While I was googling the word “Joementum” to try to figure out if New Republic coined it, I stumbled across this classic piece of prognostication from Cokie Roberts in 2006 (excuse the Newsbusters link) about the perils of defeating Joe Lieberman in 2006 primary:
…..I think, a disaster for the Democratic Party, and it’s going to be very interesting to see what happens as a result of it.
[….]Yes, I do because I think, first of all, that pushing the party to the left, which is what’s likely to happen, is pushing the party to the position from which it traditionally loses, and In presidential elections but also it will send a signal to everybody in the Senate, watch out, the only smart thing to do here is play to your base, and then what that means is that your legislation becomes a mess, which it already is but even more of a mess, and you get.
[…..]Well, and it certainly – and Bill Clinton, it’s also no accident that Bill Clinton is the only Democrat who has been elected president for two terms since Franklin Roosevelt, because he was a Democrat in the middle from the south with a very strong acquaintanceship with scripture. All of that and I think you start, you know, talking about the liberal blogs and all that taking over the party and it will be a disaster.
Cokie Roberts uttered these words three years ago. I don’t need to tell you that since then, Democrats have picked up 15 seats in the Senate, 55 in the House, and captured the presidency with the largest percentage of the vote of any Democratic president since 1964. She literaly could not have been more wrong.
I’d feel a lot better if she’d describe health care reform as DOA.
Hunter Gathers
The fact that she gets paid for this drivel proves there is no God.
Keith G
Between Roberts and Juan Willliams, my beloved NPR is giving me cramps.
Keith G
Between Roberts and Juan Willliams, my beloved NPR is giving me cramps.
gbear
While I was looking out the window this morning I noticed that the sun rose. In the east.
That said, there can never be too much piling on Cokie Roberts. There is never an inappropriate time to call her out as a tool. Early and often, I say.
matt
talking about the liberal blogs and all that taking over the party and it will be a disaster.
Hehe.
I don’t think someone like Cokie, if pressed, would have too much trouble admitting she was wrong, but it would probably be near impossible to get her to contemplate why she was wrong, which is why nothing is ever going to change.
gbear
@Keith G: Looks like they send you into spasms too.
Keith G
Arrrrrgh
Ash Can
Well hellfire, I spout bullshit political prognostications all the time, and nobody pays me for it.
Warren Terra
FWIW, I do believe that the distinguished gentleman from Connecticut coined “Joementum” himself, using it from the stump to fire up his torpid audiences. Worked about as well as you might expect, too.
PeakVT
and then what that means is that your legislation becomes a mess, which it already is but even more of a mess, and you get.
Its not just wrong, its wrong gibberish.
wilfred
So what did we get? Let me guess, more centrist-right Clintonian triangulation wankery that has done little more than reiterate Bush foreign policy by widening the war in Afghanistan, re-affirming rendition, etc., and lameing out on health care.
We have a real difference between progressives, who made Obama, and Deemoecrats, who suborned him into Clinton II.
The sweet smell of success, eh?
Bob (Not B.o.B.)
Bill Clinton was elected due to a poor economy and his promise to fix health care, not any shift to the right. The so called “New Dems” at the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) like to take credit for everything and everyone that goes right and dismiss everything that goes wrong as too liberal. It wasn’t a rightward move that helped Clinton.
In fact, (and I don’t need to tell readers here this) it was the rightward moves, cowardly actions and overall fear of being a real Democrat that cost us Congress. People like tough liberals and cuddly conservatives. The DLC is neither.
Leelee for Obama
Cokie should stick to writing about women’s history, she’s good on that. Her political reporting has made me discouraged many times and I rarely put myself through it anymore. Her instincts are far too center-right for me, and since her Dad was a NOLA Congressman, that makes sense.
Sadly, I’m afraid I’m going to have to force myself to read and listen to people whose opinions make me nuts, in a vain attempt to stave off the narrowing of thought that has produced the modern Right. You have to know them to fight them.
TCG
I attended a lunch where she was the featured speaker addressing current affairs including the youth vote in the last couple of elections.
During the Q&A there was some trivial question about pop culture where she stated that she did not have a clue who Simon Cowell of American Idol was or what he did.
Not that this is important or anything, but I thought it was odd for someone who is an expert of the political pulse of the nation being this clueless.
Dave S.
@Warren Terra: The best part is that right after coining the term, Lieberman came in fifth in New Hampshire, or as he put it, “a three-way tie for third.”
Eric S
@Warren Terra: Also what I recall. That and falling off the couch and laughing for a good 10 minutes after he said it.
Leelee for Obama
{{cuddly conservatives}}
This concept seems not only impossible, but actually, kinda creepy.
Jennifer
SMELL the Joementum!!!!
JK
“The Political wisdom of Cokie Roberts” – Great oxymoron Doug. Love your sense of humor. This is like writing a post titled “Grammar and Usage Guidelines from Sarah Palin”
Ajay
Its so freaking sad that there is no accountability in Media. It doesnt matter how wrong you are about everything, you will still get paid.
