It's like a classical pianist at the burlesque (Steyn on Ignatieff)

Maclean's ^ | Jan 18, 2006 | Mark Steyn

[caveat emptor]

It's like a classical pianist at the burlesque

Intellectual colossus Michael Ignatieff downsizes himself to Liberal talking points

MARK STEYN

"We need troops, warriors and chieftains," Michael Ignatieff, parliamentary candidate for Etobicoke-Lakeshore, told a Liberal fundraiser the other day. Don't worry, he doesn't mean real troops, with guns and uniforms and so forth, like Scary Stephen wants to introduce to our cities, according to one of the wackier Grit attack ads. Professor Ignatieff was speaking metaphorically, as Liberals usually turn out to be when they get a whiff of cordite in their rhetoric. He only wants metaphorical troops on the streets of Quebec -- to save federalism, yet again -- though why he added "warriors and chieftains" is a puzzle. It makes the province sound like Afghanistan: "U.S. troops today brokered a tentative ceasefire between Uzbek warriors and Pushtun chieftains."

[caveat emptor]

But perhaps that's the point. As his NDP rival in Etobicoke likes to point out, Professor Ignatieff has been out of the country for 27 years and he's "out of touch" with Canada. He's not up to speed, if that's the expression. When you've been wrestling with the Balkans and Iraq across the lecture halls at Harvard and the talk-show sofas of the BBC for two decades, it can't be easy bringing yourself down to speed for an election about federal daycare. Ignatieff's been doing his best this election campaign but it's like watching a classical pianist accompany the clowns in a burlesque house.

There's more. All hilarious.

I wonder if the BBC and Hahvahd will take him back if the voters in Etobicoke-Lakeshore reject him.

[Semper Paratus]

I not sure. I would go to see a strip-tease with Van Cliburn playing in the orchestra pit

[timsbella]

And it appears in Macleans, that old liberal rag? Times are changing!

[nuconvert]

Wow. I think Steyn has a personal dislike for Ignatieff.
He certainly isn't anywhere near being the worst of the Left. In fact he has supported the war and the Left isn't thrilled will Ignatieff.
Sounds like some kind of feud going on.

[caveat emptor]

Wow. I think Steyn has a personal dislike for Ignatieff.

Nah. You've heard the old saying? "You can always tell a Harvard man, but not very much".

[bubman]

Nah he has a personal dislike for all liberals!

[decal]

I dunno - to me, he makes out Ignatieff to be the least useless idiot of the Left.

Of course, we know how much THAT'S worth...

[Forgiven_Sinner]

"Wow. I think Steyn has a personal dislike for Ignatieff. "

You should read him on George Galloway.

I actually thought he was pretty positive, emphasizing he eventually comes to the right solution.

Sometimes a realistic portrayal comes across as negative.