Who Hijacked Our Country

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Barack Obama — The Twerp Factor

That's the title of this article. Shallow pointless questions like this shouldn't matter, but unfortunately, in America they do.

Here's a link to the P.J. O'Rourke article that they're referring to.

I used to love P.J. O’Rourke’s articles in Rolling Stone; and before that he wrote for Lampoon Magazine. He’s entertaining even if he’s a rightwinger.

Like it or not, shit like this is important to American voters; whether it’s conscious or subliminal. Americans want their president to be tall, well built, firm and decisive — Dirty Harry in a suit. It’s OK to be smart, as long as you don’t talk like some sort of intellectual elitist who thinks too much.

The 2004 presidential election might be the only time in our history where the shorter candidate won. The 1988 election was a choice between two ectomorphs. We elected the taller ectomorph.

Somebody once wrote that when Michael Dukakis was in high school, he probably raised his hand to remind the teacher that she forgot to give a homework assignment over Christmas vacation.

O’Rourke obviously isn’t trying to give helpful hints to Obama; but everyone can learn from negative feedback. After allowing the health care debate to rage on and on and on for a year — and here’s hoping his upcoming speeches will be more effective — maybe Obama could learn from O’Rourke’s description:

“The secret to the Obama annoyance is snotty lecturing. His tone of voice sends us back to the worst place in college…At the lectern is a twerp of a grad student—the prototypical A student—insecure, overbearing, full of himself and contempt for his students.”

I’m not saying I agree with this, but this is how a lot of people perceive Obama. I don’t want him to pretend his IQ suddenly plummeted to room temperature and start talking like Jim DeMint or Sarah Palin. But I do wish he’d start being more direct, more firm, more “of the people” in his speeches.

He’s personable and very articulate, but he sounds too much like a college professor at a faculty meeting. And this does NOT resonate with the public. He’s nowhere near as bland as, say, Bill Bradley — whom Molly Ivins described as “all substance and no Elvis.” But he should come out swinging sometimes; put more oomph into his speaking style.

There’s a lot at stake in the next few months: Wall Street reform and other raging issues, the Congressional election campaigns coming up. We already have millions of Americans who think Obama is a Communist Muslim terrorist who was born in Kenya. We don’t need a few million more Americans thinking he’s a twerp.

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24 Comments:

Blogger Randal Graves said...

I wouldn't even say this thesis is, to borrow the phrase of our greatest pretzeldent, uniquely American, only that we've turned low standards into an art form.

Of course, any mention of Bill Bradley kind of shoots down my "I wish everyone was a smarty pants." Fuck, was that guy as dull as cottage cheese, milquetoasted Muzak.

April 27, 2010 at 7:46 AM  
Blogger Demeur said...

To know what will happen in the next few months on just about any bill just follow the money. We of course know that the republicans will vote lock step against any legislation even if they wrote it.

April 27, 2010 at 10:38 AM  
Anonymous Dr. Kiss Injure said...

Why are you defending a possible CIA asset- Obama_just so mainstream Dems can continue getting cheap kicks pissing off Republicans_what is the point of that_As William Blum, author of Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, has pointed out, Obama may perhaps be a CIA asset. In the event that he actually is, it should be beyond a no-brainer at this point that all this noise on both sides is just more choreographed rabbit hole non-sense. Time to accept the fact that Western Civilisation has slid down the abyss and there is no going back.

The question that may never go away: Who really is Barack Obama?

In his autobiography, "Dreams From My Fathers", Barack Obama writes of taking a job at some point after graduating from Columbia University in 1983. He describes his employer as "a consulting house to multinational corporations" in New York City, and his functions as a "research assistant" and "financial writer".

The odd part of Obama's story is that he doesn't mention the name of his employer. However, a New York Times story of 2007 identifies the company as Business International Corporation.10 Equally odd is that the Times did not remind its readers that the newspaper itself had disclosed in 1977 that Business International had provided cover for four CIA employees in various countries between 1955 and 1960.11

The British journal, Lobster Magazine – which, despite its incongruous name, is a venerable international publication on intelligence matters – has reported that Business International was active in the 1980s promoting the candidacy of Washington-favored candidates in Australia and Fiji.12 In 1987, the CIA overthrew the Fiji government after but one month in office because of its policy of maintaining the island as a nuclear-free zone, meaning that American nuclear-powered or nuclear-weapons-carrying ships could not make port calls.13 After the Fiji coup, the candidate supported by Business International, who was much more amenable to Washington's nuclear desires, was reinstated to power – R.S.K. Mara was Prime Minister or President of Fiji from 1970 to 2000, except for the one-month break in 1987.

