Politics with Marc Ambinder

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Sep 8 2009, 7:50 am

One Crazy Summer: A Quiz

OK, hot shot. Think you've been paying attention to political blogs and the cable networks all summer? Test your knowledge of political neologisms right here, in the Atlantic's first annual -- probably only annual -- Summer 2009 Political Vocabulary Quiz.

1. A "birther" is someone who:

A. delivers babies.
B. births babies.
C. believes that Barack Obama was born outside the U.S. and is thus ineligible to be president
D. believes that, on our about the date of August 4, 1961, the Obama family orchestrated a conspiracy in to place birth announcements in Hawaiian newspapers.
E. C and D.

2. A "tenther" is someone who:

A. Frequently uses the word "decimate" when she means "decapitate"
B. is very small.
C. sells camping equipment
D. believes that President Barack Obama's health care plan violates the 10th amendment to the constitution.
E. is a newfangled advocate of states rights and advocates secession
F. D and E.

3. A "truther" is a:

A. person who studies the writings of Sojouner Truth.
B. derisive nickname for someone who believes that the events of 9/11 were orchestrated by the Bush government.
C. modernist
D. kind of pickle

4. When someone accuses you of "Coakleying me on Facebook," they mean:

A. Something unprintable in a family magazine
B. Repeatedly sending a "Become a Fan Of Martha Coakley" request to them.
C. Eagerly being the first to do something, like jump into a Senate race that isn't technically a race yet.

5. Smart-alecky progressive bloggers use the term "Villager" to refer to:

A. A person who identifies as a journalist and cloisters him or herself in a Village, with its own weird customs and habits, walled off from reality.
B. A resident of Greenwich Village
C. A movie director whose first movie was his best
D. A stiff drink at the new W hotel in downtown DC
E. A convert from the "Church of the Savvy"

6. The Summer Of Crazy encompasses all but which of the following:

A. The Birthers, the Deathers
B. The media embrace of -- and the liberal obsession with -- the cranks -- those deeply conservative/libertarian/La Rouche/grasstops protesters who turned up at early town hall meetings
C. The Gunners -- the folks who decided to bring guns to Barack Obama rallies
D. The rockin' first scene of Inglorius Basterds
E. The habit of blaming the press for the left's failure to persuade and communicate.

7. A "deather" believes that Sarah Palin:

A. got it exactly right when she charged that Barack Obama wanted to create "death panels" to ration health care.
B. got it exactly right when she looked at Levi Johnstson, put her finger on her tongue, and, in her best Joan Rivers brouge, said "Oh! Death! Death! Death!"
C. is treated fairly by the tabloids.
D. was the wrong choice to be John McCain's Vice President. (i.e., Tim Pawlenty is not a deather.)
item

8. "Michele Bachmann" is:

A. an invention of the liberal blogosphere
B. a Republican member of Congress from Minnesota who aspires to run for the presidency
C. a family doctor in Tupelo

9. An "indoctrinator" is someone who:

A. thinks its OK for the President of the United States to encourage children to stay in school and didn't understand the 2009 political ramifications that would follow from a gentle encouragement for children to write to the President of the United States.
B. produces programming for Fox News and MSNBC
C. produces talking points for Robert Gibbs
D. Thinks that the mainstream media, in reporitng that the President of the United States wants to encourage children to stay in school, is furthering the socialist conspiracy

10. A "socialist" is someone who:

A. In 2009, supports a cap-and-trade emissions credit scheme
B. In 2009, supports an exchange/market mechanism for expanding insurance coverage and  is resisting Congressional efforts to mandate a public option immediately
C. In 2009, instructed his administration to resist European efforts to severely curtail banker bonuses
D. In 2008, convinced Congress to spend $700 billion to bail out the banking sector
E. In 2009, hired and staff his Treasury department and economic counsels with prominent moderate Democratic economists.

Comments (4)

Marc, I think Villager is probably a broader tag than you think. Sure it's the Beltway journalist set - but it also refers to other Beltway players. Cable talking heads are certainly Villagers (Scarborough, for example). Lots of celebrity think tankers are Villagers (Pollack, for example). Lobbyists, corporate spokespeople, and heads of civil society organizations are often Villagers (Dick Armey, for example). To name just a few other categories of Villagers...

Marc, "Villagers" encompasses more than just self-styled journalists. But then you might've been too walled off to realize that. Enjoyed the quiz, btw.

That's a good run-down of the childish taunts that intellectually dishonest Beltway hacks use in order to avoid being intellectually honest and curious. It's too bad that Ambinder fits right in with that description.

Regarding "tenthers", are they right? Maybe if Ambinder weren't such a hack, he could interview a series of scholars and get their opinions.

Regarding "truthers", the petition that Jones signed said it was possible - not a certainty - that people within the current administration may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war. That's not the same as "BUSH KNEW!", but Ambinder can't figure that out. One of the petition questions was Why hasn't a single person been fired, penalized, or reprimanded for the gross incompetence we witnessed that day? Obviously, the Beltway establishment - then or now - doesn't want such questions to be asked.

And, in order not to be a "truther" as that's word is commonly used, one would have to think that we've been told the whole truth about that day's events and the aftermath. Now, that's crazy.

Regarding "birthers", once again Ambinder has the definition wrong. As it's commonly used by hacks, it means anyone who expresses doubt about where BHO was born or the other circumstances. So far, the strongest evidence that he was born in HI is one (1) statement from a HIan official who then rhetorically stalked away in her statement. Regarding the announcements, they only list the supposed address of his parents, they don't list a birthplace or hospital, and no documentation has been produced showing such announcements could have only come from a birth hospital and would indicate a birth there. Oh, and the address given is a house rented by BHO's grandparents; Stanley might have been living in the back while BHO Sr. had his own apartment miles away.

For just one more example of how much of a hack Ambinder is, he doesn't have the guts to point out that both CNN and the NYT deceived about what Hawaii's governor said (see the FAX at the end).

In Ambinder's hackery world, the fact that CNN and the NYT deceived over the simple facts of this matter can be dismissed with childish taunts of "Birther". Look to him for hackery, not real reporting.

Burden_of_The_State (Replying to: 24AheadDotCom)

I would love to type and type about your pro-birther statements. But I will just leave this:
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html

Gee..Now you offended every r-wingnut from coast to coast. Now go cut your toenails before they report your toenails are to long.