Dick Morris getting raggedy around the edges?

In his column two days ago, Dick Morris said that Mitt Romney won the 2008 New Hampshire primary. Of course it was McCain who won in New Hampshire, signaling his return from political death and starting the roll that led to his nomination. I was shocked that Morris got this wrong. People who follow politics, not to mention political professionals, simply don’t forget things like that. It would be like saying that Hubert Humphrey beat John F. Kennedy in West Virginia in 1960, or that Eugene McCarthy beat Robert Kennedy in California in 1968, or that George W. Bush beat McCain in New Hampshire in 2000, when in reality he lost to McCain by 17 points. (Morris has since corrected his error about the 2008 race, changing the wording to “Romney ran strongly in New Hampshire.”)

And now, in his column today, Morris writes:

The Wikileaks documents show that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has, as Voltaire said about the Bourbon kings of France, learned nothing and forgotten nothing.

As soon as I read that about Voltaire, I felt something wasn’t right about it. Fortunately an L-dotter immediately picked up on the same error and had the true information at hand:

Reply 2—Posted by: Ole Doc Farmer, 12/1/2010 5:57:37 AM

Voltaire?! That was Talleyrand that Dick is quoting. The poor guy is working too hard!

The commenter is correct, on both counts.

Furthermore, not only is Morris making factual errors, but the writing in some of his recent columns has struck me as sloppy and repetitive.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 01, 2010 07:32 AM | Send