations, to the detriment of his men. As noted, he had his flaws, and was living on his nerves much of the time. This outburst shows that.
Occam's Tool| 3.21.12 @ 6:50PM
Ike also never led a man in combat to take out a machine gun. Ever. He NEVER proved himself on any field of battle. He resented when Monty would tell him not to smoke, although the reason for that was that Monty had suffered a chest wound in WWI and had nearly died LEADING MEN IN ACTIVE BATTLE. It left him perpetually with diminished lung capacity. For all the discussion about Monty being a prima donna, etc., who was the bigger prima donna here?
Monty's men admired him because he was cautious with their lives and knew what it was like to be a front line soldier because he had been. The fact that Monty was also as good a strategist as Ike irked Eisenhower to the extreme.
Ike had NO RIGHT to be pissed at American troops fighting, dying, and suffering while he was chauffered by a busty British babe and slept between clean sheets each night.
vb| 3.19.12 @ 7:08AM
"school boy socialism"
Great phrase. It captures the superficiality of Obama's default positions, and it explains his flexibility and long bus.
sotto voce| 3.19.12 @ 2:27PM
"school boy socialism".....read this and you'll realize where schoolboy Obama learned his socialist lessons (and note the date of the article, November 2008, uncannily predicting the events of the past 3 years):
http://www.forbes.com/2008/11/.....owyer.html
Robert76| 3.21.12 @ 11:37AM
We conservatives are so much more insightful about economics. Glenn Beck has seen through monetarism and realized it is just another form of Obama socialism, trying to destroy the U.S. economy by just printing money. Milton Friedman must be turning over in his grave.
Jim Sweeney | 3.19.12 @ 7:30AM
A needed a better lawyer. Half a bloody million is 41 weeks at 40 hours per. For a divorce? Ridiculous.
PolishKnight| 3.19.12 @ 9:27AM
Top lawyers charge about 10 times that per hour. Then they pad the bill with "expenses."
When the opposition counsel knows that they are going to make a lot of money off of you, indirectly, for dragging the case out then your lawyer should be smart enough to know how to work that to your advantage unless, of course, YOUR lawyer is also out to pad his bill.
The best lawyers seem to be those that work on retainer or salary. They have no conflict of interest in stretching out the proceedings. Getting joint custody probably cost him a great deal even if it is made up somehow via not having to pay as much so-called "child" support to his ex. It may have been in his interest to largely default. Get the case done ASAP and let the ex have the kid. Then don't spend another dime on the kid. If she wants to use the child as a pawn and the so-called family courts encourage it, walk away.
old white guy| 3.19.12 @ 7:12PM
jim, only if they have a wealthy client. the fee is ridiculous all the same.
Purple Lips| 3.19.12 @ 8:05AM
"David talked about a day in early 1945 when his grandfather was extremely unhappy because American forces had been making slow progress against greatly outnumbered German forces."
Lost in the euphoria of VE and VJ days was the fact that almost 50% of our WWII casulties occured between Dec 1944 and June 1945. The Battle of the Bulge and its aftermath was a miserable affair for the GIs, who had to fight for every barn, village, and forest in knee-deep snow and -10 F temperatures. Okinawa was, after Stalingrad, one of the bloodiest battles in human history. Iwo Jim decimated the USMC.
We shold keep this in mind when reading about our current conflict(s).
PolishKnight| 3.19.12 @ 9:34AM
Back in those days, the state could engage in involuntary servitude (slavery) in procuring GI's and the media then, much like now, could be counted upon to report the Democrat party line (which is why FDR's wheelchair is in a special section of his monument at the DC mall).
Casualties were not only due to the ferocity of conscripted Germans fighting under their commanders but major military blunders from ours which threw away soldiers on beachers at Normandy, assaulting impossible fortresses in Italy, and chasing after empty carriers in the Pacific. Fortunately, the Germans and Japanese made a lot more mistakes than our side.
Ike shouldn't have ordered the execution of Slovik but rather sent him to prison for 20 years.
ebonystone| 3.19.12 @ 10:04AM
And the casualty count would have been much worse if we'd had to invade Japan. In anticipation, the armed forces ordered so many Purple Hearts that they're still drawing on that inventory, even after Korea, Vietnam, both Iraqs, and Afghanistan. Writer Paul Fussell, who in August, 1945, was an infantryman in a unit preparing for the invasion of Kyushu, summed up the feelings of his unit when he wrote: "Thank God for the atomic bomb." The two atomic blasts saved many more lives -- both Japanese and American -- than they took.
PolishKnight| 3.19.12 @ 10:11AM
This is under debate.
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/hamby.htm
The Japanese were considering a conditional surrender provided the emperor continued to reside on his throne and Truman partly rejected this option because that atom bomb gave him the full monty. At the same time, the reluctance of the Japanese military command to surrender after the first bomb was dropped indicates that these peace negotiations may have fallen through.
In any case, the atom bomb guaranteed an end to the war in the Pacific rather than it merely being a possibility beforehand. A bird in the hand...
Bill| 3.19.12 @ 10:27AM
There were more conditions insisted upon by the Japanese than simply keeping Hirohito on the throne; they also wanted the inner circle, the exact people who started and prosecuted the war, to remain in power. There were other conditions than that, too. Some historians claim that the peace feelers, sent through the Soviet ambassador to Japan, were also slanted in such a way as to insure the continuation of the war in order to allow the USSR to declare war on Japan and share in the victory spoils. Although Stalin knew we had the atomic bomb, he didn't know when we were going to use it.
Bill| 3.19.12 @ 10:30AM
The article to which your post links us is a precis of the Gar Alperovitz argument, which is wrong in at least one particular, and probably wrong in several others. The one I know it's wrong in is the allegedly vague "broad terms" of the peace feeler. Those terms are specified in the recent history, Retribution by Max Hastings.
