The Stupidity of Jan Fleischhauer

Every four years Der Spiegel attempts to make sense of the US presidential election for its readers.  In 2008 it was Gabor Steingart who botched the coverage, and assured Germans that Barack Obama had zero chance of winning the presidency.  For the 2012 cycle Jan Fleischhauer, resident conservative intellectual at Der Spiegel, is providing wrong-headed information. 

In his most recent column, Fleischhauer assures readers that the pundits have it wrong and that Mitt Romney will win in November.  Also, there is nothing to worry about, since Romney is not an extremist.  How does Fleischauer know this?  Google.

Wer sich ein wenig im Netz umschaut, wird schnell feststellen, dass Romney in seinem politischen Leben schon so ziemlich jeden Standpunkt vertreten hat, der auch Demokraten am Herzen liegt.

(If you look around the Internet a bit you'll see that in his political career Romney has taken virtually every position that Democrats hold dear.)

Yes, that's precisely the problem.  Romney ran as a progressive moderate to win the state house in Massachusetts - he had to, in order to win in liberal state.  But now he has renounced every position he held ten years ago - from reproductive choice for women to equality for gay couples.  He has embraced the Tea Party and its language of exclusion in order to win over the extreme right wing that control's today's Republican Party.  He has vowed to repeal "Obamacare" his first day in office, depriving ten millions of Americans access to affordable health care.  His recotd shows that he has no core principles,  he is Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften who will say anything, promise anything, to win the White House. 

Fleischhauer attempts to buttress his argument by referring to a Newsweek piecc by Harvard hack Naill Ferguson. Salon Magazine reviewed Ferguson's piece and determined that "his piece is just fundamentally dishonest, top to bottom."

Advice to Jan Fleischauer (and to Der Spiegel): it's better to remain silent on things you know nothing about.

Comments

[michijo]

There is no arguing with Der Speigel, you know. They are Northern Europeans, and their pseudo-progressive mentality is buttressed by their 19th century outlook, where they imagine themselves replenishing the European stock of the USA through New York and bringing the real "dare to take risk" mentality to the so called "Knights" who march around afraid of doorways in suits on the streets of New York. Of course, German immigration in real life has dwindled to nothing, just like their birth-rate. But there is no competing with northern europeans.

[michijo]

Liberals in Europe and the USA are always so naive: they really think voting for the "good cop" is an improvement on the "bad cop".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_cop_bad_cop

[michijo]

Let the Christians rad of the anarchy in the bible:

http://adams.patriot.net/~cnc/president.htm

[Karlo Kliman]

An die Redaktion hart-aber-fair

Hr. Plasberg war bis vor paar Jahren ein schlagkräftiger und objektiver TV-Journalist. Schlagfertig ist er noch immer, allerdings die "links-liberale" Schere im Kopf bekommt vom allgemeinen Medien- und Politdruck nur noch ausgeprägtere Formen an, und das überträgt sich zwangsläufig auf die ganze Redaktion. Z. B., so einen opportunistischen Kalauer wie in der letzten Sendung, "war das jetzt frauen- oder umweltfeindlich?" hätte er vor Jahren, bestimmt als blanke Prostitution gesehen. Schade!