Hannity, Steyn and Ingraham
All are criticizing President Obama for the same thing. Imagine a silly reason they might do so. Was what you imagined this silly? “What kind of a man…” indeed.
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All are criticizing President Obama for the same thing. Imagine a silly reason they might do so. Was what you imagined this silly? “What kind of a man…” indeed.
Commenting is closed for this article.
I think they are more “mocking” than “criticizing.” And isn’t that appropriate, when the White House sets up a “regular guy” photo op in a burger joint? It isn’t any sillier than mocking Bush 41 for never having seen a supermarket scanner.
Let me be quite clear. All mockery of elected officials is good. They are bad men, one and all, who deserve to be derided at every opportunity.
— y81 · May 8, 12:42 PM · #
I dunno y81…I think Obama is a classic example of Jefferson’s “natural aristocracy.”
I have finally fixed on the thing that bothered me the most about Palin… it is this.
A lot of the animus towards Obama from the right is the animus of Kylon toward the pythagoreans.
Bitter envy and resentment.
— matoko_chan · May 8, 01:13 PM · #
Slow outrage day
The whole Bush41 supermarket scanner incident was a whole different class of ridiculous. It was an obvious misrepresentation of Bush engaging in some polite small talk with a supermarket scanner salesman, played up by a reporter who wasn’t even present at the event in question. Now, Bush Sr. throwing up on the Japanese prime minister; that was comedy gold.
— Bo · May 8, 03:03 PM · #
Yes, this is pretty silly, but don’t they seem to know it? I agree with y81’s distinction between “mocking” and “criticizing.
And if we are talking about silly, let’s talk about how many liberal talking heads are trying to destroy that Miss USA constestant, and how they have tried to destroy Sarah Palin and her family. That’s pretty silly too! Look at HuffPo anytime, day or night!
I think the real story is your post. Young urban conservatives (Hipster Cons) are in an impossible position. Their friends are largely liberals, and they are constantly having to distinguish themselves from the bad conservatives who we all agree hate the poor, the environment, gays and other minorities and majorities. So Hipster Cons decide that they’ll nibble around the edges of their liberal friends’ favored policies (maybe universal Head Start should be a little less universal and a little more focused on the poorest!). And they make fun of less-enlightened conservatives.
Hipster Cons are looking for yet another Third Way. There is no Third Way. You can’t engage on every big social and fiscal issue and propose meeting half-way. Maybe you can convince Republicans to convert their two biggest coastal problem issues (abortion, gay marriage) into a “let the states decide” stance that allows for Rudy-type Republicans. But you will not take over the Republican Party, and you will not make a successful third party. Stop, Hipster Cons! Make your choice.
— tom · May 8, 03:44 PM · #
This post should have been titled, “Pardon me, sir,…” I’d have liked that.
— Sanjay · May 8, 04:22 PM · #
Making fun of politicians is fair game. That’s what 8 years of mocking GWB at every turn established. It’s highly disingenuous – though expected – for HuffPo to be that shocked/surprised/startled/disappointed with schlockjocks like Ingraham, Steyn and Hannity for doing exactly what Begala, Olbermann and, well, pretty much every other Democrat pundit did from 2001 to 2008 to Bush.
matoko_chan: I think that tribalism, ie ‘She’s one of us’, definitely plays into it to an extent, but I don’t think there’s any more resentment and envy of aristocracy on the right than there is on the left. The key difference now, it seems, is that this self-made aristocrat belongs to the wrong party. Just like previous American aristocrat in office belonged to the wrong party for roughly half of America.
— Colm · May 8, 04:32 PM · #
If he’d put ketchup on a hot dog, THAT would be cause for disgust and outrage.
As it is, I don’t see the problem.
— astorian · May 8, 04:58 PM · #
I believe the phrase for what they’re doing is: pre-emptive self-parody.
It’s high performance art you see.
— jackal · May 8, 05:10 PM · #
Obama actually addressed this issue in The Audacity. He was at a restaurant with his campaign consultant who had been coaching him on how to behave in rural Illinois. He asked the waitress for Dijon mustard, and the consultant waved him off: “He doesn’t want Dijon.” The consultant then shook at him a bottle of French’s already on the table. “Here’s some mustard right here.”
The moral of the story was that the waitress, an actual Real American, was puzzled by the consultant’s Old Politics assumptions, not Obama’s mustard preference. The suggestion, seemingly, was that our nation is not as sharply divided over mustard as pundits would have you believe, and as a result it is possible to solve real problems. Story on p 49.
— Aaron · May 8, 05:49 PM · #
Once again, the conservatives here are missing the point. No one is objecting to mockery of Obama. It’s merely being pointed out how ridiculously ineffective this instance of mockery is, just like everything else Obama has been mocked for. It says more about the mocker than the mocked. The scanner thing worked because people go to the supermarket and Bush 41 doesn’t. Who hasn’t seen Dijon mustard at the supermarket?
— mealworm · May 8, 05:54 PM · #
— Colm · May 8, 12:32 PM · #
Disagree..anti-elitism, anti-intellectualism is a BIG part of the conservative message anymore.
And a big part of Palin’s campaign.
It is the message of Kylon to the pythagoreans….aptitude doesn’t matter.
— matoko_chan · May 8, 06:39 PM · #
Mustard on a burger is weird and unamerican. Isn’t that obvious? What’s next, inviting the Columbus Crew to the White house?
— Ben A · May 8, 07:30 PM · #
personally, I’d lock & load, cry for insurrection and go all-out Wolverine if I thought that President Obama cracks his hard-boiled egg from the top.
— JB · May 8, 08:13 PM · #