@cicerone imposter,
Yes, power is intricately interwoven with sex. It is not generally acknowledged in our culture however, so we keep seeing these guys getting lost because they don't have a clue......their lives overwhelm them. I would much rather have the continental version, where everyone knows that sex and power go together and so they wait for the next sex scandal to surface. And then they have fun with it, they don't take it all serious and as a sign of a character flaw in the politician who gets messed up in a secret sex life.
@hawkeye10,
It's interesting to note that those across the pond are much more advanced about sex today, and they're responsible for the Victorian sexual prudishness that still seems to hang on in the US.
@cicerone imposter,
please repeat after me:
"my parents are not responsible for what I do, I am responsible for what I do"
Really, does the victim culture have no end??
I realize that I have always claimed that Obama is THE MAN, is in he is a political master, but this is getting sick. as in sickening, not the hip version of sick which means cool.
Quote:
Stay Tuned for More of 'The Obama Show'
By Dana Milbank
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
In his first daytime news conference yesterday, President Obama preempted "All My Children," "Days of Our Lives" and "The Young and the Restless." But the soap viewers shouldn't have been disappointed: The president had arranged some prepackaged entertainment for them.
After the obligatory first question from the Associated Press, Obama treated the overflowing White House briefing room to a surprise. "I know Nico Pitney is here from the Huffington Post," he announced.
Obama knew this because White House aides had called Pitney the day before to invite him, and they had escorted him into the room. They told him the president was likely to call on him, with the understanding that he would ask a question about Iran that had been submitted online by an Iranian. "I know that there may actually be questions from people in Iran who are communicating through the Internet," Obama went on. "Do you have a question?"
Pitney recognized his prompt. "That's right," he said, standing in the aisle and wearing a temporary White House press pass. "I wanted to use this opportunity to ask you a question directly from an Iranian."
Pitney asked his arranged question. Reporters looked at one another in amazement at the stagecraft they were witnessing. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel grinned at the surprised TV correspondents in the first row.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/23/AR2009062303262.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
@hawkeye10,
No matter how you define sick, the master's glow is beginning to wear off. More stunts like this one, and he'll have to be more than the stimulus plan/health care president. People will tire of his stagemanship.
Thank yall for the responses. I have one little bit of commentary before I am done with this digression into sex. Voyeurism sells tabloids and soap operas, Fox. No denying that. And the so-called mainstream media rushes in to focus on the recent transgressions of politicians. You talk, Hawk, about--as I read what you wrote--about how this is viewed on the "continent" (Europe). No big deal when a politician has an affair. Not here. We don't expect this kind of behavior, even though our lawyer may be sleeping with his receptionist.
What got me started here on this was the NPR program "Wait, wait, don't tell me." It is nominally a quiz show about current events but is actually a comedy show, with some pretty witty panelists. Quite risque at times by American and NPR standards. There is always a "celebrity" guest who gets to take guesses at 3 questions at an obscure topic. Before playing, the host interviews the guest for a couple of minutes.
Last week was Eliz Edwards, wife of John Edwards (NC) who ran in the primaries and subsequently disclosed having an affair.
Perhaps she has a new book out, which allowed the host to toss out some much more probing questions than he might otherwise have been able to.
He raised the notion of "hubris." Her response was something to the effect that some folks in some positions feel themselves to be invincible at some point.
Or something like that. Thanks for reading along. Back to our regularly scheduled programming for me.
@hawkeye10,
I agree. I wasn't an Obama fan to begin with, but I kinda hoped he'd have a presidency that would start to win me/people like me over. It's not going to happen with stuff like this
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/07/wolff200907
Quote:The Clintons used the talk of great strategy as a way to mask the fact that they really had no strategy (and, too, according to one former Clintonite, because it “makes the individuals involved feel smart when they tell you how cleverly they’re manipulating the media”); the Obama team doesn’t want to talk about the meticulous calibration of everything to do with retailing its image and message because it is all so meticulously calibrated.