Bill| 3.19.12 @ 10:35AM
Max Hastings' book also comments on other Japaneses proposals for peace terms: "Even the most dovish ... wanted terms that were not remotely negotiable, including the preservation of Japanese hegemony in Korea and Manchuria, freedom from Allied military occupation, and the right for Japan to conduct any war crimes trials of its citizens."
PolishKnight| 3.19.12 @ 10:42AM
These are all valid points and I conceded them when I acknowledged the unlikelihood that they would have worked out. Regarding Stalin sharing in the spoils of war. He did that anyway, didn't he, when he declared war after the first bomb was dropped?
Occam's Tool| 3.21.12 @ 5:56PM
Not really. The Japanese home islands were spared the Red Army occupation (and rape, etc.) that, say, the Germans got. Poland did really well under the Soviet yoke, eh?
Stefan Stackhouse| 3.19.12 @ 2:58PM
I suspect that once the landings on Kyushu had comminced, all bets would have been off and it would have literally been a fight to the death. I also suspect that had we not dropped the bomb, Stalin would have been in no hurry to declare war, and in fact would have been delighted to stall and make excuses while he saw us bleeding white.
So yes, thank God for the bomb.
Bill| 3.20.12 @ 9:32AM
The plan for the invasion of Kyushu including using atomic bombs to clear paths to the interior. The Japanese people, old men, women, and children, were being trained to fight the Allies with bamboo spears, but more effectively, to arm antitank mines, strap them to their bodies, and throw themselves under the treads. The invasion of the home islands would have been a bloodbath of hitherto-unrealized proportions.
One Japanese historian estimates that if the Allies (read the U.S.) had decided not to invade but instead to force surrender via the naval blockade, at least ten million Japanese would likely have starved to death within the first few weeks.
All is ignoring the Allied casualties, just focusing on the suffering the Japanese would have suffered.
There were 3,000,000 Japanese soldiers in Manchuria, unused since the war began. It's true that the Red Army invaded and was engaging them, but out of 3,000,000 soldiers, I'm sure the Japanese could have sent a million or so to defend the home islands against the Allies.
Not atomic bombing them would have resulted in not only greater inhumanity and death, but greater death and inhumanity by several orders of magnitude. Even the Japanese, when you get them in a realistic state of mind, agree that their society went crazy (just as the Germans did) for a while, and was on the road to national suicide.
Occam's Tool| 3.21.12 @ 5:55PM
In addition, an invasion would have resulted in the repeated use of the bomb, as it was in the invasion plans.
old white guy| 3.19.12 @ 7:16PM
too bad the japs could not see the future. the u.s. won the war but have been giving everything won back to the losers all my life.
Occam's Tool| 3.21.12 @ 5:54PM
Not much of a debate. See: Operation Downfall. PK, you underestimate fanaticism and sociopathy. I don't.
solidground| 3.19.12 @ 9:12AM
Ben, you don't seriously think that Obama is not arrogant. Please, tell me you don't. You describe Obama's rant at some length and in some detail, conjuring up images of a man at a podium, reading from a teleprompter using words, facial expressions and gestures that can be interpreted in no other way than as a supreme show of arrogance. What I want to know is, when will all of the grownups among us become completely fed up with the man's childish self-infatuation? I know. I'm dreaming the impossible dream.
buckeyeman| 3.19.12 @ 9:48AM
Ben does indeed think that Obama is not arrogant because Ben is mostly clueless. Not completely clueless, just mostly, or else he could not possibly write this kind of stuff. HEY BEN, since you don't think Obama is arrogant, ask yourself someday just what it would take to convince yourself that he is.
solidground| 3.19.12 @ 9:12AM
Ben, you don't seriously think that Obama is not arrogant. Please, tell me you don't. You describe Obama's rant at some length and in some detail, conjuring up images of a man at a podium, reading from a teleprompter using words, facial expressions and gestures that can be interpreted in no other way than as a supreme show of arrogance. What I want to know is, when will all of the grownups among us become completely fed up with the man's childish self-infatuation? I know. I'm dreaming the impossible dream.
Bill| 3.19.12 @ 9:29AM
Talkin' New York, good one. Pretty much forgotten these days. My first connection was with Hollis Brown, but my mistake.
Bill| 3.19.12 @ 9:31AM
At one point during the Battle of the Bulge, the U.S. Army had 3 count 'em 3, replacements, with 10,000 or more deserters in Paris alone.
hardcard| 3.19.12 @ 9:31AM
Benny, Go back to sleep. You don't know how this happened ?
Oldefarte| 3.19.12 @ 10:43AM
'...What happened to America as we knew it?...' Well IMHO it's been destroyed [partially or maybe totally, who knows] by morons voting for DEMOCRATS throught history and the resulting socialism legislated by same upon all of us. Speaking of Ike, I just saw the outstanding TV documentary on the 24 hours preceding D-Day and Ike [starring Tom Selleck], and would highly recommend it to anyone who has not seen it to date. Also try reading Dick Morris' great book CATASTROPHE that explains Obama and these socialist Democrats to a tee. Yes, Pat Nixon was a beautiful woman and a terrific first lady [and obviously mother to boot]. Nuff said!!!!
cicero| 3.19.12 @ 10:46AM
Half a million for a divorce! What a hoot. As a practicing attorney who has handled many divorces, I can tell you that anyone who pays that much for a divorce is a fool who is easily parted from his money. California, with too many people with too much money seems to think this is normal. It is not. I have handled several divorces where the opposition has been raked over the coals fee wise. This usually happens when the attorney is representing his own bank account rather than his client's interests. This is neither ethical nor professional.
What do you expect from Obama? His only game left is to stand before his base and point arrogantly at his opposition. His record of accomplishment is non-existent. His story doesn't play well any more. Hope and change no longer attracts the masses. Unless the party of stupid shoots itself in the head again, there is no way this president can fool all of the people again.
W| 3.19.12 @ 11:22AM
Do you know why this divorce was so expensive? Because it was worth it.
Occam's Tool| 3.21.12 @ 6:41PM
Cicero: Beverly Hills. Malignant Narcissists. Scum.
