John Hawkins’ poll at Right Wing News names the people on the right most disliked in the right-wing blogosphere…
David Frum tied with Lindsay Graham for 3rd place, just behind John McCain, but beating David Brooks. (Olympia Snowe ranked first.) Nobody wishes to be disliked of course, but at least the company on the disliked list represents a big improvement over the “most respected” list, which is headed by Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin.
45 responses so far
1 Observer // Sep 25, 2009 at 12:18 pm
“We?”
Irony?
2 Churl // Sep 25, 2009 at 12:24 pm
New Majority: building a conservatism that can win again by micturating-off conservatives.
Sounds crazy, but it might work.
3 MFarmer // Sep 25, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I guess when you have no better ideas to win the prize, being anti-Beck/Limbaugh/Palin is second-best.
4 Oneon1isto // Sep 25, 2009 at 3:05 pm
All I know is I’m running out of conservatives to support. The party keeps kicking out the next round of less conservative conservatives. Now we’re at Olympia Snowe and Grassley.
I remember about 12 months back I was joking that they would eventually get to Grassley. Little did I know he’d be the next RINO.
We need to switch from the tent analogy to a sleeping bag, cause things are getting mighty tight in the GOP.
5 midcon // Sep 25, 2009 at 3:09 pm
What is more interesting is the “most respected list” ecompassing the views of 260 right of center bloggers. Look at the groupings and not the individuals. Where are the GOP political leaders in terms of the 25 most influential? Pretty far down the list huh? As I said interesting stuff. Can the GOP recover without the Dems failing? Not with lists like these which seem to reflect the views of the right.
6 wrs10 // Sep 25, 2009 at 3:53 pm
LOL! I thought that it was going to be about the number of visitors to the site!
7 EscapeVelocity // Sep 25, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Obama plays to the anti-American crowd
At the U.N., the president told anti-Americans what they like to hear. The danger is that he believes not only in his inflated view of himself, but in his words, too.
David Frum
http://www.theweek.com/bullpen/column/100770/Obama_plays_to_the_antiAmerican_crowd
Glenn Beck nor Rush Limbaugh could have said it better themselves.
LOL!
8 DFL // Sep 25, 2009 at 4:14 pm
When you think outside the box, you are hated. So take it as a compliment, Mr. Frum. Ironically, David Frum is probably somewhere along side Pat Buchanan as most hated consevative. I’d rather be hated than be a bore like Sean Hannity.
9 Oneon1isto // Sep 25, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Actually I took a look at the 2008 list too, it’s interested to see how the numbers have changed. In particular, look how Sarah Palin has totally thrown the list off, even pushing Ronald Reagan out entirely. Beck remains relatively unchanged, and Rush lost quite a few votes. I’ve reproduced 2008 below for comparison, then look at Frum’s link to 2009.
#25: Mark Levin: 6
#21) Hugh Hewitt: 7
#21) George Will: 7
#21) John Roberts: 7
#21) Ronald Reagan: 7
#20) Victor Davis Hanson: 8
#19) Antonin Scalia: 9
#18) John McCain: 10
#14) Glenn Beck: 11
#14) George W. Bush: 11
#14) Glenn Reynolds: 11
#14) Matt Drudge: 11
#13) Bill Kristol: 12
#10) Charles Krauthammer: 13
#10) Thomas Sowell: 13
#10) Laura Ingraham: 13
#9) Karl Rove: 14
#8) Jonah Goldberg: 15
#7) Bill O’Reilly: 17
#5) Newt Gingrich: 21
#5) Ann Coulter: 21
#3) Mark Steyn: 23
#3) Sean Hannity: 23
#2) Michelle Malkin: 24
#1) Rush Limbaugh: 49
10 Churl // Sep 25, 2009 at 4:40 pm
I don’t think that “hated” means the same as “disliked”. “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
If you are a Person of Melanin Deficiency and can’t flop down a race card when someone disagrees with you, just say that those who disagree with you do so because they hate you.
Hey, it has worked for the left for many years, why shouldn’t the squishy right give it a try?
11 sricher // Sep 25, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Well. I’m pleased to see tha some of the Republican intelligencia–Charles Krauthammer, John Botlon–are appreciated…
12 Right wing bloggers vote for most influential GOPers « David Kirkpatrick // Sep 25, 2009 at 6:27 pm
[...] tip: NewMajority) Leave a [...]
