Self Regard and Presidential Bearing

Senator Barack Obama was criticized for his popularity by the McCain campaign this week. They compared him to Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise? I always thought Tom was more Johnny Mac-like in his Top Gunnitude. Anyway, the campaign calls the shots and the Neoclones march off to chant the spin of the day. Here are the Marching orders that followed close-on the attack ad comparing Obama to Britney and Paris Hilton that got the Republican rank and file involved this week…

To: Interested Parties

From: Rick Davis, McCain Campaign Manager

Date: July 30, 2024

Re: Barack Obama’s Celebrity

Barack Obama is the biggest celebrity in the world, comparable to Tom Cruise, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. As he told Congressional Democrats yesterday, he has become the “symbol” for the world’s aspirations for America and that we are now at “the moment … that the world is waiting for.”

Only a celebrity of Barack Obama’s magnitude could attract 200,000 fans in Berlin who gathered for the mere opportunity to be in his presence. These are not supporters or even voters, but fans fawning over The One. Only celebrities like Barack Obama go to the gym three times a day, demand “MET-RX chocolate roasted-peanut protein bars and bottles of a hard-to-find organic brew — Black Forest Berry Honest Tea” and worry about the price of arugula

Yet, despite all of the fans, paparazzi and media adoration, the American people still have questions: Is Barack Obama prepared to lead? Is being famous the same as being a credible commander in chief?

Obama’s popularity world-wide and his promise as a reform candidate have the Neocons on the ropes. McCain can’t provide a positive image to compete with Obama, so they’ve had to go negative from day one. To encounter a the Rovian tactics — the lies and the smears — coming out of the McCain camp, the Obama Campaign set up a Fight the Smears web site. The inventory of fear mongering and bigotry that is growing daily on this site reflects mighty poorly on John McCain.

The Republicans have set up a site called Barack Obama Audacity Watch, a central location where the hopeless can gather to tear down and attempt to tarnish the image of Barack Obama, the man who has a chance to restore America’s and the world’s respect for the American Presidency. To be clear, the Office is no longer respected. The incumbent and his party have demolished our faith in government at home and our reputation and standing abroad. This is not easy for the Neocon faithful to swallow.

The last few days I’ve been commenting at Jeff Jarvis’ blog, BuzzMachine. Jarvis jumped on the Rovian reframe and smear bandwagon with a post praising a recent Dana Milbank column in the Washington Post that Jarvis said skewered “the presumptive Democratic nominee’s presumptuousness.” Jarvis warned that Obama “could still lose this and hubris could lose it for him.” Jarvis posed as a friend of the Obama campaign by couching his post as a friendly warning. “Let’s talk tactically folks,” he says … “Milbank’s piece was a good warning: Hubris is becoming an issue.” Milbank’s piece was just a PR score for the McCain campaign as the Republicans trundle out their tired old tactics of turning a positive into a negative.

I put a lot of keystrokes into those comments, so I thought I’d collect them here with some context where I’ll be able to find them again. I’ve omitted dozens of other people’s comments and preserved my own just as a personal journal kind of thing. What follows is tedious and can best be appreciated by reading the entire thread at BuzzMachine. If you’re into that. Otherwise mark it tl;dr and get on to something interesting.

Oliver Willis Says:
July 30th, 2024 at 10:45 am

Just too uppity, right Jeff? Keep up the new media drumbeat, not so much the politics.

Aron S Says:
July 30th, 2024 at 10:45 am

And I’m still not even sure what your beef with Obama is! That’s one of the more annoying aspects of this passive-aggressive political crap you post.

tdc Says:
July 30th, 2024 at 11:05 am

the more hubris the better.

i absolutely fell in love with this guy when my son met him one day on a public sidewalk on the campus of the university of chicago. weeks went by and my son was a few rows deep in a crowd of well-wishers and obama reached through the crowd to shake his hand and actually greeted him by his first name.

amazing considering i can’t remember what i had for dinner last night.

sam Says:
July 30th, 2024 at 11:14 am

Echoing Ryan. Jeff, you’re unbelievable. You take an Obama quote where he was specifically saying the crowds were not about him, and turn it into ‘Obama has ego.’

