Well this is pretty cool

I step away for a little while and when I return, I find that Jonah Goldberg has delivered me the following lovenote at The Corner:

Something called the Jed Report goes after me with moonbatty gusto for my USA Today column. You can judge the caliber of the guy from his writing and style yourself (I don't know anything about him beyond this sophomoric bile). But he says that I'm attacking Reagan because Reagan said "the exact same thing" as Obama.

Actually, just to be clear, I was saying that Jonah wasn't attacking Reagan, and that his (absolutely reasonable) failure to do so betrayed his (utterly unreasonable) attack on Obama.

Jonah rests his initial counter argument on Reagan's use of the word "again."

But the two quotes he uses aren't, you know, exact. Reagan was talking about making America "great again." In the quote I highlighted, Obama is talking about making America "great," full stop — as in we can make America great for the first time.

To which I might respond: art thou inferring too much?

But let's take him seriously for a second. Jonah says he rests his interpretation at least in part on Barack's nomination clincher speech in St. Paul:

For example, I note that Obama also said in his nomination-clincher speech that his victory marks the moment when America finally took care of the sick and the jobless — as if America never did these things before (and as if the government and the country are the same thing).

Okay, let's take a look at what Barack actually said in St. Paul:

Americans are a decent, generous, compassionate people, united by common challenges and common hopes. And every so often, there are moments which call on that fundamental goodness to make this country great again.

So it was for that band of patriots who declared in a Philadelphia hall the formation of a more perfect union; and for all those who gave on the fields of Gettysburg and Antietam their last full measure of devotion to save that same union. So it was for the Greatest Generation that conquered fear itself, and liberated a continent from tyranny, and made this country home to untold opportunity and prosperity. So it was for the workers who stood out on the picket lines; the women who shattered glass ceilings; the children who braved a Selma bridge for freedom's cause.So it has been for every generation that faced down the greatest challenges and the most improbable odds to leave their children a world that's better, and kinder, and more just.

And so it must be for us.

If that's what Jonah is trying hang his hat on, well, I think he's out of luck.

Ultimately, Jonah's defense for his column is that Reagan had different policy views (smaller gov't, bigger military) than Obama, and that's what makes him better. Fine -- then why not just say that, instead of dipping into the unpatriotic pool?

And as for my sophomoric bile, if you read this blog regularly you know I don't often mock someone as harshly as I mocked him. But I do reserve a special sort of scorn for those like Jonah Goldberg who are smart enough to know what they are doing when they challenge Barack Obama's patriotism.

And yes, there is some satisfaction to read Jonah's admission that "I feel like a fool responding to this yutz at all." Good -- I'm glad he's getting in touch with his inner self.