WILLisms.com: The Tipping Point Is Here

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The Tipping Point Is Here

This was a terrible, awful week for Democrats. First, rather than escaping from the United States into hiding where his tale could not be told, Norman Hsu was caught on an Amtrak train in Colorado, and now the sordid story of his 'bundlings' for Hillary may yet be revealed. I wonder if Hillary got this huge sinking feeling in her stomach when she learned the news. Oh wait, she doesn't even know who this Hsu guy is, does she.

Unfortunately for Hillary it is an absolutely fascinating story ( how can the Hsu story not be fascinating when it includes a guy named 'Shrimp Boy'), not the least of which because poor Norman may have in fact tried to commit Hsuicide. I just did NOT see that one coming when I coined the term.

This story is now slowly etching away at her campaign, even though the press is doing the best job it can to impose a Swiftboat-like embargo on news relating to this Hillarity. Having the Hsu story fester under the radar screen gives it a certain allure and fascination it might not have had otherwise - just like the Swiftboat story. The real wiseguys are hip to the story, and if you are cool you'll be in on it too.

As fun as the ongoing Hsunanigans are, the only real story is General David Petraeus' testimony this week before Congress. This was indeed the final weight on the scale that caused The Tipping Point to arrive. It began earlier this year, when, of all things, Sunni tribal leaders allied with the coalition forces to wage war against their fellow Sunnis, the al-Qaeda terrorists. The Surge went into effect, and the real change of course that the Democrats had been demanding took hold (without the Democrats realizing it, of course).

Then came the O'Hanlon and Pollack article.

This little op-ed just popped the left right in their glass jaw. These were not neo-cons opining at National Review Online, no, this was in the hallowed sanctuary of the New York Times itself. The echo chamber now blared the ineffable heresy that the mission in Iraq might just work after all. Quelle horror! Say it's not so! If the New York Times says it, there is nowhere left to hide for Democrats who thought the MSM could be relied on to just repeat ad nauseum their cant of doom.

Next came General Petraeus' testimony. All the general had to do was just sit there mute, truth be told. Had he said nothing at all, the Democrats' own performance would have doomed them. ShoveOff.org's 'Betray Us' ad made the entire anti-war movement look childish, weightless, and (wilfully) ignorant of the facts on the ground in Iraq. It also stripped away the already transparent veneer that the left somehow 'supports the troops.' Brian de Palma has attacked the low ranking troops from below, while ShoveOff.org attacks the higher ranking troops from above. I think America now realizes that the left might not actually, really, 'support the troops'. In one thing the anti-war folks are right that this is a repeat of Vietnam - the antiwar effort there ended with grotesque attacks on the troops themselves, and once again it looks like they may end up calling them 'baby killers' yet again as they strip away their masks to reveal what they really are. As the left gets more desperate, bitter and angry while their failures mount, this will become a real possibility.

Their feckless leadership sure isn't helping. The Petraeus hearings began with Tom Lantos, who basically called Petraeus a liar before Petraeus had even opened his mouth. Talk about sticking to the script. We then had a grating interrogation from Loretta Sanchez, who seems to think we should be running the war via polls from the BBC. It ended with Hillary Clinton denouncing Petraeus, but refusing to denounce the Betray Us ad. Things would have no doubt gone better if Petraeus had slipped Norman Hsu a fat white envelope a month or two ago. But the whole thing revealed that the Democrats are not interested in finding facts, but preserving and expounding their narrative.

Petraeus, on the other hand, looked eminently serious, professional and candid.

Americans are getting a bit tired of their defeatist and cynical narrative, and so we have reached the tipping point. Not in Iraq - with proper support and enough time there, our troops are guaranteed victory. No, the tipping point came in the only place where al-Qaeda can defeat us: Washington D.C.

Update: The left just cannot help themselves. They are now repeating a completely unsourced, anonymous allegation that Admiral William Fallon called Petraeus " ...an ass-kissing little chickenshit." I normally would edit that remark, but I think in this case the full effect needs to be put out there.

Well, the left supports the Navy, anyway!

Posted by Ken McCracken · 13 September 2007 09:27 PM

Comments

The missing piece of your analysis is that the Democrats are not bound by consistency or the truth to respond to political events. Thus, what should by reason wound them politically and hamper their campaigning often does not.

Posted by: Assistant Village Idiot at September 14, 2007 07:31 AM

Ah, but we are not after them, they are hopeless.

This is all an appeal to the mushy middle.

Posted by: Ken McCacken at September 14, 2007 07:41 AM

hillary and obamas numbers are just as high as they were before the patreaus concert. Bush's are just as low.

and you basically ruined the whole thing with the by now thoroughly back and forth discredited ohanlon-pollack piece. The complete dishonesty of how that was sold as "bush critics say war is winnable" is now public knowledge. they were and are supporters of the iraq war. they are HAWKS.

you have been spending a little too much time in the right wing echo chamber. none of this stuff amounts to a hill of beans.

Posted by: lester at September 15, 2007 05:38 PM

Lester,

There's this funky little key on your keyboard--actually, you probably have two of them. They're called "shift" keys. I know you can use them on occasion--how about making it consistent?

Posted by: Nathan Hale at September 15, 2007 10:36 PM