13 Moderate // Sep 25, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Realistically, any group led by Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Thomas Sowell, Michelle Malkin, and Mark Steyn is doomed to well-deserved irrelevance. They lack self-censorship, if not inherently then as part of a carefully crafted persona designed to rake in $ from undemanding conservative audiences.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, Sen. John McCain, David Frum, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and David Brooks, all of whom are pretty damned conservative, are at least tonally balanced, whether by natural disposition or political/career necessity.
14 Chekote // Sep 25, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Congratulations Mr. Frum!
15 MFarmer // Sep 25, 2009 at 7:26 pm
“Sen. Olympia Snowe, Sen. John McCain, David Frum, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and David Brooks, all of whom are pretty damned conservative”
Uh…I don’t think so. They are pragmatists.
16 EscapeVelocity // Sep 25, 2009 at 7:44 pm
You still have the Left showering you with praise Mr. Frum, every time you attack Conservatives.
Just like any Republican is lauded profusely when they hamstring Conservative legislation or vote for Leftwing legislation.
Enjoy it, while you can, because Conservatives have a long memory.
17 EscapeVelocity // Sep 25, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Well, you should be able to enjoy it for a long long time, get a regular gig like David Brooks, RINOing for the Leftist media.
18 greg_barton // Sep 25, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Wow. Those polls are great news! Frum, you’ve made my day.
19 greg_barton // Sep 25, 2009 at 9:07 pm
midcon, you make a very salient observation. Conservatives in government are in a tough position. If they’re good at their job they get in trouble politically, and are voted out. If they’re bad at their job their constituents love them, but they ruin the country, and are voted out. So by definition they can’t stay in power long, except by deceptive and manipulative means.
20 Thanos // Sep 26, 2009 at 1:11 am
Oneon1isto: I like to phrase it as going from the big tent party to the pup tent party.
21 BoolaBoola // Sep 26, 2009 at 2:15 am
The political right in USA is determined to commit suicide, and they hate anyone, like DF, who tries to stop them. The current attitude seems to be that of the narrator of Doestoyevskiy’s NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND, who refuses to see a doctor for his liver problems out of spite: “My liver is bad? Very well then, let it get worse!”
Eventually the public will turn their anger about things in general onto the Dems, and the Republicans will get back in. The question is, what kind of Republicans will they be? If it happens any time soon, they will be the same crowd that convinced John McCain to run with the batty broad. The “starve-the-beast”, “war-for-war’s-sake”, “conservatism-equals-nihilism” people, the William Kristols and the Tom Coburns. The people who programmed George W. Cokehead-Burnout Bush.
If there ever were a time to bail out of the GOP, now is the time. DF, you should start a new party. Call it the NCCP: The Not-Crazy Conservative Party.
22 BoolaBoola // Sep 26, 2009 at 2:18 am
Mr. EscapeVelocity, the people David is attacking are NOT conservatives.
23 greg_barton // Sep 26, 2009 at 2:35 am
BoolaBoola, I suggest the CCCP: the Contra Crazy Conservative Party.
24 SJReidhead // Sep 26, 2009 at 3:21 am
Don’t you think this whole “most hated” list is rather like a high school slam book and just as mature. Disgusting.
SJR
The Pink Flamingo
25 Moderate // Sep 26, 2009 at 6:35 am
sjreidhead,
You’re just upset that you were on your high school’s Slut List, aren’t you?
(Seriously, I don’t see anything wrong with compiling a “Least Respected Conservative” list; I just wish the criterion were more considered than “not in lockstep.”)
26 nwahs // Sep 26, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Its hard to believe Joe Wilson isn’t on the list. Usually any type of frat boy antic will elevate a Republican’s stature in the blogosphere. Its the Spingerization of the Republican party. “Rush, Rush, Rush, Rush..”
27 sdspringy // Sep 26, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Acouple of words on this. First I don’t read any of the bloggers mentioned. So from my standpoint as a conservative their views are minimal.
Second who believes Snow is a conservative? That statement would be ridiculous even to Snow. I would consider Joe Lieberman as conservative as her. Graham and McCain have media motives which determine just how conservative they will be concerning a specific issue. I voted for McCain so in my book that means he is more conservative the Obama.
Although most of you may not remember but 2000 & 2001 Bush was roundly criticized by Rush for many issues. The 50 Billion Dept. of Education funding with Kennedy, immigration, plus many fiscal issues had Bush on the low end of the conservative love list.