Be honest. Admit the mistake. I look forward to your acknowledgment of your error.

Jeff Jarvis Says:
July 30th, 2024 at 11:24 am

Oliver,
Don’t play the race card. You’ve just said that I can’t criticize Obama without you calling me racist. How dare you? I am offended. [aside - "Jarvis" has called Obama hubristic, Oliver correctly translates that to "uppity," Jarvis gets on his high horse and says Oliver is playing "the race card." Here's a clear assessment of that bullshit by Jeneane, with a little history of Jarvis racism going back the last few years. Follow her links. --fp--]

Aron,
My beef with him is the same as it has been: I fear he is a cynical politician who feeds rhetoric and feeds off the cheers of the crowd without substance. A little humility would be comforting.

Ryan and Sam,
No but talking about himself in such exhalted messianic terms is precisely what this is about. He represents all America? That’s hubris. George Bush thought he did, too. He was wrong.

Let’s talk tactically, folks. Gore may not have lost the election (just the Supreme Court) but he did blow a big lead by being – why do you think? – dull. Kerry lost what should have been a victory by being – what? – awkward and dull. Obama is neither of those. But he could still lose this election. That’s my point. This level of hubris is unbecoming. If voters feel as if he is being shoved down their throats, as if he is a fait accompli, then I think there could be a backlash.

Milbank’s piece was a good warning: Hubris is becoming an issue.

– later –

Jeff Jarvis Says:
July 30th, 2024 at 1:26 pm

And by the way, folks, the attempted rhetorical trick of saying that I am not good at politics (because I don’t agree with you) is tired and insulting and doesn’t go to discussing anything of substance. You’re not wounding me with it. You’re boring me.

You’re also not seeing the subtext here: I want to vote for the guy and I want a Democrat to win but I fear he’s blowing it (again). You’re arguing against the wrong side.

Oh, that’s right, I’m not allowed to criticize the home team? We would have been a lot better off if people had given Kerry the right criticism to get his act together.

[my sense is that Jarvis is pretty much a Lieberman Democrat, i.e. a Republican. -- fp --]

Ryan Says:
July 30th, 2024 at 1:28 pm

Jeff,
Hubris is becoming an issue because the media (ahem, you) are making it an issue. Absolutely nothing in that quote speaks of hubris unless you’re looking for it. Is Obama a confident guy? Sure. But why wouldn’t he be? He beat the Clinton machine, raised more money than any candidate in history and is on the verge of the presidency as a black man named Barack Hussein Obama.

Jeff Jarvis Says:
July 30th, 2024 at 1:47 pm

Ryan,
Milbank explains it far better than I. I’d suggest reading that link. He hasn’t won yet and acting as if he has could lose it for him.
And, no, I don’t think media is making hubris the issue. He is. Media’s problem for him is allied: the ovation problem that will let McCain play media victim.

Oliver Willis Says:
July 30th, 2024 at 1:59 pm

You’ve just said that I can’t criticize Obama without you calling me racist.
No, I’m saying the paper, conservatives and now you are buying into the notion that while every politician in America has ambition, when Sen. Obama does it it’s somehow “hubris”. Who does this guy think he is, right? I mean, the nerve of the guy, thinking he can run the country! What kind of person does that?

Oh, right, a presidential candidate.

Jeff, for someone who follows the press as you do, you’re stunningly naive on these things. Obama is acting the same as he always has, it is the right and the press who are making it an issue when to normal people it isn’t. Regular people know that people like Obama and McCain have egos. They would have to to even run for office, let alone president.

Jeff Jarvis Says:
July 30th, 2024 at 2:09 pm

Yes, Oliver, he’s acting as he always has and I’ve always had the same problem with him. I fear he is an empty if grand vessel.

And don’t try to sidestep what you did. You called me racist. I resent it. It was wrong of you. I am insulted and angry and serious about that.

Tom B. Says:
July 30th, 2024 at 2:27 pm

…Oliver, using the word “uppity” certainly implies racial tone. If you didn’t mean it that way, you certainly left it up to the readers’ interpretation, which was an awkward way to criticize what Jeff is getting at.