About time MSM should just disappear. TV talking heads will have a tough time getting job as a janitor – they will have tons of competition.
Hubbmax
@gbear #4 (& all really):
Just want to concur: Cokie gives airheads a bad name!
JK
OT
The first wingnut I’ve heard from to start my day. Watching Washington Journal on C-SPAN
C-SPAN caller: Obama has never been proud of America and has surrounded himself with communists and radicals.
How many Glenn Beck followers are out there?
Ann B. Nonymous
Does anyone remember how Saul Bellow’s son wrote a book praising nepotism? Cokie — not short for ‘cocaine’ or ‘cokehead’, as I’ve always thought, but for ‘Corinne’ — is the daughter of Hale Boggs (“D”-LA) and also Lindy Boggs (~D-LA), as well as the spouse of US News and World Report editor Steven “I think one of the real built-in biases in the media is towards secularism.” Roberts (R-DC).
As such, her political views are exactly what you’d expect.
El Cid
This is the problem — people like Cokie aren’t paid to describe reality.
They are paid in order to keep help bringing about the reality they prefer.
dmsilev
@Warren Terra:
Yep, and he quickly followed that up with “a three-way tie for third place” in the NH primary (translation: “fifth”).
-dms
Cat Lady
The key to understanding Cokie is when she says it’s going to be very interesting, it means that what she says next is going to be wrong or insipid.
You’re welcome.
JK
OT
Andrew Breitbart Unleashes A Torrent Of Invective Against Sen. Ted Kennedy’s Legacy On Twitter
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/26/breitbart-kennedy-twitter
ricky
Put on Goofy, Mickey, Donald, and Minnie.
See if their analysis proves better than Cokie, Tappy,
Charlie, and Stephie.
Wolfie1974
If Cokie Roberts predicts health care reform will pass with a strong public option, we’re fucked.
Ash Can
@JK: The people trashing Ted Kennedy’s legacy are too young to remember, too dimwitted to realize, and/or too dishonest to admit that they benefit from that legacy every day, in often multiple ways.
Morbo
Amazing, All Things Considered yesterday had EJ Dionne and David Brooks to talk about Ted Kennedy. Morning Edition today had Cokie Roberts for the same topic. I never thought I would long to hear the analysis of David Brooks.
Zifnab
For those feeling bad about NPR, I just got to hear Steve Inskeep drag Michael Steele out behind a woodshed and beat him with his own bag of BS. Beautiful stuff.
Napoleon
@Zifnab:
I was luckly enough to catch that on the radio. Made my morning.
asiangrrlMN
Sometimes, you just have to walk on by. Oh, wait, that’s the other faux-genteel Southern lady, what’shername. Never mind, then.
Rey
Her name is Cokie. ’nuff said…
Da Bomb
Cokie Roberts is most inane pundit evah.
Isn’t she the twit who criticized Obama for going to Hawaii to visit his dying grandmother as going off to some foreign and exotic place?
She’s such a twit.
Will
“I’d feel a lot better if she’d describe health care reform as DOA.”
It can’t be that hard to make this happen.
Elvis Elvisberg
Death panel for Cokie.
Joshua Norton
The political wisdom of Cokie Roberts
Gad. There’s so many things wrong with that statement that a person would need a couple hours and PowerPoint to really cover all of it.
GregB
By the time Lieberman left New Hampshire, his Jomentum was dribbling down his leg.
Cokie is just another legacy hack who’s the font of ultimate beltway centrist, soulless wisdom.
A boo and a hiss.
-G
thomas
The wizdumb, it hurts!
kay
She’s just so boring. Bill Clinton was from the south and a Democrat who served two terms? Do tell.
Next she’ll tell us Hawaii is part of the US.
I thought the whole point of paying these hack-pundits year after year was that they had access to inside information. What value does she add? Anyone can recite obvious facts and rigidly conventional conclusions.
She’s a beneficiary of DC nepotism, so you would hope she would at least have some insider perspective to offer listeners. She doesn’t even have that.
Jen R
@Zifnab: Notice how the chairman of the Republican Party thinks “nuance” is a bad thing. Not that this is surprising; I just thought that it neatly crystallized one of their major intellectual failings.
leo
I’d feel a lot better if she just went and retired. How much conventional wisdom does a person need in a day?
Dave Herman
Ah, the ubiquitous Roberts declaration of interestingness.
Jack Shafer said it best:
The Grand Panjandrum
@Zifnab: It was a thing a beauty. I laughed through the last half and had to go online to listen to it again to make sure a I didn’t miss anything.
Bitching about the complexity of Medicare Part D was priceless.
Zifnab
@Jen R: He was just being offended at everything. Steele fell into a defensive stance almost immediately. The guy thought he was going to step up and peddle the company line unchallenged, and he was taken completely off guard by Inskeep’s first tough question.
Woody
Between Roberts and Juan Williams, my beloved NPR is giving me cramps.
Between Roberts and Wan, (and Robert Siegel, Don Gonyea, MeeShill Norris, et al), and your beloved NPR ain’t your beloved NPR anymore.
