Gore Vidal talks about America, Obama, Hillary and the Republicans. A good read.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Last year [Gore Vidal] famously switched allegiance from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama during the Democratic nomination process for president. Now, he reveals, he regrets his change of heart. How’s Obama doing? “Dreadfully. I was hopeful. He was the most intelligent person we’ve had in that position for a long time. But he’s inexperienced. He has a total inability to understand military matters. He’s acting as if Afghanistan is the magic talisman: solve that and you solve terrorism.” America should leave Afghanistan, he says. “We’ve failed in every other aspect of our effort of conquering the Middle East or whatever you want to call it.” The “War on Terror” was “made up”, Vidal says. “The whole thing was PR, just like ‘weapons of mass destruction’.

...

His voice strengthens. “One thing I have hated all my life are LIARS [he says that with bristling anger] and I live in a nation of them. It was not always the case. I don’t demand honour, that can be lies too. I don’t say there was a golden age, but there was an age of general intelligence. We had a watchdog, the media.” The media is too supine? “Would that it was. They’re busy preparing us for an Iranian war.” He retains some optimism about Obama “because he doesn’t lie. We know the fool from Arizona [as he calls John McCain] is a liar. We never got the real story of how McCain crashed his plane [in 1967 near Hanoi, North Vietnam] and was held captive.”

Vidal originally became pro-Obama because he grew up in “a black city” (meaning Washington), as well as being impressed by Obama’s intelligence. “But he believes the generals. Even Bush knew the way to win a general was to give him another star. Obama believes the Republican Party is a party when in fact it’s a mindset, like Hitler Youth, based on hatred — religious hatred, racial hatred. When you foreigners hear the word ‘conservative’ you think of kindly old men hunting foxes. They’re not, they’re fascists.”

Another notable Obama mis-step has been on healthcare reform. “He f***ed it up. I don’t know how because the country wanted it. We’ll never see it happen.” As for his wider vision: “Maybe he doesn’t have one, not to imply he is a fraud. He loves quoting Lincoln and there’s a great Lincoln quote from a letter he wrote to one of his generals in the South after the Civil War. ‘I am President of the United States. I have full overall power and never forget it, because I will exercise it’. That’s what Obama needs — a bit of Lincoln’s chill.” Has he met Obama? “No,” he says quietly, “I’ve had my time with presidents.” Vidal raises his fingers to signify a gun and mutters: “Bang bang.” He is referring to the possibility of Obama being assassinated. “Just a mysterious lone gunman lurking in the shadows of the capital,” he says in a wry, dreamy way.

Vidal now believes, as he did originally, Clinton would be the better president. “Hillary knows more about the world and what to do with the generals. History has proven when the girls get involved, they’re good at it.

...

He observes presidential office-holders balefully. “The only one I knew well was Kennedy, but he didn’t impress me as a good president. It’s like asking, ‘What do I think of my brother?’ It’s complicated. I’d known him all my life and I liked him to the end, but he wrecked his chances with the Bay of Pigs and Suez crises, and because everyone was so keen to elect Bobby once Jack had gone, lies started to be told about him — that he was the greatest and the King of Camelot.”

Today religious mania has infected the political bloodstream and America has become corrosively isolationist, he says. “Ask an American what they know about Sweden and they’d say ‘They live well but they’re all alcoholics’. In fact a Scandinavian system could have benefited us many times over.” Instead, America has “no intellectual class” and is “rotting away at a funereal pace. We’ll have a military dictatorship fairly soon, on the basis that nobody else can hold everything together. Obama would have been better off focusing on educating the American people. His problem is being over-educated. He doesn’t realise how dim-witted and ignorant his audience is. Benjamin Franklin said that the system would fail because of the corruption of the people and that happened under Bush.”

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_an...icle6854221.ece

[Danno 1,228]

While there are a number of Left leaning "thinkers" I do take serious and do enjoy considering commentary from, nothing Gore Vidal has ever done.. or said, leads me to put him in that class.

In fact he is so wrong about so many things in this regard it's a wonder anyone takes him for more than amusement.

Speaking of Amusement, it is a rare moment when the high-brow, intellectual types.. display this type of

"presence" during a discussion.

I think if Vidal had made one more insult, Buckley would have come out of his chair.

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I'm bettin, if someone called a Homosexual a "#######" like this today.. his TV career would be over.