Which means that while conservatives are willing to critique and criticize our party, Dems are robotic in their loyalty. The Dems posting here should first have a disclaimer that Biden is making many more moronic statements than Palin. That Obama has so far been loose with the truth and has failed to keep any of his liberal promises. But nothing from the Lefties here on either of the stupidity of Biden or Pelosi, have throw that name in, and the immense drop in Dem fortunes since Obama took the election
28 midcon // Sep 26, 2009 at 4:33 pm
There is virtually no difference in the far left and far right (the binaries) in their blind adherence to their beliefs and robotic responses to any given situation. They both are prone to labeling, categorizing, checklisting, and demonizing every leader, situation, and event. Everyone who demonstrates the slightest independence and less than blind adherence immediately becomes suspect as a closet (liberal/conservative) (enter your own label as desired). The binaries have no unique or independent thoughta and typically will repeat canned phrases as if they are puppets or parrots (polly want a cracker!). If you don’t believe me, just take sdspringy’s post and replace all the nouns with the binary left words and it will be a mirror image of sdpringys.
For example sdpringy’s statement written by a right binary “The Dems posting here should first have a disclaimer that Biden is making many more moronic statements than Palin.”
Would turn into the following if written by a left binary “The Republicans posting here should first have a disclaimer that Palin is making many more moronic statements than Biden.”
Am I the only that sees there is virtually no difference between the binaries?
It used to make me angry that there seems to be so many unused brain cells among the binaries. Now it just makes me sad.
29 sdspringy // Sep 26, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Your comment would be relevant Mid IF Palin had not been the butt of so many comment on this blog including the blog’s name sake Frumm.
As it is your response is a perfect example of yet another blind Dem refusing to acknowledge the idiocy of Biden. That along with the follow up insult to another opinion leaves me believing you and other libs leave a very pinched lifestyle as a result of a constipated viewpoint.
30 anniemargret // Sep 26, 2009 at 5:33 pm
sdspringy: “Dems are robotic in their loyalty. The Dems posting here should first have a disclaimer that Biden is making many more moronic statements than Palin”
Oh….this is rich. But I will put this one aside for the moment.
I agree with you, midcon, that ‘binaries’ in both parties tend to seek out the worst, excoriating anyone who has an independent rational thought and as you say correctly, “…labeling, categorizing, checklisting, and demonizing every leader, situation, and event.” It is simply because the binaries purpose is to antagonize. There is something sadly innate in some human beings that they get their jollies from seeking the worst in people (parties) than the best. It is SO much easier to spread the fear and hate, than try to be a peacemaker. We used to as a country, look up to peacemakers, but now we worship at the feet of egregious, noisemakers who take pleasure in divisiveness.
I am not sure what will propel us back to sanity as a nation. My 87 y/o mother calls me occasionally to complain how awful our country has become….so much hatred everywhere you look. I have no comforting words for her. I have long thought that this country has more to fear from imploding from within than worrying about our foreign enemies.
As for Biden and Palin….that comment is so hilarious one has to be a complete ideologue to even put the two in the same sentence. Sure, Biden has made some real bone-headed remarks, so real faux pas that made Democrats wince. But the man has a proven record as a senator for many years, and has been able to debate all the issues with clarity and intelligence. He has served on the Foreign Relations Committee, etc…. he has served this nation well, and his constituents appreciate his hard work for all these years. He has not been divisive. The man has class.
Talking about divisiveness….however…
How dare anyone compare that idiot from Alaska in the same vein with then Senator and now Vice President Biden? She cut and ran, remember? Dished it out but couldn’t take it. She has yet put herself in front of the cameras where some real hard questions can be put to her without her formulaic, prepared, right wing rhetoric. She winks a lot. She looks pretty in clothes. That’s about it.
She won’t put herself in a real one on one without the softball questions, because she can’t do it.
Her contribution to this country so far as been to call decent Americans living in big cities ‘un-American’, has encouraged and exacerbated the racists and hate-mongers in her party, said the President of the U.S. was ‘palling around with terrorists’ and her understanding of foreign policy extends to her ‘hearing about it on the news.’
Please, don’t insult our intelligence. If you Republicans want her, need her, by all means, take her. Please. The rest of us just try to ignore her – she’s simply too uneducated on the issues and too divisive to be of any service to this nation…and to the soldiers (many born and raised from the big cities, including mine ) who died on battlefields to be insulted by the likes of her.