"Celebrity" Doctors are also an interesting breed, as well. I'm not talking about Michael DeBakey or Jonas Salk---MDs who became famous for their accomplishments. I'm talking about people like Dr. Oz, etc., or MDs who TREAT celebrities.
Beverly Hills and SoCal in general, are filled with charlatans. It is a "cage where the bars are members of your own species" to quote John Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar. It is filth.
Citizen Jerry| 3.19.12 @ 11:03AM
Ben, your game's slipping if you don't think the President is an arrogant person.
Pat George| 3.19.12 @ 11:47AM
Ben doesn't think BO is a person at all. He's just trying to be nice!
Fredx| 3.19.12 @ 11:05AM
"I don't think he is an arrogant person, but he has that look."
Ben, Ben, Ben. Things were going so well until you said THAT. If it quacks like a duck and all that. Why can't you just seal the deal and agree that all that nose-in-the-air stuff is not merely affectation or coincidence? Obama is the most arrogant, egotistical, self-serving, self-aggrandizing person we've seen in decades. All that, and a shameless disdain for those who will not kiss his ring. C'mon, Ben.
Paul Garrison | 3.19.12 @ 11:08AM
Dear Ben,
The reason the "Peacemaker" was run off was due to his extreme duplicity in regard to the Viet Nam war. In 1968, Nixon had a 'secret plan to end the war', as I recall. This plan was not executed until AFTER the 1972 elections (don't change horses in midstream) and the resultant deaths of tens of thousands of Americans and an additional 3 million Vietnamese and Cambodians. Some "Peacemaker". Peace with Honor, of course, was left to the hapless Gerald Ford.
On the other topic of your diary, you seem to have woken up to Obama's many deficiencies. My question to you is why would anyone send another nickel in taxes to these incompetent profligates? I am about your age, in much better health (to hear you tell it), still working, and paying a hair under 25% to the IRS. That is more than plenty until the federal government improves its fiscal performance by which I mean lower spending and lower taxes to stimulate growth. Yours truly, Paul B. Garrison, Greybull, Wyoming
Pat George| 3.19.12 @ 11:43AM
Ben, sorry about BO ruining your day. Every morning I get up with a great attitude. I am partially paralized from a flu shot but won't let that get me down. Then I turn on TV or go on line and there I have to see BO. The internet is the best because it has no sound so I don't have to listen to his misrepresentations and enuendos that have no merits. At this point my day has been ruined. But I still look for good things in life. I can't let the trash ruin it for me.
Paul| 3.19.12 @ 11:47AM
Yeah, give us a president who tells better lies, about things like torture, wiretapping and WMDs. We can't abide a president who lies about teachers.
Charie| 3.19.12 @ 1:53PM
Obama may not tell better lies but he tells more whoppers per speech than anyone in history and that includes Baron Munchausen. He doesn't even seem to care that anyone knows he's lying. He seems to believe his charisma is so wonderful that it will make no difference.
P.S. We know it's hard for Liberal Democrats to know the difference between mistakes and lies, but if you just put your mind (?) to it, you'll learn how.
Paul| 3.19.12 @ 8:59PM
I know the difference between mistakes and lies, however in some places it's not so clear. For example, your claim that Obama tells more lies per speech than anyone in history could be a lie (assuming you're aware there's nothing to support that) or it could be a mistake. Either way, it's obviously nonsense.
I object to politicians who lie. I object when Obama does it. I object when others do it. I don't need to check what letter follows their name before I decide how to feel about it. However, I also take into consideration what the lie was about. Obama lying about teachers doesn't strike me nearly as grievous as Bush saying "the US does not torture" and "we always get a warrant." The reason for that is the consequences of those lies. Detainees who were found innocent of wrongdoing had their genitals sliced with razor blades. Innocent Americans (in fact, most of us) had our communications monitored.
The inability of republicans to discern right from wrong when the terms are so clear like this is a sign of the sickness taking over this country.
skip| 3.20.12 @ 12:43PM
"The inability of republicans to discern right from wrong when the terms are so clear like this is a sign of the sickness taking over this country."
Either way, what is obviously not nonsense is the 3,836 American innocent, and defenseless, who we hold as a self-evident truth are created equal, and endowed with both life and liberty, life and liberty that is a blessing secured for all our posterity, secured in order to form a more perfect union and establish justice, who are slaughtered this day.
Either way,what is obvious is no registered objection, whether by mistake or lie, this day, the fourteen thousandth three hundred and third consecutive day that three thousand eight hundred thirty six have had a nice day ruined, making it a nice day ruined for fifty four million eight hundred sixty six thousand three hundred eight, until tomorrow, of our own posterity in our more perfect union with our established justice, in America where we hold as self-evident truth that we are all created equal and endowed with life and liberty.
"The inability of republicans to discern right from wrong when the terms are so clear like this is a sign of the sickness taking over this country."
Paul| 3.20.12 @ 11:15PM
Was that meant to be coherent?
skip| 3.21.12 @ 11:44AM
Ironic you know the difference between a mistake and a lie,
and the inability of republicans to discern right from wrong when the terms are so clear it is a sign of the sickness taking over this country,
except when it is pointed out to you that you are mistaken,
and that you are mistakenly unable to discern the inability of liberals to discern right from wrong when the terms are so clear this is a sign of the sickness taking over this country,
which anyone with an ability to discern knows is a sign you a liar,
which anyone with an ability to discern knows is a sign of the sickness that has taken over you.
Paul| 3.21.12 @ 11:21PM
OK, I get that you want to counter my point about republicans not knowing right from wrong. However, you lost me with your prattling about "3,836 American innocent." Do you think you can find a friend or someone who can use language to explain that in plain terms?
skip| 3.22.12 @ 12:26PM
Okay, you don't get that the counterpoint is the clarity provided by the average number of daily 'legal' abortions that have occurred every day since January 22, 1973. Do you think you can find the irony of someone who plainly used language to explain the discernment of mistakes and lies, and right from wrong, and to diagnose national sickness, or do you need that explained too?
