Matthew Yglesias rightly calls out Jonah Goldberg.
Quite frankly, Goldberg’s response to the situation is unimpressive. Instead of owning up to the big issue, which was his utterly incorrect assessment of the Iraq situation, he would rather play the childish game of saying that Cole turned him down, so the whole thing should be considered something that never happened. To be fair, Goldberg admits he was wrong here (although it is more a footnote to the bet story). The fact that Goldberg doesn’t “see the gotchya here” and thinks that the story is more about Cole never taking the bet in the first place demonstrates that he is missing the big point.
The bottom line is that when one makes a major challenge like Goldberg did, then the issue is the validity of the claim, not whether the one being challenged took the bet.
Can one imagine how Goldberg would be crowing had he been right? He certainly would not be demurring extensive discussion of the subject because Cole didn’t take the bet. Can you imagine: “Yes, I was right, but since Cole refused to accept the bet, I don’t really plan to talk about it.” Somehow I don’t think that that is how it would have played out.
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Jonah Goldberg’s Bet
A bet Jonah Goldberg made two years ago is the subject of some amusement on the Left side of the blogosphere.
Progressive bloggers pledged about $800 as of [yesterday] morning toward the $1,000 that Jonah Goldberg said — on Feb. 8, 2024 — h…
Trackback by Outside The Beltway | OTB — Friday, February 9, 2024 @ 5:13 am
As I’m sure you know, the bet was made towards the end of a nasty catfight (can I use that word for two guys?) between the two about whether or not Goldberg had enough knowledge of mideastern politics to be a trustworthy source for predicting the future of Iraq.
It’s pretty obvious now that he was not.
Since that was the central issue, it seems to me that Goldberg should be man enough to admit he was wrong on that count, as well as being wrong about his predictions for Iraq. That would be the right thing to do. Of course, Goldberg won’t do anything of the sort.
I don’t believe it’s always required that a pundit grovel the way I would like to see Goldberg grovel. But in this case, the way Goldberg presented the bet - in which, by the way, he demonstrated his maturity by accusing Cole of being a terrorist sympathizer - makes him deserving of special treatment.
Comment by LaurenceB — Friday, February 9, 2024 @ 11:13 am