Jeff Jarvis Says:
July 30th, 2024 at 2:33 pm

Tom, I appreciate both the criticism and the defense.

Oliver Willis Says:
July 30th, 2024 at 3:29 pm

No, I meant it the way I said it. It’s pretty amazing that nobody speaks about John McCain’s “hubris” at running for president or thinking he could be Commander In Chief, but then Barack Obama does the same and the drumbeat begins. It couldn’t possibly be that some think that Sen. Obama’s too big for his britches and acting uppity, is it? I mean that’s what a top person at the AP pushed out a few weeks ago.

Jeff, I seem to remember you being a supporter of Sen. Clinton, who thought she had the skill to be Commander In Chief. And she shouldn’t have been running unless she thought that was true. Your support for her turned out the same way as your support for the Iraq War (though with less collateral damage) but I don’t seem to remember you lecturing her on hubris. Again, every presidential candidate thinks much of himself. Only in the case of Barack Obama is it now being made a federal case.

My distaste with Jeff’s political musings isn’t because I disagree with him, but because they are so ill-informed. Jeff and I are on the same side of the aisle, yet I’ve found conservatives who don’t fall for the latest GOP/media meme of nonsense the way Jeff keeps doing hook, line, and sinker. For a guy with such wide knowledge of the old media, new media, and the intersection of the two, Jeff is surprisingly succeptible to the Republican outrage du jour and doesn’t seem to think critically before he posts very declarative things.

Before it was that the Iraq War was a good idea, then that Howard Dean would be a disaster at party chair, now its that Barack Obama has “hubris”. I mean, maybe there’s something to filling the Zell Miller/Joe Lieberman role for conservative bloggers to link to (”See, this liberal agrees with me”) but it doesn’t make for very smart observations.

Frank Paynter Says:
July 30th, 2024 at 9:51 pm

Jeff, it was a racist assertion. Mike G., you too. Evil Pundit… g-d what a crew. Look who you have in your corner, Jeff. As a white baby-boomer male, your support of Hillary is understandable, and not just because she looks good in a suit. There’s a comfort in the thought of a return to the right-centrist Dem administration of the ’90s for you. You get this old and the thought muscles start to freeze up. Imagination and a willingness to risk change yield to quiet conservatism.

Racism of course is another issue separating you from Obama, and the complexity of being able to offer support to the woman candidate while rejecting the ethnically black ought to be between you and your analyst. It was perhaps rude to call you out on your racism — impolite if not inaccurate. White baby-boomers (and their elders) were raised in a cultural context of accepted racism. Many of us have tried — successfully — to deal with that through introspection, self criticism, and consciousness raising. Others are more comfortable in proud denial. Jeff, I think you’re coming from hubris and denial when you say, “You called me racist. I resent it. It was wrong of you. I am insulted and angry and serious about that.” To be honored by the support of Mike G. and Evil Pundit here in this comment thread is of course no honor at all. To have inferred that Oliver was calling you a racist when he was really simply calling your argument fallacious is a tell, a tic, a betrayal of some inner issue.

And holding up warnings that it ain’t over until it’s over, that this thing could still be lost if Obama isn’t somehow suitably humbled, is less than perspicacious. Right now we’re looking at a fifty state sweep, give or take Wyoming where the Libertarians are threatening a strong John Perry Barlow write-in campaign.

We can change this country. We must, actually. And I fear that Obama won’t be fast enough or radical enough to pull us out of the economic slump, but he’ll certainly make more and better progress than ANYONE else would or could, whether or not they look good in a suit. Let go of Hillary and get on board, the train will soon leave the station.

And by the way, you are not good at politics. Obama and Gore are entirely different men with affects and public presences so dissimilar that your comparison of them shows you don’t know what is happening this year. Obama does not have an “ovation problem.” He has charisma, a strong following, and the ability to inspire people. People like him and trust him.

Mike G Says:
July 31st, 2024 at 9:35 am

Jesus Christ, Frank, could you possibly be any more the stereotype of the smugly superior liberal. In one paragraph you manage to dismiss everyone else as racist, senile and afraid of change. It’s a wonder you didn’t use the word “sheeple.”

