How dumb is NYT's Thomas Friedman?

Golden Carp Awards ^ | November, 6 2006 | Stan Janiak

[PolishProud]

In a column written by Thomas Friedman for the New York Times, he asks "How dumb are we? It's your typical Bush hit piece, but one of his assertions caused me to up chuck my oatmeal.

George Bush, Dick Chenet and Don Rumsfeld think you're stupid.

They think they can take a mangled quip about President Bush and Iraq by John Kerry - a man who is not even running for office but who, unlike Bush and Cheney never ran away from combat service- and get you to vote against all Democrats in this election.(bolf type is mine)

The person that is really stuck on stupid is Friedman. Despite "Christmas in Cambodia", a purple heart earned for a scratch which was one of three that helped Kerry escape Vietnam after seving a short three months and the fact that Kerry has never released all his military records, he, Friedman ought to CYA where Kerry is concerned as have many Democrats. And Friedman conviently loses his journalistic cynicism when he states that Kerry "is not even running for office."

Can I get some odds on whether Kerry runs again?

[rightinthemiddle]

He's not bright. Just average intelligence, in my opinion.

He just speaks sincerely and doesn't let anyone else talk.

[Unam Sanctam]

Kerry himself said in '72 the all-volunteer army would be a bunch of dummies. It is not unreasonable to believe that that is what Kerry meant last Monday. Using Occam's Razor, it is in fact most logical to believe that Kerry meant exactly what he said.

[Right Cal Gal]

"never ran away from combat service"

Oh please. That lousy piece of crap lost his deferments and HAD to serve and then engineered three Purple Hears for paper cuts to get his ass safely home.

The only thing that kept him from running to Canada was his political ambitions.

[snarks_when_bored]

Thomas Fiedman? Don't know the guy...

[Question Liberal Authority]

Did Thomas Friedman mention that the REASON Republicans have to spar with Dems not running for office is that all the Dems who actually ARE running for office are either in hiding or won't state any position on any issue?

[DCPatriot]

Spelling errors in titles questioning intelligence.....

[sarasota]

Yes, and that makes him the perfect journalist. No one else in the room is talking, so to speak.

[Asclepius]

This is from my favorite Friedman review:

The usual ratio of Friedman criticism is 2:1, i.e., two human words to make sense of each single word of Friedmanese. Friedman is such a genius of literary incompetence that even his most innocent passages invite feature-length essays. I'll give you an example, drawn at random from The World Is Flat. On page 174, Friedman is describing a flight he took on Southwest Airlines from Baltimore to Hartford, Connecticut. (Friedman never forgets to name the company or the brand name; if he had written The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa would have awoken from uneasy dreams in a Sealy Posturepedic.) Here's what he says:

I stomped off, went through security, bought a Cinnabon, and glumly sat at the back of the B line, waiting to be herded on board so that I could hunt for space in the overhead bins.

Forget the Cinnabon. Name me a herd animal that hunts. Name me one.

Read more here: http://www.nypress.com/18/16/news&columns/taibbi.cfm

[Brilliant]

Fiedman? You mean Friedman, right?

[Question Liberal Authority]

Incidentally, neither George Bush, Dick Cheney nor Don Rumsfeld ARE RUNNING FOR ANY OFFICE IN 2006. So if the standard is "don't criticize anyone unless they are specifically running for office" then there should have been no criticism of Bush or Cheney in any newspaper since 2004, and no criticism of Donald Rumsfeld ever.

[L.N. Smithee]

Here's a tip: Run a spell check before calling other people "dumb."

[RightWhale]

That is really stupid. What about Clinton, speaking of military service?

[Dilbert56]

Tom, while you're up there let us know if Kerry has polyps.

Fact checks:

• Kerry sought multiple deferements and then considered studying overseas to avoid combat.
• When that ran our, he enlisted in the Naval Reserves. In Friedman's tiny mind that is somehow head and shoulders above serving in the Guard.
• The F102 that the President flew had 269 lost in accidents out of 986 total built. Yeah, that's a cushy billet. No danger there.
• Vietnam-era deployment

  Though essentially useless in the small-war role, F-102s were indeed deployed to South Vietnam. Aircraft from the 590th Fighter Interceptor Squadron were transferred to Tan Son Nhut AFB near Saigon in March 1962 to provide air defense against the unlikely event that North Vietnamese aircraft would attack the South. F-102As continued to be based there and in Thailand throughout much of the war. F-102As also stood alert at Bien Hoa and Da Nang in South Vietnam and at Udorn and Don Muang in Thailand. The F-102A was finally withdrawn from Southeast Asia in December of 1969.

[msnimje]

Dems HATE, HATE, HATE people thinking and doing and providing for themselves.

[RexBeach]

I think Tom should spend more time on the golf course. At least he has THAT going for himself?

[caveat emptor]

Can I get some odds on whether Kerry runs again?

It wouldn't surprise me if he runs again. There's no predicting what a man will do who can't get a joke right while reading from a prepared text.

[ozzymandus]

It's really impossible to measure the stupidity of a RAT, because they lie all the time, and you never know if they're really wrong or just lying again.

[Hawthorn]

> Thomas Fiedman? Don't know the guy <

Should be spelled "Fiendman."

[bray]

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