Chef Schnauzer| 3.19.12 @ 11:48AM
Ben - you are closer to forever than I am - but I'm into the final 1/3rd of life. I am beginning to care less and less about the tit-for-tat stupidity of politics, government, and, what passes for an average American today. I got my first job when I was 14 - haven't stopped since. I've had a great life not because I have a bulging bank account, or a trophy 3rd wife. I've had a great life because I've worked hard, still sober and try to get closer to God more and more each day. The President and Mrs. Nixon would have understood.
"Dub" Holston| 3.19.12 @ 11:55AM
Mr. Stein asks, ruefully, "Whatever happened to the America we knew? " It went away under George W. Bush, when a supossedly conservative administration let the Wall Street snake -oilers run wild and ceded the moral high ground by embracing torture. And before that, there was your man Richard M. Nixon desperately trying to win by any means necessary. Mr. Obama is attempting to restore a level of fairness and decency to our country that we haven't had since the days of Dwight Eisenhower. Sorry if he spoiled your day. Bush spoiled a decade.
Charie| 3.19.12 @ 2:02PM
Mr. Obama wouldn't know or understand this country if it walked right up and bit him on the butt. How does it achieve the fairness level when someone who has worked hard all their lives to get ahead and achieve their goals must pay out huge sums of money so the government can give it to someone who never worked and doesn't want to work. Check out Nancy Pelosi's daughter's documentary about welfare moochers. Bill Maher almost passed out with nervousness when she went on his show to explain her documentary. I'm betting he wet himself. LOL
I'm sure had he read the penultimate sentence of your post, President Eisenhower would have gone into such a rage you'd have been in the same position as Bill Maher. If there was anything Ike Eisenhower was, it certainly wasn't a Socialist, unlike our present president.
Just saying such a thing tells me you know nothing about history or only read the revisionist versions. I lived through it!
KDW| 3.19.12 @ 10:07PM
How exactly does running up $6 trillion in debt
in 4 years, losing the war in Afghanistan, hollowing
out our military, passing a socialized health care
plan nobody wants, refusing to allow drilling for
our abundant supplies of oil, selling high powered
weapons to Mexican drug cartels, trashing our
friend Israel while supporting the rise of Sharia
in Egypt help bring back a sense of fairness and
decency?
Bush was a failure as President. Obama is far
worse.
Bill| 3.19.12 @ 11:55AM
President Nixon did nothing wrong on the Watergate fiasco.
"Dub" Holston| 3.19.12 @ 12:18PM
Nothing wrong? Of course not. He was just a victim of a partisan lynch mob. Please. Nixon was in many ways a great president, but he mainly had himself (and his personal demons) to thank for his downfall.
KnownUnknowns| 3.19.12 @ 2:56PM
Nixon's henchmen, of which Ben Stein is certainly one of, will forever try to change the ugly legacy of the most failed president in recorded human history.
Bush supporters find themselves doing the same thing. Its gonna be a loooooong 50 more years or so.
Dmac | 3.19.12 @ 4:02PM
Sorry, but the most failed President is Obama, second is Carter. Currently at third I would put Bush, however history will change that as he had a war to deal with. Obama will not get any help in his status because of the war like Bush. Obama is what he is, someone who doesn't have a clue about those who actually get up with the sun each morning to go to work. Obama will go down as a total failure.
GAIL JUERLING | 3.19.12 @ 12:02PM
Does Ben Stein represent the upper class wealthy people? He appeared to glorify Nixon and the WWII. We adults in America are beginning to stand up by the thousands to declare we do not want any more ways. Politicians dragged us into the wars. Obama has had a hard task with what he was handed by the Republicans. There are thousands of hungry people, people who are desparately ill, and those of us who are afraid there will be less money in the future for our children. We still believe in giving to the poor. The republicans along with good ole Ben are having second thoughts about giving anything to the poor.
They are disenfranchising our hope for the future.
And how could someone so clever as Ben Stein makes sarcastic comments about Obama's facial features. In looking at Ben's picture here, there is a drawn up left sided smirk and self satisfied gaze which can only come from someone who continually slips in sentences about how well off and how well known he is. Doesn't smack of humility.
H.G.| 3.19.12 @ 12:22PM
That's an old photo of Ben.
Since that photo was taken age has taken its toll. Ben now looks like a blend of Henry Kissenger, Fatty Arbuckle, and a warthog.
His looks are truly frightful!
Dmac | 3.19.12 @ 4:06PM
"The republicans along with good ole Ben are having second thoughts about giving anything to the poor."
Gail, what the Republicans and even many Democrats are tired of is giving to the lazy and fraudulent in our society. I know of no American that is unwilling to help those that truly need help. It's the American way, to help, it's what we do. But we have reached our limit. The economic downturn has caused us to realize we can no longer help the needy and the lazy and fraudulent. We have to make a choice. We will choose to help the needy and we will find a way to cut the lazy and fraudulent from the welfare rolls. We have no choice.
William Peck| 3.19.12 @ 12:03PM
Mr. Stein,
I love your work, but sometimes wishful thinking gets in the way of reality. While you mostly see the foibles of BHO, you still miss reality. For example, you say "I don't think he is an arrogant person", yet everything he's done is arrogant ! You admit he ACTS arrogant, but you can't choke out he IS arrogant !
Your words: "he has accentuated this habit of cockily throwing his head back in a way that accentuates his unfortunate look of arrogance."
What is it that prevents you from seeing the truth ? scales on your eyes ?
mzk1| 3.19.12 @ 12:08PM
Um, no. Read Al Haig's book; he was the point man with the Viet Namese. We did not "end" the Viet Nam war. We surrendered, because the MSM ginned up Watergate to the point that the far left completely controlled the government. Do you know that Spiro Agnew only "admitted guilt" because the Democrats would have pulled a Coup D'etat by impeaching them both together and ptiing the Speaker in the presidency?