In his book, not only doesn't Obama mention his employer's name; he fails to say when he worked there, or why he left the job. There may well be no significance to these omissions, but inasmuch as Business International has a long association with the world of intelligence, covert actions, and attempts to penetrate the radical left – including Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)14 – it's valid to wonder if the inscrutable Mr. Obama is concealing something about his own association with this world.

http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer65.html

April 27, 2010 at 11:07 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Carter was Way shorter then Ford!

Erik

April 27, 2010 at 11:51 AM  
Anonymous Jess said...

Dr Kissing sure said......it's valid to wonder if the inscrutable Mr. Obama is concealing something about his own association with this world.


You guessed it there. He is not only a Kenyan usurper, he was brought to Kenya by the aliens from somewhere else.

That all being said. I get the feeling and I cannot be talked down from it, that this is their polite way of saying PO is an uppity (you know the word). I'm sorry, but I want my president to be smarter than the average bear in all ways Boo boo. Is he a little too plain vanilla at times, maybe, he cannot very well go into Chris Rock territory can he?

April 27, 2010 at 12:20 PM  
Blogger Holte Ender said...

This Finance Reform Bill should not go on and on, like the Health Bill, that must be a lesson learned and as then, now it is up to Obama, because the crackers in Congress can't pull it off. He has got to burn into people's minds that their Representatives are letting them down by not enacting a reform package on Wall Street. As an ex-Cia operative, Kenyan Muslim whose ancestors are from the planet Ojkg, should be a piece of cake.

April 27, 2010 at 1:12 PM  
Blogger Darrell Michaels said...

I feel like I just read a story from the Onion...

April 27, 2010 at 1:35 PM  
Blogger Tim said...

I like my Kenyan Prince!

After Bush,I'd take just about anyone who can pronounce Nuclear.

April 27, 2010 at 1:35 PM  
Blogger Tom Harper said...

Randal: Low standards as art form -- that pretty well sums it up.

Demeur: We need to follow the money while we still can. Some of the sleaziest rightwing operators out there don't even want us to be able to do that.

Dr.: I've always figured that there are all sorts of scary shadowy groups that are calling the shots and pulling the strings behind the scenes. Since there isn't much any of us can do about that, I've just accepted it as a given. We're pretty much stuck with the 2-party lesser of 2 evils system, and for the moment I'm just glad the lesser of 2 evils is in control of the White House and Congress.

Erik: Oops, right you are. I was out of the country from '75 to '77 so I missed all the campaigning and debating between those two. I've never seen them standing side by side or thought about how tall either one of them is.

Jess: Obama as Chris Rock, LOL. Or maybe Ving Rhames going medieval on the Republicans.

Holte: And the Republicans should know better than to mess with anyone from the Planet Ojkg.

April 27, 2010 at 1:41 PM  
Blogger Tom Harper said...

TP: Well, P.J. O'Rourke used to write for Lampoon, which used to be similar to the Onion before it deteriorated and then went under.

April 27, 2010 at 1:45 PM  
Blogger Tom Harper said...

Tim: Damn right. Even if he's a Muslim Fascist from Kenya, he's still a vast improvement over his predecessor.

April 27, 2010 at 1:47 PM  
Blogger Lew Scannon said...

I remember O'Rourke from his days at NatLamp, back when he was, you know, funny. Of course, he was admittedly doing cocaine at the time, so maybe drugs do make things better.....

April 27, 2010 at 2:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah I used to read the National Lampoon Religiously and I agree with Lew, he hasn't been that funny since those days.

Sounds like he's a little upset because our Harvard and Yale's are in charge instead of his Harvard's and Yale's and GW Bush was not an A Student.

He does have point in that there are plenty of solvent Banks and other financial institutions run Off Wall Street by State and Junior College "B" Graduates that did not get sucked into the Mess the Harvard and Yale's, "A" Student, Phi Betta Kappa, Skull and Bones' did on Wall Street and I'm all for these people running the show.

That's why I get so upset over these non performing bonuses they insist on paying saying that they so so because they want to retain these people. I say let them go and get some of these B Students from the State Colleges in.

Besides as they used to say in College: "A" Students go the Private Industry, "B" Students go to Government until they learn how things work then they Consult the "A" Students in Private Industry.

Erik

April 27, 2010 at 4:00 PM  
Blogger Tom Harper said...

Lew: Sometimes drugs help. Like when Metallica came out with that Godawful CD in 2003; I forget the title. "We've cleaned up! Check this out!" And I wanted to say "If I bring you some drugs, will you take them?"

Erik: P.J. O'Rourke had some really funny articles in Rolling Stone. Some of them weren't political, but even the ones with a rightwing slant were really a riot. I'm sure I read a lot of his stuff in Lampoon, even though I hadn't heard of him at that time; since I read that magazine a lot all through the '70s.

You're probably right that he's just pissed that "our" A students are running things and not "his" A students.

