Klein vs. Malkin is so expired…
Oct 11th, 2007 | 14 responses
I don’t get it. I don’t understand why Ezra Klein would challenge Michelle Malkin to a reasoned debate about SCHIP knowing what he was going to get. And I don’t understand why Michelle Malkin would even reply to Ezra’s challenge knowing that she wouldn’t debate him in, well, I’ll just let her words speak for themself:
But I’d just as soon share a stage, physical or virtual, with Respectable Liberal Blogger Ezra Klein as I would with Chris Matthews, Geraldo Rivera, or an overflowing vat of liquid radioactive waste.
Both Klein and Malkin have enough blogging history to find loop holes, cracks, and crevices in each other’s past posts. So they knew they have enough material to counter each other. Not that hard. So this had to be a stunt by both Klein and Malkin to heat the lava and drive even more traffic to their sites and their satellites, right? Because both of them KNEW that the debate would never happen, right? I hope so. Because this type of “blogger challenge but not a real challenge” fatigues me. Maybe I’m the one with the problem. Maybe I’m not seeing the logic in such a challenge. Maybe I’m the crazy one in thinking that a pay-per-view event between Klein and Malkin, dressed in armor suits, and hitting each other with war hammers would be infinitely more interesting than a “debate that would never happen and reaction shots via the blog”.
NOTE: I’m blogging under my full name now. T-Steel is so expired too.
14 Responses to “Klein vs. Malkin is so expired…”
Malkin is only comfortable when her opponent is a 12-year old kid and his family, who have the nerve to own their own home and get assistance from the government at the same time. She would crumble under a challenge from someone who is her intellectual equal. Plus, somewhere deep inside, she may realize she is on the wrong side of this issue, and that her tactics are, after all, pretty sleazy.
This would be so much more entertaining with mouth-guards, soft-helmets, and boxing gloves!
Now that would be worth paying attention to! Maybe the Romans would lend them the Coliseum…
Aww! No clanging metal. Darn it. Ok. How about a compromise: mouth-guards, soft-helmets, and foam baseball bats. Nothing better than powerful swing from a foam bat!
What is really needed is the old Firing Line debates, where intelligent people like Bill Buckley can debate equally intelligent people like a Gary Hart.
Why anyone would even think that two bloggers who live in their own alternate universes, not the real one, could even debate well if they truly wanted to, is the q.
This is what the Jerry Springer Political era has wrought.
Its an offspring of talk radio and cable news, which have degraded our political discussions. Of course, now that atmosphere has transcended into the blogosphere, which has descended into a partisan free-for-all- no holds barred.
Having given this a lot of thought, here is where I come down on the matter:
Although my rhetoric sometime can be shrill, I feel like I have succeeded when I draw the various sides into a discussion or debate about a particular issue. The Moderate Voice happens to be a terrific vehicle for doing that because it draws readers from across the spectrum.
Malkin has no interested in discussing or debating. Her interest is only in feeding red meat to her readers, who are reliably and predictably on her side of a particular issue.
I have followed Malkin for nearly 10 years first as a syndicated op-ed columnist and more recently as a blogger. She not only has not grown, she has regressed.
Actually Ezra is fairly accomplished in the area of health care. And Malkin’s husband is also fairly knowledgeable on the subject.
I’d watch a debate between those two on the subject.
Michelle? Not so much.
Is Klein more reasonable than Malkin? Yes. But, my point is that even the worst participant in an old Firing Line debate would be reams more qualified and actually willing to debate, than these two.
Have you already optioned the rights to the reality show based on this idea to some Hollywood Mogul?
[...] Steels II at The Moderate Voice understands this, too: So this had to be a stunt by both Klein and Malkin to heat the lava and [...]
Tyrone vs T-Steels?
I’m not sure. Expired, maybe.
But with T-Steels there is always the hope of a burst of music or some other innovative flight of mind.
Tyrone is so serious and mainstream..
THIS COMMENT IS NOT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY EITHER BEFORE OR AFTER MEALS.
LOL! T-Steel just started getting alittle old to me. Been using it for over 10 years.
But don’t let the “Tyrone” fool ya. I’m as innovative as curly fries (a damn fine invention) and as serious as a wet noodle.
How about Michelle Malkin vs. Ann Coulter in a bout of nude mud and hot oil wrestling.
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