Edited October 1, 2009 by Danno

[one...two...tree 2,762]

That was a good read? Can I have my 5 minutes back? All he did was rant.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Is Gore Vidal related to Al Gore? They both have Gore in their names.

[mawilson 2,133]

America has “no intellectual class” and is “rotting away at a funereal pace. We’ll have

a military dictatorship fairly soon, on the basis that nobody else can hold everything

together. Obama would have been better off focusing on educating the American people.

His problem is being over-educated. He doesn’t realise how dim-witted and ignorant

his audience is. Benjamin Franklin said that the system would fail because of the

corruption of the people and that happened under Bush.”

Pretty scary, if he's right.

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

It was more fun watching Gore Vidal on the BBC coverage of election night:

Not always dealing a full deck of cards these days

[Peikko 1,575]

America has "no intellectual class" and is "rotting away at a funereal pace. We'll have

a military dictatorship fairly soon, on the basis that nobody else can hold everything

together. Obama would have been better off focusing on educating the American people.

His problem is being over-educated. He doesn't realise how dim-witted and ignorant

his audience is. Benjamin Franklin said that the system would fail because of the

corruption of the people and that happened under Bush."

Pretty scary, if he's right.

I doubt he is.

[alienlovechild 75]

I like how Vidal claims the country will become a military dictatorship soon.

If this clown passes for an intellectual in this country, we are in trouble. Psychos on the street appear more rational by comparison.

[Heracles 417]

Obama would have been better off focusing on educating the American people. His problem is being over-educated. He doesn’t realise how dim-witted and ignorant his audience is.

Spot on there. I still cannot believe they voted down a public health option. For all this talk about competition, ruling out another option just shows that people either don't know what they are talking about or the are benefiting from the status quo.

I like how Vidal claims the country will become a military dictatorship soon.

If this clown passes for an intellectual in this country, we are in trouble. Psychos on the street appear more rational by comparison.

The underclass and working class in the country are severely uneducated.

[Danno 1,228]

Obama would have been better off focusing on educating the American people. His problem is being over-educated. He doesn’t realise how dim-witted and ignorant his audience is.

Spot on there. I still cannot believe they voted down a public health option. For all this talk about competition, ruling out another option just shows that people either don't know what they are talking about or the are benefiting from the status quo.

All this talk you enjoy about "education"... and here you are suggesting that a government program could some how be *honest competition".

Dude, thats laughable.

It's fine to be in favor of a public option... lets just not pretend it's something... it never could be.

[Danno 1,228]

I like how Vidal claims the country will become a military dictatorship soon.

If this clown passes for an intellectual in this country, we are in trouble. Psychos on the street appear more rational by comparison.

You hit a home run here.

One not only wonders how this guy could be considered as having anything worthwhile to contribute... but -why oh why- do these shows keep using these same tired faces over and over despite them being wrong so dam often.

[Heracles 417]

All this talk you enjoy about "education"... and here you are suggesting that a government program could some how be *honest competition".

Dude, thats laughable.

It's fine to be in favor of a public option... lets just not pretend it's something... it never could be.

No I prefer the private option that sticks it to me when I need it most. Or better yet the awesome option, where insurance and hospital boards gets to decide whether my treatment is worth it. Just strange that I nor anyone I know has had ever this experience under a NHS. Yes, to the contrary of Rush and co that have me believe this is rife throughout NHS system.

Some here need to read up on competition. A government run option will force the insurance companies profiteering from denials and cancellations to either play ball or go out of business. For one good reason too; they will probably end up being the better option. With a public option, people including yourself would eventually realize you are being ripped off by the private insurance companies.

[Danno 1,228]

All this talk you enjoy about "education"... and here you are suggesting that a government program could some how be *honest competition".

Dude, thats laughable.

It's fine to be in favor of a public option... lets just not pretend it's something... it never could be.

No I prefer the private option that sticks it to me when I need it most. Or better yet the awesome option, where insurance and hospital boards gets to decide whether my treatment is worth it. Just strange that I nor anyone I know has had ever this experience under a NHS. Yes, to the contrary of Rush and co that have me believe this is rife throughout NHS system.

Some here need to read up on competition. A government run option will force the insurance companies profiteering from denials and cancellations to either play ball or go out of business. For one good reason too; they will probably end up being the better option. With a public option, people including yourself would eventually realize you are being ripped off by the private insurance companies.

The only way the Gov Option... could even "be an option" is because dept would bankroll it's very existence.

Call it what it is: subsidized healthcare for use all.