Posted 9:27 PM by Floyd

So Josh Chafetz of OxBlog went above and beyond the call of duty by going to see Gary Hart speak. (At Oxford, whence OxBlog. It's not like Chafetz is yoked to a plow.)

Josh was no more impressed with Hart than I was after I read a transcript of an earlier speech. He criticized Hart for repeating a lot of leftist cliches, and for mouthing vague facts and pieties. I was also surprised to see that, just like Hart used to enjoy a little extramarital action when away from home, he enjoys a knock or two against his country when on foreign soil:

He closed with a final note of partisan hyperbole, pandering to the worst impressions of Europeans about America. He claimed that civil rights abuses were imminent, and that "right now, Arab-Americans are walking the streets looking over their shoulders," fearing a repeat of the World War II Japanese-American internments. Hogwash. Outside of the Ann Coulter circle, no one has proposed anything of the sort, and no one will. But that didn't stop Hart from pandering to his audience and scoring cheap partisan points.