Lyn| 3.19.12 @ 12:08PM
"Then, he has accentuated this habit of cockily throwing his head back in a way that accentuates his unfortunate look of arrogance."
I have a very good friend who is getting his PHD on the subject of narcissism. He has said that when Obama does this it shows that he is a narcissist and a deeply wounded person.
Terrible Ted| 3.19.12 @ 12:51PM
Yes, Lyn, you have touched on something. Another person I know that "thro[ws] his head back" is my ex-brother-in-law. Very arrogant, perhaps a little narcisstic, and deeply wounded, if low self-esteem is any indication. I think the President actually has low self-esteem as strange as it sounds.
Dmac | 3.19.12 @ 4:12PM
Thats because he is a lost soul. He is a man with no country. Unfortunately he thinks he needs to dicipline our country because we kicked his father out of the country. Deeply wounded is just a polite way of saying he has a mental disorder, and you'd be right to say that. There is no doubt he has illusions of grandjure. Could be worse though, Harry Reid actually thinks he is God. What if her were President?
mzk1| 3.19.12 @ 12:09PM
Um, before you all jump on Ben, read the last sentence of the article.
mzk1| 3.19.12 @ 12:13PM
Gail? Do you reporesent the trolls, or just the clueless people? It's people like you who doomed the poor people of Southeast Asia.
Or is all this just to get people to click on your name, which connects to an ad for a B&B. Spam, in other words?
mzk1| 3.19.12 @ 12:14PM
The trolls are loose today.
"Dub" Holston| 3.19.12 @ 12:35PM
All this grousing and huffing about Mr. Obama's alleged arrogance is funny. It obviously offends many of the Spectator's readers that this obviously bright, educated, well-rounded man displays a confidence and enthusiasm you consider arrogant. Why is it, then, that you were not offended by his immediate predecessor who was either a) not nearly as intelligent, or b) was very smart but disguised himself as a semi-articulate good ol' boy? And as long as I'm posing questions, here's another: Which of these two presidents would your revered Mr. Buckley have found more interesting company? And was Mr. Buckley, so urbane, so elegant, a narcissist, too?
PolishKnight| 3.19.12 @ 1:47PM
GW wasn't so dumb. He won twice. The proof is in the pudding!
Dmac | 3.19.12 @ 4:14PM
There is a difference between naive and dumb. GW was closer to naive. GW also has a good heart and truly does have compassion for his fellow man.
Obama has a passion and its himself.
solidground| 3.19.12 @ 4:18PM
Hmmmm. Bright? Educated? Well-rounded? You choose to see what you believe. Obama appears bright because he has spent a great deal of time mastering the teleprompter, reading words that others have written. Obama claims to be well educated, but we have only his words for it. No grades, no thesis, no nothing. Graduating from the Harvard Law School as a black man in the1990s does necessarily imply either a great deal of intelligence and intellect or a high degree of education. Witness Derrick Bell as a professor at said school during Obama's tenure. And as far as well rounded goes, yes--Obama does seem to be quite well versed in golf, community organizing and attending functions where hip-hop thugs spout profanities. What a charmer our president truly is.
"Dub" Holston| 3.19.12 @ 12:35PM
All this grousing and huffing about Mr. Obama's alleged arrogance is funny. It obviously offends many of the Spectator's readers that this obviously bright, educated, well-rounded man displays a confidence and enthusiasm you consider arrogant. Why is it, then, that you were not offended by his immediate predecessor who was either a) not nearly as intelligent, or b) was very smart but disguised himself as a semi-articulate good ol' boy? And as long as I'm posing questions, here's another: Which of these two presidents would your revered Mr. Buckley have found more interesting company? And was Mr. Buckley, so urbane, so elegant, a narcissist, too?
Charie| 3.19.12 @ 2:10PM
trying hard not to feed the trolls.
Paul| 3.19.12 @ 11:20PM
Have you tried sticking your fingers in your ears and saying "lalala??" That always worked when I was a kid facing similar circumstances.
skip| 3.20.12 @ 4:59PM
"The inability of republicans to discern right from wrong when the terms are so clear like this is a sign of the sickness taking over this country."
Based on the transparency of college transcripts that have been provided:
The grade point average of George W. Bush is higher than the grade point average of Al Gore.
The grade point average of George W. Bush is higher than the grade point average of John Kerry.
The grade point average has not been transparently provided of Barry Obama, the "obviously bright, educated, well-rounded" campaigner who promised the most transparent government ever, and also that he'd like higher gas prices, whose first act as president was the promise Gitmo would be closed in one year, and who spent his first month as president enacting the stimulus that he promised would prevent unemployment from reaching as high as 8%, and that he promised would provide millions of shovel ready jobs, so it is not transparently obvious to determine whether the grade point average of George W. Bush is also higher than the grade point average of Barry Obama.
Paul| 3.20.12 @ 11:16PM
Are you trying to make sense?
skip| 3.21.12 @ 11:51AM
I discern the inability of a mistaken liar with the inability to discern right from wrong that is so clearly a sign of the sickness that has overtaken the mistaken liar that the so clearly wrong mistaken liar's fingers are in the so clearly wrong mistaken liar's ears as the so clearly wrong mistaken liar discerns a clear musical syllable and nothing else.
Occam's Tool| 3.21.12 @ 6:32PM
Yes, I think he is. Bush's undergraduate degree is from Yale, and his graduate degree is from Harvard (MBA). Romney, incidently, has TWO Harvard degrees---an MBA like Bush (a more successful businessman) and a JD as well like Obama (a more successful attorney/businessman than Obama, and an INFINITELY more charitable one).
Paul| 3.21.12 @ 11:24PM
If your point is that the number of degrees one has doesn't necessarily directly translate into intelligence, then I'm with you. Regardless what you think of their politics, obviously Obama is smarter than Bush simply in terms of raw intelligence. It doesn't make Obama a genius.
skip| 3.22.12 @ 12:36PM
Bush, Gore, and Kerry have publically provided college transcripts even though they are less than flattering for all three.
