First he pulls this bit of nonsense during the tour promoting the nonsense documentary — and I use the word documentary very loosely here — “Expelled.”
Now Media Matters is reporting he’s gone Godwin on the Democratic Convention and Obama.
From the second link:
On the July 23 edition of CNN Headline News’ Glenn Beck, guest Ben Stein, while discussing Sen. Barack Obama’s planto deliver his speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination at Denver’s Invesco Field, stated that he did not “like the idea of Senator Obama giving his acceptance speech in front of 75,000 wildly cheering people” because “[t]hat is not the way we do things in political parties in the United States of America.” Stein continued: “Seventy-five-thousand people at an outdoor sports palace, well, that’s something the Fuehrer would have done. And I think whoever is advising Senator Obama to do this is bringing up all kinds of very unfortunate images from the past.”
Host Beck responded that he has “been saying that we’re headed towards a Mussolini-style presidency forever. … I mean it’s crazy.” Stein then declared, “It’s a scary situation. … But 75,000 people screaming in an outdoor arena, that’s just too much. It’s just — it’s scarily authoritarian.” He continued: “It’s like Juan Peron and Evita.”
Stein is not the first guest on Glenn Beckto compare Obama to Adolf Hitler. On February 22, National Review Online editor-at-large Jonah Goldberg said: “I think one of the things that is decidedly fascistic, or at least just a bad idea, is looking for silver bullets. You know, when Barack Obama campaigns, he’s basically saying, ‘I’m a silver bullet. I’m going to solve all your problems just by electing me.’ FDR, Hitler, all these guys, they basically said, ‘All your problems can be solved.’ “
Not too shocking a feeble-minded hack scion like Goldberg came up with a weak analogy, but for Stein this would have been unfathomable before his little turn in “Expelled,” and in particular his behavior on the publicity tour.
I’ve heard that old friends are turning on him, but I haven’t read any of his latest columns — if he still has one somewhere. I always enjoyed his work for the American Spectator and other media outlets.
It’s sad to see a once vibrant, and intellectually challenging, mind grab for the easiest, least relevant argument. Unless Stein honestly thinks Obama will do for the United States what Hitler did for Germany and then Europe. If that’s the case maybe he needs a CT scan to make sure he doesn’t have brain tumor.
