"A smattering of journalists"

"Hey, cloud, thanks for covering for me," says the sun (above left) in possibly the best of a series of totally awesome Jimmy Dean "Breakfast Bowls" commercials that have won our heart. Another fave has a half-full moon coming in to work "just not feelin' it" until the sun microwaves a Jimmy Dean breakfast that leaves him saying "Oh, yah. I'm full." The series takes us from kitchen scenes with wife and kids rushing out of the house before breakfast to corporate headquarters, where sun, moon and cloud -- who prefers cereal with milk, as cold and wet are his thing -- in turn illuminate day and night and obscure the sun for the "entire eastern seaboard" as they stand before a broad picture window of the skyscraper where they work. The series prompted us finally during shoppies yesterday to seek out the Jimmy Dean product, but when we noted the number of calories per serving, we just said no.

"Get your policies right and history will prove a kind muse," Thatcherite Tory historian Andrew Roberts advised GW at the White House dinner/seminar we would have given our compound eyes for -- as a fly on the wall -- to attend last week. We caught a C-Span2 interview with Mr. Roberts -- Churchill-o-phile Brit author of A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900 -- in the wee hours this morning and then stumbled upon this to-die-for -- need we say must-read? -- report from Irwin M. Stelzer, who WAS there:

But the president did want to know more about the extent and reasons for the rise of anti-American feeling in Britain. "Is it due simply to my personality?" he wondered, half-seriously. "Is it confined to intellectuals?" asked a guest. Roberts led with a reminder that no British intellectual would style himself an "intellectual," prompting the president to add, "Neither would a Texas politician." The combined Roberts-Stelzer response: The causes of rampant anti-Americanism do indeed include dislike of Bush. But there are others: the war in Iraq; anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian sentiment, laced with some covert anti-Semitism; and resentment of American power. Roberts urged the president not to concern himself with these anti-American feelings, since in a unipolar world the lone superpower cannot be loved. His advice: "Get your policies right and history will prove a kind muse."

It's that old saw. Better to be feared than to be loved. And for you fellow wannabe flies upon the wall whose proboscises are all abuzz, here's a partial list of who else was there:

Among those joining the president and Roberts at last week's White House lunch were the distinguished Victorian historian Gertrude Himmelfarb [Bill Kristol's mom], neocon intellectual Norman Podhoretz [John Podhoretz's dad], Paul Gigot, editor of the Wall Street Journal's influential editorial page, theologian Michael Novak, and a smattering of journalists.

A smattering of journalists. 'Guess we'll have to read the entrails of the op eds to find out who they're talking about.

Update: Pajamas Media links.

Comments

[goomp]

Looks like President Bush is a truly educated man who is an intellectual and not of the uninformed intellectual class that is the mainstay of liberalism.

[Laura Lee Donoho]

Sissy, I love the Sun commercials. Not only is the Sun one of the first positive role models for a father and husband I've seen in a commercial for a long time, it positively makes me smile, no matter how often I have seen them.

Father Sun is optimistic, and commanding when he has to be, as when he tells his wife and daughters that they do have time for breakfast if he does, for after all he has to light up the entire eastern seaboard in fifteen minutes. I do love the cloud/sun interchange the best.

The commercials are clever and low-key. Father Sun, being a wise and kind man, never takes offense, even when the snarky woman in one commercial asks him if he had ever heard of drive-thru. He calmly answers, "Ever heard of Jimmy Dean?"

And yes, the commercials have worked with me. My husband loves to make breakfast on the weekends and he's tried some of the Jimmy Dean offerings.

[Teresa]

Haven't seen the Jimmy Dean commercials - but I love the Taco Bell commercials with the lions. *grin* And I don't eat any of that stuff so none of these offerings will entice me to buy. Oh well, at least an enjoyable commercial makes for better viewing.

As for the rest - how can we tell if the people of Great Britain dislike us, all we have to go on is the output of their own MSM - which I know is about as reliable as ours.

[bird dog]

Would have given a front tooth to be there.

[S. Weasel]

Country sausage. Is there nothing it can't do?

[Gayle Miller]

Those commercials ALWAYS call forth a gentle smile from me. Wish I could digest country sausage, Weasel, because I surely do love it - alas, an insecure tummy precludes that pleasure!

[Esther Kustanowitz]

The cloud is my brother. Seriously.

[Sissy Willis]

Esther: I had no idea Cloud had a sister . . . do you wander lonely?

Seriously, he is one talented actor. He inhabits the character with all the gloom and doom one would expect of a cloud. :-)