Obama, who promised the most transparency, ever, has not provided his college transcripts, even though the bar of public expectations has been set low by the standards of the transcripts of Bush, Gore, and Kerry.
This indicates one should discern that the Obama transcripts secrecy is the failure of these transcripts to even meet the low standards set by Bush, Gore, and Kerry; that it can be discerned to be a mistake to assume that "obviously Obama is smarter than Bush simply in terms of raw intelligence" because of this; and that in the future readers should use discernment when reading the posts of Paul based on his rather obvious lack of discernment between what is truth and what are lies.
Occam's Tool| 3.21.12 @ 6:34PM
Bush would have been more interesting, by far. He is also much better read than Obama. The public image and the private man seem to be twisted in both cases. Bush is a voracious reader and an incisive questioner according to those who know him. Obama answers one page bulletins with checkmarks on his decisions, according to same.
Occam's Tool| 3.21.12 @ 6:37PM
Brightness I dispute---he would have flunked out of pre-med. Well-roundedness I dispute---in a College Bowl competition I would destroy him. (I was a Champion)
Educated? Well, look at his comment on the first President to install a telephone in the White House. Look at the people he surrounds himself with!!
Please. The man is a poetaster, who would not know that term.
LynnTTT| 3.19.12 @ 12:57PM
Oh pleez.... How can I take seriously a columnist who is 1) being driven by a chauffeur 2) to a memorial for Pat Nixon (nice lady I'm sure) and 3) expects us to believe that friend whose divorce cost $ 500,000 is concerned about a public school ? How stupid does he think we are?
Cindy-Sue Causey | 3.19.12 @ 1:09PM
Your teacher observation hit home with me.. I had PHENOMENAL teachers from First Grade on up.. North and South Miami, Florida.. Benjamin Franklin Elementary, Whispering Pines, Cutler Ridge Junior, and still occasionally nationally ranked Miami Palmetto Senior High School..
Unfortunately, it HAS been a matter of Life Choices that lead to me living, scratch that and make it "existing" on ~$5,000 (give or take) a year.. One of those more notable/notorious Life Choices was to, sighhhh, seek the services of a local....... government health care clinic because it was all that was available here at the time.. THE last experience I had with that system was the government bought and paid fer "doctor" slamming her hand down on her desk and YELLING at me that.....
SHE was NOT responsible for my Life..
Alrighty then.
Word to the White House :: What I am living this nano-second in Time had not one thing to do with my so beyond phenomenally involved teachers from the 1970's and had every single bit to do with the very unaccountable type of health care services YOUR peeps are trying this precise moment to cram down our country's unified throats without recourse.
Just sayin'. :)
Cyber hugs from Talking Rock..
Cindy Sue :)
PS.. Shoutout to one of those phenomenal (female) science teachers, albeit am having an old timer's brain f*rt on your name :: THANK YOU TO THIS DAY for the apparently oft neglected lesson where you taught us that Earth continues to shift slightly on her axis..
Your lesson back then was that seasons and how they affect our environment WOULD change, begin to flop with each other locally and across the hemispheres in our Lifetime.. Every day that I look outside and see the Sun sitting in a completely different place from where it was fifteen years ago, I reflect on your lesson that day.. High Five on nailing that one back in 1973..
BUT, one caveat invariably comes to mind regarding that lifelong cherished science class lesson......
What you neglected to warn us about back then was how a whole faction of the Human population would take that scientific FACT and run with it for personal economic gain under the guise of all things "green".
Ina| 3.19.12 @ 2:04PM
How very well you presented the science class of 'back in the day' - when they used to still teach truth, and the govt hadn't accelerated to the point of telling us that Chicken Little is real and the sky really is falling!
Brian Richard Allen | 3.19.12 @ 1:11PM
.... What happened to America as we knew it ...?
California, mainly.
Twelve Per Cent of the congressional seats but around 40% of the influence.
(I just made that last number up -- but that's about how it seems)
Controse| 3.19.12 @ 1:16PM
"What happened to America as we knew it?" We compromised with Democrats year after year after year, that is what.
Dmac | 3.19.12 @ 4:20PM
BINGO!!!!!!!
Controse wins the cupi doll. You are exactly correct, we have negotiated away everything and yet, the liberals claim we won't work with them.
Well the surpise is coming. The liberals will soon be saying gee, why didn't we know when to stop pushing, because the big pushback is coming! Get you closets cleaned out all you liberal nuts, cause soon you'll be hiding in them again.
Those of us who actually know the difference between right and wrong are awake and we intend one way or another to get this country on the right track.
Ina| 3.19.12 @ 1:50PM
You talk about how this imposed entity of a "president" makes up lies, throws his head back and assumes his posture of grandeur, and you DON'T THINK he is arrogant? Please. Since there is no way to sugar coat "calling a spade a spade" I am sure this will be considered bigoted, profane and grossly impolite. What this socialist is doing to us and our nation is at the very LEAST profane and grossly impolite, but everyone still has to kowtow. When did the rules change? When did we turn into a dictatorship or monarchy? This is not how a democracy or a REPUBLIC function!!!
Dmac | 3.19.12 @ 4:21PM
We lost our Republic the day we allowed women to vote! .....well someone had to say it.
The Bruce| 3.19.12 @ 11:24PM
Well, I doubt someone had to say it but, since you did, would you mind explaining it?
Charie| 3.19.12 @ 2:17PM
Ina, that phrase about the spade is one that we've been hammered with as being racist. I think it's extremely strange that Liberal Democrats know all these pejoratives about ethnic groups they deem to be not bright enough to take care of themselves.
sally| 3.19.12 @ 2:41PM
Ben, did you remember to ask Julie and David if they're pleased with how their candidate, Obama, has turned out?
Are they happy they voted for him?
Are they just so pleased that their investment in cash and encouragement back during the '08 campaign helped push Obama into office?
Planning to vote for the *sshole again?
Just wondering.