Why don’t YOU try clearing your sclerotic cranial vessels out long enough to look at what people actually said, not what’s easiest for you to slam them with. There’s nothing easier than throwing accusations of racism around– and nothing cheaper, either.

Frank Paynter Says:
July 31st, 2024 at 11:13 am

Mike G., Dude, you’re still invited… The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. Obama faces the challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of his own limitations. But he also faces it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people. Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then we can be absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth. This was the moment – this was the time – when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals.

Mike G Says:
July 31st, 2024 at 12:47 pm

Substitute “L. Ron Hubbard” for “Obama” in that post and that’ll tell you how it sounds to me.

Frank Paynter Says:
July 31st, 2024 at 1:01 pm

Amazing comparison… so I take it you are a McCain supporter?

Mike G Says:
July 31st, 2024 at 1:59 pm

Even if I was an Obama supporter (and I actually did vote for him in the primary, but that has more to do with the fact that only one primary matters in Illinois), it would never ever occur to me talk about any politician in such quasireligious terms. In fact, it frightens me.

“Mike G said he was frightened by a black man running for office!” –Oliver Willis

Glyn Says:
July 31st, 2024 at 4:08 pm

Look, instead of calling Senator Obama “black”, why don’t you just call him “white”? (since he’s 50-50)?

Would that solve the problem?

Puzzled, from London.

Frank Paynter Says:
July 31st, 2024 at 4:54 pm

Thanks Glyn, but American racism is special… on a par with South African apartheid in terms of classifying people with progenitors of native African descent as black, and stigmatizing that classification. Fortunately fewer and fewer of the young white people in this country are so prejudiced.

Mike, Dude, regarding “The journey will be difficult…” I simply restated in the third person the rhetoric from the campaign speech that you Republicans have insisted on bastardizing and misquoting in this comment thread. It’s rhetorically compelling because it marks the point when it became clear that there is a chance for change this year, that we can again hope for more from our leadership than a dumbed down TV Guide world-view. I understand why you and Jeff are upset and conflicted enough to vote for someone like McCain simply to help block the choice of millions and millions of Americans who are stepping up to take ownership of the political process. It’s the reactionary thing to do.

We used to call our position progressivism, and we used to classify guys like you and Jeff as elitists and reactionaries. Now, in a marvelous reframing, you maintain your posture in support of the wealthy, the moneyed class, while name calling and categorizing those who support the democratic process as “smugly superior liberals.” The good news from my perspective is that people’s positions are becoming quite clear early on.

Excuse me, I’m off to tax and spend, tax and spend.

# PSGInfinity Says:
July 31st, 2024 at 11:04 pm

Jeff, by all means, blog away about politics, news, springer spaniels, or whatever else suits you. Dana may have been trying to gently chide Obama, but wound up scoring a direct hit. You can tell by the level and vehemence of the flak.

(Reaches out and pats Frank on the head)

# Frank Paynter Says:
August 1st, 2024 at 8:25 am

(Slaps PSGInfinity with three day old dead trout…) There’s really no political issue here, nor is there a question of who will win in the fall. You old farts aren’t used to being confronted regarding your ill humor and hidebound ways, so you misinterpret.

# Frank Paynter Says:
August 1st, 2024 at 3:39 pm

lulz
# PSGInfinity Says:
August 1st, 2024 at 6:47 pm

(Pats wee widdle Frankie pn the head again)
(Now, where’s the boy’s diaper bag?)
# Frank Paynter Says:
August 1st, 2024 at 11:09 pm

Dude. I’m chastened!

