Sullivan : 'I am "deeply ashamed of my own misjudgments"

[denem]

For those wondering about Sully'd change of heart, he gave his mea culpa tonight:

Look: I'm biased at this point. I'm one of those people, deeply distressed at what has happened to America, deeply ashamed of my own misjudgments, who has shifted out of my ideological comfort zone because this man seems different to me, and this moment in history seems different to me. I'm not sure we have many more chances to get off the addiction to foreign oil, to prevent a calamitous terrorist attack, to restore constitutional balance in the hurricane of a terror war.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/

[speedoo]

1. More rethugs should feel that way.

Congratulations to Sullivan for coming around.

"ENOUGH!"

[Iwillnevergiveup]

2. Good, Mr. Sullivan

Now vote accordingly. After you've sent in a big donation to Barack.:thumbsup:

[roguevalley]

7. what a jackass, he still has his head up bush's butt about the

terror shit. the destruction is coming with global warming. he will never learn, the dunce.

[nsd]

10. Andrew Sullivan is HIV-positive.

Until this month, the law barred people like him from becoming U.S. citizens or permanent residents, making him ineligible to vote or contribute to political campaigns. That law was repealed earlier this month. Having read his blog for four years, I'm pretty sure Sullivan will follow your advice once he's gone through the naturalization process.

ETA: John Kerry was one of the major players in getting the ban overturned. So kudos to him.

[eshfemme]

12. Wow, I did NOT know that. That's kinda sick to think that it was actually a law.

I knew that HIV positive people had a responsibility to not knowingly infect others but I didn't realize there was a legal ostracization of them in restricting their rights...

Good for Kerry. Seriously, why do we have such good candidates-- our world would be such a great place if we had a President Gore and a President Kerry. But I guess this has just paved the way for a President Obama.

[billyoc]

3. What a nice note to send along with your check, Andrew!

[CitizenPatriot]

4. oh, to be graceful when they come running our way, seeking shelter

;-)

i like your idea that they donate first.

I've been telling morans for years now that I am doing all of this work FOR them. To save them. Even as they fight me, I'm still working to save them.

maybe they're going to wise up, and start doing somehting to save themselves.

That sounds like personal responsibility, no?


But seriously, we can expect a lot more of these converts. I will practice graciousness and welcome, and leave the jabs at home. It's important that we throw our arms open wide (after they donate to Obama) and make sure they know they are HOME.

[BlooInBloo]

5. And more....

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/08/the-hope-we-con.html

"It was a deeply substantive speech, full of policy detail, full of people other than the candidate, centered overwhelmingly on domestic economic anxiety. It was a liberal speech, more unabashedly, unashamedly liberal than any Democratic acceptance speech since the great era of American liberalism. But it made the case for that liberalism - in the context of the decline of the American dream, and the rise of cynicism and the collapse of cultural unity. His ability to portray that liberalism as a patriotic, unifying, ennobling tradition makes him the most lethal and remarkable Democratic figure since John F Kennedy.

What he didn't do was give an airy, abstract, dreamy confection of rhetoric. The McCain campaign set Obama up as a celebrity airhead, a Paris Hilton of wealth and elitism. And he let them portray him that way, and let them over-reach, and let them punch him again and again ... and then he turned around and destroyed them. If the Rove Republicans thought they were playing with a patsy, they just got a reality check.

He took every assault on him and turned them around. He showed not just that he understood the experience of many middle class Americans, but that he understood how the Republicans have succeeded in smearing him. And he didn't shrink from the personal charges; he rebutted them. Whoever else this was, it was not Adlai Stevenson. It was not Jimmy Carter. And it was less afraid and less calculating than Bill Clinton.

Above all, he took on national security - face on, full-throttle, enraged, as we should all be, at how disastrously American power has been handled these past eight years. He owned this issue in a way that no Democrat has owned it since Kennedy. That's a transformative event. To my mind, it is vital that both parties get to own the war on Jihadist terror and that we escape this awful Rove-Morris trap that poisons the discourse into narrow and petty partisan abuse of patriotism. Obama did this tonight. We are in his debt."

[housewolf]

6. Gratifying words coming from Andrew Sullivan

It takes a lot of courage to say "I was wrong" and gives me a greater measure of respect for him.

[dansolo]

8. While I am happy for his conversion

One part really struck me: "because this man seems different to me". I find that very strange coming from an outspoken gay man. I would have thought that a gay man would be especially sensitive to the notion of distrusting someone who is "different". Hasn't he had to face that same sort of prejudice his entire life?

[nsd]

9. His point is that Obama's "difference" is what attracts him.

Sullivan is saying Obama isn't a typical politician -- he's something special, something different enough that the old partisan worldview stops making sense.

[Sidney J Mussburger]

11. I think he means a different kind of politician

Someone he's never seen before. Not just because of race, but someone who truly represents a different politics that he's never encountered before. At least, that's how I interpret that quote.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

13. It takes a mensch to own his misjudgment publicly

You, Mr Sullivan, are a mensch.

[Jennicut]

14. I forgive him. He' s on the right side now.

I'll take any converts right now. Defeat McSame.