One if by land...| 3.19.12 @ 3:05PM
Unions, all of them, are BAD Ben! Our Chief Theif had the opportunity to destroy the UAW and instead bailed them out. If private business failed, it failed. So yes, lets call a spade a spade.
Bob From District 9| 3.19.12 @ 3:13PM
"I got wild applause when I talked about people who worked for a living rather than organized their communities to get more from the taxpayers."
The people he organized were overwhelmingly people who work and are taxpayers. You are typical of the person who spends all his time among his own kind, so has no idea what other people's lives are like. The poor in this country are overwhelmingly working poor, or were until your lot started wiping out their jobs.
"That business about working really resonates with middle-class working people for some reason. "
That business about working resonates even more among poor people who lost their jobs, esp those who were middle class and lost their jobs, because people like you ran this country into the ground.
"Also, lots of applause for talking about spending billions on solar power projects that go nowhere."
When you mention that please be sure to mention that was a Bush administration project that the Bush Administration tried very hard to get though before the 2009 inauguration. All Obama did was finish up the work Bush did.
You are a very dishonest man, Mr. Stein.
Tim the Enchanter| 3.19.12 @ 5:19PM
Pot, meet kettle.
Earth to District 9| 3.20.12 @ 3:11PM
Bob from District 9 | 8.9.11 @ 4:01PM:
"Try actually learning some facts, and when you realize 100% of our debt is the responsibility of three presidents, maybe you will grow up to actually discuss it. Oh, yeah, Reagan/BushI./BushII. Look it up and believe."
oldbuck| 3.19.12 @ 3:24PM
Everyone see's something a little bit differently when they read an article like this. Some see it as over supportive or overly critical of someone or their ideas.
Myself, the line that caught my attention was when Ben stated: I wonder how much longer I'll be allowed to criticize him?
I can't help but wonder that myself as I continue to criticize politicians on both sides of the aisle including the President.
When I was young, I was taught that was an American's "right" of free speech and assembly.
Today if you are critical of the wrong people you can easily loose either or both of those freedoms.
robert johnson| 3.19.12 @ 3:31PM
leaving a comment here will never impact a liberal because they only read / hear liberal b s. they will never hear these facts and statistics from the "mainstream media". even if they did, the 50% who don't pay any income taxes at all, don't want to rock the boat. unions and their members don't want to hear it either.
when are these patriots going to seriously ask themselves when is the spending going to stop and who is going to pay for it??
Owen K| 3.19.12 @ 4:27PM
This article takes me back a few decades and leaves me thinking how different things were back then. Today, we have a Socialist for a President who does posses all the qualities of a dictator. I am left wondering if this man will ever accept a defeat. Will he declare some kind of disaster and totally ignore election 2012 results? And if he does, who is going to stop him? A spineless Congress? Not going to happen. I wonder what this dysfunctional would be tyrant will do if he loses at the polls. I wonder.
Jabber3| 3.19.12 @ 4:47PM
Ben, I always enjoy your articles. It provides some relief from my own hectic life to know that someone else has a similar daily issues and is bothered by BO. Ben, you must come to grips with the fact that President Obama is indeed arrogant and not only that he is self promoting, sanctimonious, disingenuous, demogogic, a pompous braggart and suffers from a narcissistic personality disorder among other things and he is impeding our economic recovery.
Adrian Snare| 3.19.12 @ 5:22PM
You wealthy conservatives make me sick with all your lies and spins on the truth !
StanO| 3.19.12 @ 6:22PM
Huh?
SGT Baker (native Coloradoan)| 3.19.12 @ 11:50PM
I make 38k a year and that is with BAH, BSA, and base pay. How am I a wealthy conservative?
Paul| 3.20.12 @ 4:33PM
I think Adrian was making a distinction between wealthy conservatives like Ben, versus the non-wealthy boot-lickers like you who promote causes that are contrary to your own interests.
skip| 3.20.12 @ 7:31PM
"The inability of republicans to discern right from wrong when the terms are so clear like this is a sign of the sickness taking over this country."
What is the distinction between right and wrong and your response in this thread at 4:33Pm, 3 hours and 50 minutes after my response above, and your lack of a response in this very same thread to my post above, at 12:43PM?
Paul| 3.20.12 @ 11:18PM
Sorry, none of your posts have made any sense. If you can't express a point coherently, it might suggest that the point itself is incoherent. Either that or you are.
skip| 3.21.12 @ 12:02PM
Or it might suggest you cannot discern you have made a mistake and are so clearly wrong, since you are so clearly unable to coherently discern the sense of what is so clearly right, that so clearly is a sign you are so clearly unable to coherently discern the sense of the lies that is so clearly a sign of the sickness that has so clearly overtaken you.
Paul| 3.21.12 @ 11:25PM
This seems like it was written by a computer algorithm whose primary rule is to use the words "discern", "mistake" and "coherently" as many times as possible. Unfortunately, it wasn't programmed to make a point.
skip| 3.22.12 @ 12:44PM
Sorry, all of your posts have expressed unintelligence and dishonesty. If you can't discern this point coherently, it might suggest that the poster himself is unintelligent and dishonest. Unfortunately, the unintelligent and dishonest don't wish to discern this point when it is made.
Occam's Tool| 3.25.12 @ 7:00PM
Skip and skippy---you guys kick ass.
Occam's Tool| 3.21.12 @ 6:29PM
Yup. Rich, Conservative, Wellhung. That's me. I plead guilty.
StanO| 3.19.12 @ 6:22PM
"Then, he has accentuated this habit of cockily throwing his head back in a way that accentuates his unfortunate look of arrogance. I don't think he is an arrogant person, but he has that look."
Sorry Ben, it is horrific public presentation, but he is arrogant. He has the arrogance of a Statist, the confidence of the Left that fuels itself on emotions. "I'm right because it feels right and "seems" right!", he can't control any more than he control the color of his eyes or his need for oxygen.
shipley130| 3.19.12 @ 6:25PM
We told you so, Ben.