31 sdspringy // Sep 26, 2009 at 5:48 pm
I would like to thank both Mid and Annie for proving my point. That conservatives are able and willing to criticize their members while the libs just bow and scrape to theirs.
Annie, length of service in Washington is not an badge of quality, nor is in bringing in the pork and getting reelected.
Biden’s service on the Foreign Relation Committee should be an insult if your a lib. He voted for the Iraq War. He promoted a three state solution. He wanted more troops for Afghan. Now he doesn’t.
Bush’s comment of Biden, “If bullsh%t was money Biden would be a billionare”, is completely accurate.
And as the Libs suffer declining numbers and the Dems fight it out over all the issues, you keep pointing to Ole Joe and the guiding light. I just hope you are not one of those turkeys Ole Joe was referring to this week.
32 EscapeVelocity // Sep 26, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Biden’s response to 9/11 in the Foreign Relations Committee was to offer Iran 200 million dollars.
Brilliant!
33 anniemargret // Sep 26, 2009 at 6:22 pm
At least Biden had a thought in his head about Iraq. Did Palin have one, other than to say that our soldiers were there on a mission from God?
No, length of service is not always a ‘badge of honor’….but if you going to talk about pork, then
please do include Palin’s Bridge to Nowhere, of which she was for it before she was against it.
And what’s Ms. Palin’s solution to the Middle East’s imploding crises? Does she know the difference between Iran and Iraq? After all, she thinks if you’re not from ’small town America, where the *real Americans*’ are, then why would anyone think – she can think? I would think if someone is opting to be the President of the US (and she sure was hoping to get that job) she would know enough not to insult 8.3 million people in NYC!
34 anniemargret // Sep 26, 2009 at 6:36 pm
springy: If the Dems can’t hold it together through 2012, restore the economy somewhat, and if Obama cannot pass a decent healthcare reform bill (I’m very much in favor of a public option myself), then they deserve to lose. But if Republicans think the only thing they have to do is criticize Democrats and offer up nothing *Constructive* on the substantive issues of the day, then they will lose. After all, everything I read and listen to from Republicans is what the Dems are doing wrong…sounds like obstructionism and negativity from the get-go.
We Americans, you know, we *real* Americans from the big cities want some intelligent and productive solutions for the massive job losses, the failing dollar, the deficits, the skyrocketing healthcare costs, the care for the uninsured, the pending decision on whether or not to continue the failing situation in Afghanistan, the nation-building in Iraq, etc….
Is this a fair answer to criticism? I am not so wedded to any political party that I put the concerns for my country and my fellow citizens above it.
35 JeninCT // Sep 26, 2009 at 11:46 pm
Wow, you beat Kathleen Parker. That’s pretty hard to do!
36 sdspringy // Sep 27, 2009 at 7:32 am
Well Annie IDK whether you are a “real American” but it certainly sounds like you are a only child. Because you can’t have a public option and a solution to the deficit. And the failing situation in Afghan is impossible now that Obama is in office. The Dems say it’s the necessary war, Obama had a new strategy in Mar, and how could it be failing?
One additional piece of reality for you, Annie, the Rep don’t have to votes to stop anything. So if the Public Option isn’t passing it’s the Dems that are stopping it. So your criticisms are completely off the mark on health care. Besides the Dems, there are a majority of “other Americans” who dislike the public option as well.
So lets do alittle reality wrap up:
Afghan – Necessary War, Dems pull out now, terrorist proclaim victory, you own that in 2010 & 2012
Public Option – Kills the budget, balloons the deficit, no way you can have both
Health Care – Reps don’t have the votes, Dems can’t convince enough of your own party to pass it.
Cap&Trade – Reps don’t have the votes, Dems could but won’t pass it.
Palin – not in office, not setting policy, and this is your biggest reason for hating the Reps. Read 1-4 above.
37 nwahs // Sep 27, 2009 at 9:44 am
sdspringy”Palin – not in office, not setting policy, and this is your biggest reason for hating the Reps. Read 1-4 above.”
You forgot
5: Appeal to ignorance.
I resent that there is a feeling in the Republican party that all you have to do is hold a “Support out troops” sign and wear a “family values” pin to get elected. Its getting old having Republicans claim they are morally superior to half the country. I know I’ve about had my fill of it.
