Jonathan Chait

Noemie Emery Nails It

Jonathan Chait
Jonathan Chait
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Are The Deficit Commission's Democrats Capitulating?

GM's Turnaround
January 14, 2010 | 11:25 am
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Are The Deficit Commission's Democrats Capitulating?

I can't dispute this:

People in newsrooms all over the country decided that someone who talked the way they did was the cure for what ailed the country, and are stunned to find out it is not.

[Obama's] cosmopolitan cool hasn't defanged the terrorists, who still want to kill us, disarmed North Korea or derailed Iran's bomb.

I had numerous conversations in 2008 with Obama supporters who thought that Obama's cosmopolitanism would, within the first year of his presidency, end terrorism and cause the unilateral disarmament of North Korea and Iran. Everybody thought this -- at least at the Ivy League cocktail parties where I hang out. And I want to be clear: it wasn't even that we thought Obama's foreign policy agenda would lead to these outcomes. We were certain that his cosmopolitan style alone would do the trick.

We should all apologize to Noemie Emery.

More Articles On: Islamic Republic of Iran, North Korea, Ivy League

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COMMENTS (2)

01/14/2010 - 3:43pm EDT | jhildner1

It's really uncanny how well she understands Obama supporters' myopia. I hope that you delivered this apology in person.

01/14/2010 - 11:07pm EDT | rempelschul

This is crap. I write this as an Iowa Obama supporter who watched and listened to the entire campaign and actually paid attention to what he said. Anyone who, for whatever reason, believed that Obama was going to cure the problems that were bequeathed to him in a year or even four years was indulging themselves in magical thinking. "Everybody thought this"?! maybe in a very small circle of self obsessed navel gazers.