Truth Be Told| 3.19.12 @ 6:45PM
He lies with the greatest of ease, but you don't think he's arrogant? Come on Ben; time to wake up now.
Bob| 3.19.12 @ 9:54PM
What was the point of this comment: "He also has some new thing going on where he pushes his tongue around inside his mouth to express disgust with Republicans. It is a sort of Eastern European mouth gesture that I rarely see among Gentiles, and I would even say I rarely see it among men. But it's there" ? Yes, Nixon was a saint. He tried to subvert the Constitution the FBI, the CIA and the Department of Justice, was anti-Semitic, lied to the American people, and waged secret wars, etc. But Obama does something strange with his mouth?
Occam's Tool| 3.21.12 @ 6:28PM
Nixon the "antisemite" ordered Operation Nickel Grass and saved millions of Jewish lives.
Obama the bullshit "philosemite" is doing everything he can to get Tel-Aviv nuked. Please.
Leah| 3.19.12 @ 11:11PM
Mr. Stein, you know what happened to America as we knew it. It was killed by the 60s generation and all the liberals who have come on the national scene in one form or another since. And there is only one chance to perhaps possibly retrieve it this coming November. We shall see if we have enough citizens who know and care about what will be at stake.
The Bruce| 3.19.12 @ 11:17PM
Ben, are you afraid to call him arrogant because you're afraid someone will deem you a racist?
Get over it. We're are sooo over caring about that attack these days. Liberals have watered that term down so as to be completely meaningless.
In fact, I believe that perhaps it's liberals -- the ones throwing the race card every five seconds -- that are the true racists. They're obsessed over his race and are projecting in order place their guilt upon others.
POST American| 3.19.12 @ 11:25PM
AGAIN----
get the pictures and compare for yourself
Probable Averell Harriman stealth clone,
former Kissinger aide, 'BAR---Rockefeller'
Obama.
----CHECK IT OUT --the old film footage esp.
It's uncanny!
In this, the 11th hour of the CFR-RED China
handover ---takedown ---de--industrialization
---TREASON and FINAL EUGENICS OP
---AND! just weeks off fromt he Breitbart
probable murder and memory holing
-------------------------CHECK IT OUT NOW!
---This could be the world's FIRST
EUGENICS homage to a prime operative!
CHECK IT OUT
realfactchecker| 3.20.12 @ 4:34AM
America as we knew it? Gone, because we now have more people who vote for a living than work for a living. That means 100% of us (the workers) better show up on election day to stand a chance. How did BO get elected? Because these brilliant minds voted for him and there are more of them than us. Pray!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm1KOBMg1Y8
Ed Weeden| 3.20.12 @ 4:59AM
Ben, take a deep breath. Do not let your heart be troubled. Jefferson was right about the people, they know and they remember. If (and it's a big if) the Republican Party articulates itself properly to the people (not just issues, but working people) then they will win. If not, then we are in for four more years of disintegration. Ed Weeden, University of Lincoln, Lincolnshire UK (I am a US citizen living and teaching over here, and I am a conservative - unbelievable for the UK) . . . !
Jones | 3.20.12 @ 8:14PM
>What happened to America as we knew it?
We let stupid people vote
Paul| 3.20.12 @ 11:19PM
Count yourself lucky.
Occam's Tool| 3.21.12 @ 6:26PM
The problem, dear Ben, is people who like litigation to the point it excludes common sense. Look in the mirror and recognize that comment?
There is no one nice in Beverly Hills because the ego required to make it to the top in show biz tends to create malignant narcissists. I got to examine it first hand for 4 years of residency training at UCLA in psychiatry. I do not speak of this without knowledge. My girlfriend in LA babysat for the Nimoys; her dad was VEEP of the NJ Nets. Do you think you "are what you drive," Ben? I bet you do, Ben. That is the thinking of an idiot.
I live in rural Northern Minnesota, take care of native Americans in my practice, and have a MUCH more fulfilling life than you, though I am not famous. I eat what I want to eat, buy what I want to buy, make $350 K a year, live well within my means, and am raising my kids to be self-sufficient. I also impact a lot of people's lives for the good, keeping them from killing themselves.
Ben, you think you worship the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; but, let me tell you, doing a movie attacking evolution is not the same as trying to live a meaningful life. Your egotism and namedropping shine through all your articles; happiness, however, is to be found in the unforced helping of others---it is not altruism; instead, it is the highest form of self-love. I never see in your articles where one person's life is improved from being YOUR friend, or, where you truly focus on the needs of others.
And that, Dear Ben, is why Beverly Hills is filled with miserable people---because they think like you. And the fact that I do the opposite is why the majority of my life is smooth, no matter what gets thrown at me.
But you are an attorney. I don't expect you to get that.
By the way, the retired police sergeant deserves $300,000/yr as his retirement (if that happens) a hell of a lot more than you do. He sacrificed a hell of a lot more.
You fail to see what comprises a life well spent, grasshopper. Perfect SATs do not yield perfect insight. (Mine was a 1420, and an MD trumps a law degree any day of the week in intellectual difficulty---I am not jealous of your academic attanments.)
touchthestick?| 4.11.12 @ 7:18PM
knives/forks: good one from Talking New York, Bob Dylan.
AVCurmudgeon| 4.14.12 @ 3:40AM
Mr Stein, I really do not know why you continue to excuse Mr Obama. To you "he acts as if he's arrogant, but I don't think he really is." Are you serious? I get it that you don't want to inject the personal into this campaign, and I get it that everyone has to give the nod to Obama's likeability because it's the closest you can come today to saying "some of my best friends are blacks", but come on. Stop it.
Obama is profoundly, incurably arrogant. It shows in every speech he makes. He believes he is the smartest, most important and wisest man walking this earth and can never pass up even the measliest opportunity to let us know it. He is not in the least likeable, and were it not for his skin color everyone would acknowledge that.
With any luck at all, this campaign will end up as some sort of reminder that "pride cometh before a fall."