Does anyone recall when NPR gave a weekly slot to Michael Harrington, the leader of the Democratic Socialists of America?
Woody
Are anybody else’s comments “awaiting moderation?”
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Between Roberts and Juan Williams, my beloved NPR is giving me cramps.
Between Roberts and Wan, (and Robert Siegel, Don Gonyea, MeeShill Norris, et al), and your beloved NPR ain’t your beloved NPR anymore.
Does anyone recall when NPR gave a weekly slot to Michael Harrington, the leader of the Democratic Socialists of America?
r€nato
I heard that Steele interview and was just gobsmacked.
In fact, I heard it when first waking up early this morning (my alarm clock is set to turn on the radio, not a blaring alarm) and I was wondering, ‘who is this fucking idiot who either didn’t hear the word ‘nuance’ or doesn’t know what it means? And now he’s trying to bluster his way through the rest of the interview to cover up the fact that what he’s saying makes no sense?’
Only later did I find out it was Michael Steele. Holy crap what an idiot. I’m sure he’ll tell all his friends that NPR did a ‘gotcha’ interview.
r€nato
As for Cokie Roberts… more useless than teats on a bull.
The next time someone tries to pawn off DC “common wisdom” on you (as Cokie does regularly), remember that the “common wisdom” has always been that the first black president would have to be a moderate Republican like Colin Powell, because the American people would be too scared to elect a left-leaning Democratic black guy.
It was never really considered in that formulation prior to Obama’s candidacy, but suffice it to say that I’m certain the common wisdom would have completely rejected as naive the idea that a left-leaning Democratic black guy with a suspiciously foreign-sounding name ( and a Muslim-derived middle name!!!) could ever mount a credible presidential campaign, let alone actually win the White House.
Sentient Puddle
Meh, I don’t think this one is really that damning for Cokie. That was the CW for the time, and the entire establishment was concern trolling it. Because back then, Democrats trying to primary one of their senators in a very liberal state for not being liberal enough was a much bigger story than the Republicans trying to primary one of their senators in another very liberal state for not being conservative enough.
Tangent aside, what’s more damning is that she still buys into the CW, not understanding just how wrong it has been since 2006. I think the only thing that distinguishes her from the pack is that she constantly considers a bunch of insipid things to be “interesting.”
parksideq
@Da Bomb: Per Cokie’s Wikipedia entry, the incident I assume you’re referring to:
At least assholes like Glenn Beck are entertaining in a train wreck sort of way. Cokie’s not only dumb, but everything she has ever said is an exercise in banality.
cmorenc
The great thing about being a talking-head pundit on TV is that you may be operating in very shallow water, but contemporary viewers see you swimming:
1) You can be dead wrong about most of what you said two or three years ago and few will remember;
2) Sure, there are a few who do remember and have access to old video clips of you saying those dead wrong things. Problem is, even fewer others really care enough about whatever it is you said two or three years ago.
It’s really an ideal world where most other people have just enough casual interest to skim what you’re saying on TV and splash it into their minds FWIW and move on, but not enough interest to really follow-up to see how your track record turns out.
Just don’t write/say something that can be turned into an unforgettably catchy snarky tag-line that forever hampers your credibility, such as [i] Friedman Unit [/i]
Fortunately for Cokie Roberts, there is no “Cokie Unit” etc, at least not yet.
PanAmercan
For Cokie it will always be 1966. She has permanent resident status in Nixonland.
Tom
Well, and it certainly – and Bill Clinton, it’s also no accident that Bill Clinton is the only Democrat who has been elected president for two terms since Franklin Roosevelt, because he was a Democrat in the middle from the south with a very strong acquaintanceship with scripture.
Never mind that in the early 60s a liberal Northeasterner most likely would have been elected to two terms if it weren’t for, well, you know.
Warren Terra
@ Da Bomb, #36
She did indeed do so, and (as parksideq notes, above), it attracted some unflattering attention. As I recall even more incredible than her initial absurd statement that Obama having a family vacation and grandmother visit at his birthplace within the United States was somehow exotic was that, when she was called on it, despite the comment’s obvious indefensibility she valiantly attempted to defend her comment at some length. At some point she basically said that Real Merkins vacation in the Outer Banks, which may well be true if you grow up upper-middle-class in Washington DC.
Da Bomb
@parksideq: @Warren Terra: Hence, why I feel that she’s such a twit.
gonzone
“She literally could not have been more wrong.”
The very definition of Cokie Roberts in one sentence. But it IS Villager Conventional Wisdom.
gizmo
Nitwits like Cokie Roberts and David Broder are a greater threat to the Republic than the crazies on the far Right, because they are perceived to be sensible centrist voices, when in fact they are nothing more than whores for the status quo preferred by the entrenched economic interests.
knowdaboom
I thought the Lieberman campaign itself was the first to use “Joementum” and then everyone else started using it mockingly.
CT
@Elvis Elvisberg: Well done.
CalD
If it’s any consolation, a whole lot of people with track records for prescience every bit as Roberts’ own already have.
CalD
I meant:
“…with track records for prescience every bit as good as Roberts’ own already have.”