(slaps PSGInfinity up side the head with another dead trout)

# kat Says:
August 2nd, 2024 at 11:04 am

-”That’s how slaves and abolitionists resisted that wicked system and how a new president chartered a course to ensure we would not remain half-slave and half-free.
-That’s how the greatest generation—that’s how the greatest generation, my grandfather fighting in Patton’s army, my grandmother staying at home with a baby and still working on a bomber assembly line, how that greatest generation overcame Hitler and fascism and also lifted themselves up out of a Great Depression.
-That’s how women won the right to vote, how workers won the right to organize, how young people like you traveled down South to march, and sit-in, and go to jail, and some were beaten, and some died for freedom’s cause. That’s what hope is.
-I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.”
This arrogant man is comparing his campaign to overcoming fascism, abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage. Oprah has the gall to call him “THE ONE” and he has deemed himself a symbol–like what–the second coming of Christ?. That scares me–are we going to be asked to worship him like dictators demand they be worshipped? What evil is he comparing to Hitler–those that don’t buy into his crap? Does that make me evil? It won’t be long before he will be comparing himself to Jesus.
People who can’t see his arrogance choose not to see it. It is there in plain sight and his words reek of it but we country hicks turn to guns and religion and don’t understand the true meaning of his parables.
# Frank Paynter Says:
August 2nd, 2024 at 3:20 pm

Well, the GOP claque, the so called “Audacity Watch,” would like you to believe there’s something frightening in these observations. And perhaps for them, for the likes of Dick Cheney and Ann Coulter and their boosters, there is something to be afraid of.

But when Obama says, “It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign — that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It’s about America. I have just become a symbol,” then I think there is room for a more generous interpretation.

The American people, the American democracy, this election will not be subverted by the Public Relations media echo chamber propaganda machine that Jarvis here enables and that is so adroitly manipulated by corporate hired guns.

Media manipulation has become laughable and most of us are laughing. There are a few who have been so frightened by the Bush administration’s War of Terrorism, the color coded fear alerts, the absurd homeland security screenings in and out of the country, the seven year investigation of an anthrax scare that looks like it was at least used by a leadership more interested in manufacturing evidence and guiding public opinion than in finding truth and administering justice — and those few can be led by the PR specialists who plant hints and releases and word of mouth campaigns designed to create an up-swelling of indignity around the latest synthetic rallying point manufactured to provide some focus for opposition, no matter how absurd.

Milbank’s column was one of dozens and dozens media mentions of Obama’s “hubris,” in the July 29 – 30 timeframe. It was less than original. It was inaccurate. It was a puff piece bolstering an attempt to frame Obama as “uppity” in comparison to that humble servant of our country, Johnny Mac. Milbank’s column and Jarvis’ wink and nudge, slap and tickle reference to it were just part of a well managed PR play. Kat’s comment reads like one of those bizarre emails that circulate amongst the Lawrence Welk fans, the kind that are easily debunked at Snopes and serve as an electronic equivalent of sticking one’s fingers in one’s ears and saying loudly to others with differing perspectives: LALALALALA… I CAN’T HEAR YOU!!!
# Mike G Says:
August 2nd, 2024 at 6:31 pm

“When you’re a Scientologist, and you drive by an accident, you know you have to do something about it, because you know you’re the only one who can really help… We are the way to happiness. We can bring peace and unite cultures.” –Tom Cruise
# Frank Paynter Says:
August 2nd, 2024 at 7:09 pm

Cool. Creative way to keep the spin moving. Did you get one of these?

* * *

To: Interested Parties

From: Rick Davis, McCain Campaign Manager

Date: July 30, 2024

Re: Barack Obama’s Celebrity

Barack Obama is the biggest celebrity in the world, comparable to Tom Cruise, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. As he told Congressional Democrats yesterday, he has become the “symbol” for the world’s aspirations for America and that we are now at “the moment … that the world is waiting for.”
# Mike G Says:
August 2nd, 2024 at 10:10 pm

No, I came up with the opinion that he and his followers are dreamy-eyed and full of hot air by myself.

You’ll never guess how.
# Frank Paynter Says:
August 2nd, 2024 at 10:32 pm

“Followers” is a twitter thing. Here in the real world, in our democracy, many of us are proud (I underscore PROUD) to be Obama supporters. IPolls suggest we constitute a majority. Followers are more what you have when party discipline and a consistent spin is more important to you than a candidate who demonstrates appropriate self-regard, self-respect, and a presidential bearing. Senator McCain has followers. Senator Obama has supporters.

(Frank exits to his own blog with no illusions that he’ll actually have the last word humming “Bomb, bomb, bomb — bomb, bomb Iran…”)