Quote: Unlike with most press secretaries, where the press has the leverage of often knowing more than the press secretary, who is usually a relatively weak West Wing link, Gibbs really knows all, apparently"he’s as present as anyone in the creation of Obama policy. There is too the Obama 30-point advantage"he’s got America eating out of his hand. Gibbs has, at least so far, an easy product to sell. And then there’s the personal insecurity on the part of members of the incredible shrinking press"their days are numbered and they know it.
All of which might have something to do in the dominance-and-submission equation with why, at the president’s 100-day press conference, there were no questions about the bailouts or Afghanistan, perhaps the two most intractable issues facing the administration. When the other guy is strong and you are weak, you try to behave yourself.
Quote:The Huffington Post has become an ideal back door for the most partisan stuff. It’s being used in a way that suddenly seems not all that dissimilar to how the Bush White House used Fox News. It’s as obvious and as unfiltered.
“The Times, it appears, gets soft, thoughtful, and complicated stuff. HuffPo gets the mean and simplistic,” says Michael Tomasky, The Guardian’s Washington-based American editor-at-large.
Quote:Politico, the politics-focused site that began during the last political campaign and is now trying to build an off-election-cycle business, has become the prime outlet for Obama White House gossip
Quote:Inside Edition, the syndicated tabloid show which specializes in the frothiest celebrity news and goriest celebrity scandals, now looks for an Obama angle on whatever story it’s pursuing. “Any story gets hotter if you’ve got Obama in it,” says a producer on the show.
As for Michelle Obama, she may seem to be everywhere"the most revered and omnipresent woman in the land"but this is in fact a function of her lack of availability. The First Lady appears in public only about three days a week. Exclusivity and unattainability make the brand.
Indeed, the efforts at control"negotiating all the nuances of celebrity coverage"by the White House press team are pretty much at the levels of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
‘Of course there are changes going on, but we’re message focused"we believe our message will find its audience,” says young Burton as the press clamors outside his small office.
It’s a cat-that’s-eaten-the-canary kind of thing.
They have been handed a most remarkable historical moment"in which they get to remake the media in their own image. They have the power and they are the subject. These people in this White House are in greater control of the media than any administration before them.
@ehBeth,
I don't like the looks of that either ehbeth. If the media is left wing and the president is liberal does that mean they get to fawn all over him?....hope not.
I think you need to study Obama more. He isent liberal he is conserative lite like Clinton was. I never did like him and am growing to like him even less.
@rabel22,
rabel22 wrote:
I think you need to study Obama more. He isent liberal he is conserative ...
Obama is a socialist collective progressive.
@rabel22,
rabel
Quote:I think you need to study Obama more.
I think you're right, however my question about a Democrat in the White House and the media still stands.
@panzade,
A president dem or rep has much power in relation to the media. Check out bushes relation to the media. Fox is a purely conserative media but most of the other media outlets seconded what ever Bushes government put out especialy after 9/11. Its easier to agree with the government than to do the job as it should be done which is to double check the facts. The media who have a special place in a democracy are the ones who have let the people down. Why do you think that most people get thier information on the internet. They no longer trust the media after reporters like Molly Evans passed on.
@ehBeth,
ehBeth pretty much has it spot on! Somethings amiss in DC, and it's beginning to show.
I'm still waiting to hear what the plan is for the Republicans to win in '10.
Cycloptichorn
@rabel22,
Obama's definitely right of centre. Not as far right as most Republicans, but he's no liberal.
In my opinion, Obama is much more left of center than any person we have ever elected to the office.
@Foxfyre,
Foxfyre wrote:
In my opinion, Obama is much more left of center than any person we have ever elected to the office.
Hello?!!? FDR, Jimmy Carter? What an ignorant statement, and a revealing one.
Cycloptichorn
ehbeth
Quote:Obama's definitely right of centre. Not as far right as most Republicans, but he's no liberal.
fox
Quote:In my opinion, Obama is much more left of center than any person we have ever elected to the office.
umm...sorta expected that
@panzade,
Yes, but I can (and have) ticked off my reasons for saying that. I don't know if ehbeth can.