38 EscapeVelocity // Sep 27, 2009 at 10:58 am
I understand what you are saying nwahs, but unfortunately, the Democrats are so bad, that that is all they have to do to win.
How do you beat an America and Western Civilization Hating Leftwinger?
We need a Democrat Party that isnt controlled by Radical New Leftists. We need that desperately.
39 sdspringy // Sep 27, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Nwahs, when troops are in combat a sign expressing support is preferrable to the leader of the Senate stating that they can’t win. That the war is lost. Would you consider that ignorant, or just bad manners.
And I repeat, your hope and change is being blocked by Dems not Reps.
Also Rep. are half the country, you should try being more bipartisan and change some of your views.
40 sinz54 // Sep 27, 2009 at 4:43 pm
anniemargaret:
With all due respect to your mom:
There is far LESS hatred today than at any prior point in U.S. history.
I would ask your mom if she remembers the 1960s, when dozens of U.S. cities were torched by extremists and rioters. Ask her if she remembers the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and what happened in the streets there. Or the twin assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that same year. (The King assassination was avenged by black riots across the nation.)
Or the late 1950s and early 1960s, when civil rights demonstrators were beaten and occasionally even murdered in the South.
Or the 1930s, when Father Coughlin was in his heyday.
Or the 1920s, when the Ku Klux Klan was in its heyday.
American politics has always been passionate, messy, and (sometimes) violent. We used to have actual duels where politicians shot it out, like Burr and Hamilton.
Frankly, I don’t see “hatred everywhere you look” in today’s politics. Not at all. I see voters shouting at politicians to obey their masters–the voters who put them in office. But there is LESS racial hated, and LESS religious animosity, than at any prior time in U.S. history.
41 anniemargret // Sep 27, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Sinz: you make good points, and taken in that regard, true. I think however, that what many older Americans are seeing and hearing is a 24 hour ‘news’ cycle that is predominantly concerned with ratings and entertainment. There is less debate than there is shouting. Someone else mentioned Keith Olbermann and/or Ed Schultz as evidence that it nullifies the effects of Beck, etc….
They don’t. The entire discussion I think should be focused on whether or not Americans can accomplish goals which are in the best interests of its citizens without resorting to talking heads calling half of America….racists, or not ‘real Americans.’
What my mother and millions like her is hearing a debased conversation and a ratcheting up of inflammatory language. Yes, both sides do it, because 1) it is reactionary 2) it gets high ratings. Sorta like not wanting to see that horrible car wreck at the side of the road, but cannot helping to look anyway.
My point is that regardless whether or not there was violence in our nation’s history, we should be evolving, not devolving.
Where I don’t agree with you…at all….is that inflammatory language is OK. It stirs passions alright, but it can also stir violence. And from that regard, I beg to differ…. we need less of it, not more.
42 nwahs // Sep 27, 2009 at 8:40 pm
sinz54 wrote :”With all due respect to your mom:
There is far LESS hatred today than at any prior point in U.S. history.”
That’s true, but there is far more intellectual dishonesty. In the early 90’s, in Louisiana, I watched David Duke fashion intellectual dishonesty into a viable piece of the Republican party. Now its true, most portions of the Republican party rebuked him outright, conservative pundits like Rush Limbaugh simply played hands off – no rebuke. It is in that vein I take Rush Limbaugh’s sly bigotry – his Ebonics translations, and musical numbers lampooning African-Americans ( Jefferson theme song, The Magic Negro). I’m called out as a “RINO” for not accepting something I witnessed first hand in Louisiana in the early 1990’s. This type of sly bigotry will not fade away. It has to be firmly rebuked.
43 Reactions From The People On The Right Voted “Least Favorite” By Conservative Bloggers | Right Wing News // Sep 28, 2009 at 1:38 pm
[...] but not least, is David Frum from A New Majority: John Hawkins’ poll at Right Wing News names the people on the right most disliked in the [...]
44 Jim // Sep 29, 2009 at 1:24 am
And before we go rewriting history too completely, I would ask sinz and the rest of the gang here to remember that, in the early 1980’s, the liberals fought Reagan TOOTH AND NAIL for almost no reason other than that he existed. Reagan’s tent WAS big. The point is, a lot of ex-leftists are just now coming into it almost 30 years after he invited them.
45 joedee1969 // Sep 30, 2009 at 6:22 am
David needs his own TV show read this:
http://americaspeaksink.com/2009/09/calm-conservatives-this-is-our-time/
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