It might be cold comfort to mention now, but according to the Atlantic, Dan Quayle was right about Murphy Brown and Mitt Romney was right about Russia. It’s probably just a matter of time until one of their columnists declares Rick Perry was actually right about Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
As you might recall, Perry was widely mocked for saying (during a debate) that Turkey “is being ruled by what many would perceive to be Islamic terrorists.”
More and more, his statement is sounding less and less ridiculous. … Oops!
Appearing on SiriusXM’s POTUS today, HuffPost columnist Ahmed Shihab-Eldi reportedly noted that, “More journalists were jailed in Turkey than in any other country in the world in 2012.”
And a bit later, AEI’s Michael Rubin observed that, “Perhaps the best way to explain the confluence of Erdoğan’s autocratic tendencies and his Islamism would be to imagine if Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a baby. That baby would be Erdoğan.”
This, of course, comes amid rioting in Turkey. How bad are things? So bad that Syria is warning citizens it’s too dangerous to travel there. (Syria!)
So what’s the lesson? Given enough time, even the most absurd-sounding statements sometimes come true.
Heck, we might even live long enough to discover that Jay Carney was, in fact, a “paid liar.” Only time will tell.
*Update: My colleague Jim Antle rightly notes there is a difference between being autocratic and being a terrorist. This is true, but even conceding that important distinction, Perry’s comments weren’t as crazy as many thought. It’s also important to note that, at the time, Perry’s critics insisted Turkey’s leadership was “moderate.”