April 27, 2010 at 5:25 PM  
Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Look, Obama tries to explain too much; just like that other over-educated company man Clinton. They make great company managers, soothing the proles with pep talks while the company cuts their standard of living even more.

Americans have the choice. We get this style of leader, or a gladhanding, back-stabbing, bumper sticker sloganeering puppet.

Isn't democracy great?

April 27, 2010 at 6:44 PM  
Blogger Tom Harper said...

Dave: Good description. After 8 years of a "gladhanding, back-stabbing, bumper sticker sloganeering puppet," I'll take what we have now.

April 27, 2010 at 7:28 PM  
Anonymous S.W. Anderson said...

Funny I should come to this post this evening, not two hours after seeing Obama on C-SPAN, doing a town hall meeting in Iowa.

There was no — zero — professorial lecturing. There was no snottiness. If Obama had come off as any more of a regular guy, he could've been accused of prepping for the part of Al Bundy, should somebody be assembling a cast for an update of "Married, With Children."

P.J. O'Rourke, OTOH, comes off in his hit piece as a fact-challenged know-it-all with a snotty disposition.

The next time O'Rourke wants to use his head to give himself a colonoscopy, I suggest he not do it in print for all the world to see.

April 27, 2010 at 8:36 PM  
Anonymous S.W. Anderson said...

Dr. K., was that comment of yours for real?

Once upon a time, a group of serious young health care types, one after another, took serious looks at a patient's forearm, where there was a small, intensely red rectangular . . . speck, actually. Not much bigger than the mark a pencil tip might make.

Various possibilities were offered as to what might have caused it, what it might be, what it might mean.

In time, a dermatologist happened by and was asked to come take a look. He said sure, took a magnifying glass from his pocket and closely examined the red speck.

"Hmmm," he said, to no one in particular. Then "hmmmm" again. Putting his magnifier away, he straightened up, smiled and asked, "OK, what's the question? You're all worried about this, are you?"

Someone said they were wondering what it is.

"It's a little red speck," the dermatologist said. "Any more questions?" And then he left.

You might want to think about that.

April 27, 2010 at 8:53 PM  
Blogger Darrell Michaels said...

Obama is a post turtle.

For that matter, so was George W. Bush.

April 27, 2010 at 9:19 PM  
Anonymous Dr. Kiss Injure said...

This is my last comment here. I´m a serious historian. Mocking a scholar and published author like William Blum is a testament to infantilist ethos of the spiritually putrified and unsalavagable post-human. Not going to waste my time typing to time-wasting yanks who don´t know their own history and reflexively react to every debrained synthetic realilty in automatist fashion. Keep doing what you´re doing. You´re destroyers not creators.

To quote the EZLN - Ya Basta!

April 29, 2010 at 9:37 AM  
Blogger Darrell Michaels said...

Is Kissinger serious? :)

April 30, 2010 at 5:57 PM  
Blogger Tom Harper said...

TP: Who knows. I've seen his comments at a few other blogs too.

I don't discount conspiracy theories, but there's only so much one can do. You can vote against politicians you don't like, and rant against prominent people you disagree with. But if there's some shadowy organization that's running everything behind the scenes, what can you do?

April 30, 2010 at 7:06 PM  
Anonymous Dr. Kiss Injure said...

¨But if there's some shadowy organization that's running everything behind the scenes...¨

Duh_ still don´t understand how the corporatist gangster government works_it´s called FASCISM. We´ve had FASCISM and IMPERIALISM in the so-called New World for 500 years. You´re standard of living depends on murder, genocide, rape, crime, drug running_CRIMINAL CONSPIRACIES. Still don´t understand how your system works_AMAZING...Guess you´re not going to understand until you´re directly affected. Until YOU are directly TARGETED. It will happen...that´s how FASCISM works!

¨But if there's some shadowy organization that's running everything behind the scenes, what can you do?¨

You are NOT doing what you´re suppose to do. And when you don´t do what you´re suppose to do BAD things will continue happening.

The Greek ARE DOING WHAT THEIR SUPPOSE TO DO. The Venezuelan are doing what their suppose to do. The Cubans are doing what their suppose to do. People in Thailand are doing what their suppose to do. Indigenous people in Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia are doing what their suppose to do. etc...etc..

BUT YOU´RE NOT DOING WHAT YOUR SUPPOSE TO DO. AND THERE WILL BE SERIOUS serious consequences for your NOT DOING WHAT YOUR SUPPOSE TO DO.

UNDERSTAND_

HAPPY MAY 1st.

OUT.

May 1, 2010 at 12:57 PM  
Anonymous Dr. Kiss Injure said...

Tom,

I did not make that last comment. Someone stole my screen name in an obvious and blatant attempt to discredit me. I wouldn't in a million years sign my name to such illiterate, thuggish, all-caps hysterical drivel.

May 2, 2010 at 10:51 AM  

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