GADFLY: Is Obama Overdoing the 'Just Folks' Thing?
by Marty Aussenberg
Okay, I admit it: just like that girl who sang about it during the presidential campaign, I've got a crush on Obama. I mean that in a manly way, of course, a "man crush" (according to the online Urban Dictionary). Like, if I ever got to meet him, I'd give him a fist "dap," or a man hug (you know, the handshake accompanied by the right shoulder bump), or maybe even a full body hug (the kind he seems to favor), but with the accompanying, de rigeur four taps on the back signifying "I-am-not-gay" (not that there's anything wrong with that). Okay, enough of trying to establish my macho, hetero cred.
My point is, I like our new president (even though I didn't vote for him---and, no, I didn't vote for "McLame" either, since I refuse to be a slave to the two-party monopoly, and I knew Obama wasn't going to carry Tennessee anyway). Two of the things I like best about him (other than his intellect and fluency in the English language---two more features that distinguish him from his predecessor) are his warmth and humanity. What a refreshing change from the cold, imperious elitist (phony Texas twang to the contrary notwithstanding) we had to put up with before Obama came along to demonstrate that it isn't a sign of weakness for a president to make us believe he's "one of us."
That said, I think he's taking this availability thing too far. Okay, so he had to fulfill a promise to appear on ESPN to discuss his bracket picks in the upcoming NCAA tournament (even if he did dis both Memphis and my alma mater, Pitt, in the process), but going to the Wizards-Bulls round ball game last week, and exchanging high fives with one of the Wizards' rowdy fans, was just too much for me. And as if that wasn't bad enough, he's actually going to appear on a late-night TV talk show this week, the first time in history a sitting president has done that. What can we look forward to next week, Mr. President, an appearance on American Idol maybe (which he'd win, hands down, since, for many, he fulfills that show's title, literally)?
Don't get me wrong. I'm all for a president who considers himself a "man of the people." Some of our best, not to mention most effective and popular, presidents have succeeded in projecting that image. JFK playing touch football or Bill Clinton playing the saxophone, for example. The common touch isn't necessarily a bad thing in a president. But, let's face it: the President of the United States isn't one of us, not really. That's not to say he's better than us (and some, as we now know, have been a lot worse, that is if you consider criminality to be a bad thing in a president), just different. Oh sure, he puts his pants on one leg at a time, like the rest of us. But he also has to have some super-human traits, not only to be the president but to have survived the process of getting to that office, against all odds, to begin with.
I'm not saying I want our presidents to think of themselves in monarchical, or even dictatorial, terms. No, we've put up with that for the past eight years, and look where it's gotten us. I'm just saying it's perfectly Okay, and maybe even useful, for a president to have a certain air of detachment, and to separate himself from the hoi polloi. It's part of the tool kit of governing. We're fortunate to have a president who, unlike his predecessor, is willing to accept responsibility for his actions, and even (horrors!) to admit his mistakes. Fallibility is a human trait, and its admission not a sign of weakness. It does not, however, have to be accompanied by mixing it up with us common folk, or, as Obama did at the Bulls game, trash talking with other fans.
Obama doesn't have to adopt a fortress mentality, holing up in his White House burrow, only to pop out, like a groundhog, on designated occasions. But he also doesn't need to act like the only thing that changed when he moved from Hyde Park to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was his address. I admit, one of my trepidations about Obama's ubiquity in public is the increased risk to the security of a man towards whom many in this country harbor angry, hostile, maybe even violent, feelings. Frankly, it scared the proverbial wadooee out of me when he and Michelle popped out of the "tank" (as the new presidential limousine is now referred to) to walk part of the parade route on inauguration day.
So, Mr. President, please know that you've convinced us you're one of us, but please stop acting like you've got to be seen doing the things we do, going to the places we go, or even acting the way we act, to preserve that image. It's perfectly OK with us for you to be, and act, presidential, even if you have to be a bit less visible in public to do so.
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Marty--are you telling us you voted for Ron Paul?? I've got a man crush on Obama, too. Hell, Ahhhnald Schwartzie could hardly contain himself today---he obviously has a bad case of Obama-love.
I think he is just being himself and ya'll folk gone let him do that right? You just do you and let him do him. And guess what we all gone B alright! Stop hating and examine yourself first.That is where you find the most problems, look within.....
Kumbayya, Quiv---there's some haters here. Obama is the anti-Bush and they can't stand it.
Yep, those "W" Lovers just can't move on. PLEASE! The majority of the country, who actually voted FOR and ELECTED Al Gore had to get over that stolen election, and the right STILL rubbed it in. Even after the lies about the war, the economy, the total destruction of our constitution, the neocons were STILL proud of thier "boy". GET OVER IT! THE RIGHT WING IS DEAD, DEAD, DEAD! Unless you count the "hope" of their new stars: Palin, that kid from Louisiana, Marsha (ha ha ha) Blackburn. Go Neocons Go! (Literally, I mean really, GO!)
I just can't discuss with pre teen...sorry...just can't man.... Al Gore???
Marty, now you have me really curious. You are anti two-party system? So, do you just automatially vote for Ralph Nader or not at all?
Thoughthinker, I am going to lower my standards and speak out against their immaturity. Liberals are like bugs, they want when they want, when they want it. And, that's just not life. I'll sum it up this way. The protesters standing in front of the houses of the AIG bankers obviously have to be the dumbest, little liberals on earth. Have these little liberals not heard of this new thing called a contract? And, if companies don't pay what's in a contract, they will be sued (don't think little liberals would mind that one). So, they must pay the bonuses in the contract, regardless of how the co. is doing financially. But, little liberals always think before they do things. No Obama supporters could tell me before or even now any of his "plans" other than they will work. I wonder if he'll be blaming Bush in four years? Rhetorical question, little liberals, I already know the answer. FYLLI, a rhetorical question is one that the asker already knows the answer.
He can't act like a president. He doesn't know how, or how to come even close to it. It's called inexperience. A first time Illinois senator is the best democrats could come up with this time? Wow, and the little liberal media still thinks he's the "savior". How many times can you blame Bush? It's really not original anymore, little liberals. And, the media has convinced little liberals the GOP is dead. If it's dead, then there are no more parties worth a......... No one protested the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae bonuses. Yeah, Billy "Clintoon's BANKS". Oh, it's okay to honor contracts to good little liberal loaners, but real banks MUST be protested against....It's a funny thing, little liberals. How's that paper in Seattle doing? Oh, that liberal paper "folded". They couldn't pay the bills. Here's to liberalism.................and it's ability to pay the bills. Zero equals..........
Don't know how it is in your country 'cruiser', but here in the good old USofA, we have this thing called the 22nd Amendment... we don't want, and aren't allowed to have 'experienced' Presidents. Two quick bites at the apple maximum, and off they go, so some other newbie can screw things up. Are you from England? That would explain your confusion.
re Tseneau: Ah...return of the narcisist. Do you really think Cruiser really meant experience as a "president"? Dude...if you are going to inject your thoughts into the words of other posters...do try to pick ones that actually make a point. Personally, I would settle for experience as a trash collector right now....the boy prez is totally in over his head. You know it...we all know it...and you don't even have to go to jolly ole England to see it. Take me on..mental midget......leave Cruiser to himself.
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