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| Obama told by Gawker to lose the 'dumb zingers' and stick to the serious stuff | Obama told by Gawker to lose the 'dumb zingers' and stick to the serious stuff |
| (6 months later) | |
| President Barack Obama used to be a serious grown-up on a mission to elevate our national politics from the swamps of trivial discourse. Now he's just another partisan squabbler who, after he loses this election, will probably follow losers like Mike Huckabee and Al Gore into a career in cable punditry. Maybe get a time slot on MSNBC. | President Barack Obama used to be a serious grown-up on a mission to elevate our national politics from the swamps of trivial discourse. Now he's just another partisan squabbler who, after he loses this election, will probably follow losers like Mike Huckabee and Al Gore into a career in cable punditry. Maybe get a time slot on MSNBC. |
| This is (a dramatized version of) the case laid out by John Cook in a lament on Gawker reacting to Obama's joke last night that "the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back." Cook writes: | This is (a dramatized version of) the case laid out by John Cook in a lament on Gawker reacting to Obama's joke last night that "the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back." Cook writes: |
| That's a middling joke. It should by no means be coming from the president of the United States, let alone one who promised to put away childish things. It's a dumb "zinger," transparently crafted to appeal to the Mark Halperins and Politicos of the world. | That's a middling joke. It should by no means be coming from the president of the United States, let alone one who promised to put away childish things. It's a dumb "zinger," transparently crafted to appeal to the Mark Halperins and Politicos of the world. |
| That's not to say that humor has no place in political rhetoric or that Obama betrays his promise every time he deigns to insult his opponent. But to graft a pre-planned VH1 Best Week Ever-level joke onto a nationally televised discussion about life and death and our role on the world stage is scarcely less pathetic than the desperate flailings of the McCain campaign that I smugly scoffed at four years ago. | That's not to say that humor has no place in political rhetoric or that Obama betrays his promise every time he deigns to insult his opponent. But to graft a pre-planned VH1 Best Week Ever-level joke onto a nationally televised discussion about life and death and our role on the world stage is scarcely less pathetic than the desperate flailings of the McCain campaign that I smugly scoffed at four years ago. |
| Cook has a point, and it is this: the McCain campaign was capable of scoff-able flailing. Where Cook is wrong is in his earnest notion that a dumb debate joke sullies the presidential stole. | Cook has a point, and it is this: the McCain campaign was capable of scoff-able flailing. Where Cook is wrong is in his earnest notion that a dumb debate joke sullies the presidential stole. |
| In a tortured essay of personal disillusionment, Cook finds equal fault with Obama's recent stump speech laugh line about how Mitt Romney has so much trouble keeping track of his policy positions that he must be suffering from "Romnesia." The pun, Cook writes, is "too juvenile and jokey to be coming from the president." | In a tortured essay of personal disillusionment, Cook finds equal fault with Obama's recent stump speech laugh line about how Mitt Romney has so much trouble keeping track of his policy positions that he must be suffering from "Romnesia." The pun, Cook writes, is "too juvenile and jokey to be coming from the president." |
| But politics plays out in arenas. Sometimes in stadiums. It increasingly plays out across social networks in which buzzy material spreads and boring material dies. The point is to win the crowd. Few politicians have been as good at it as Obama is. That YouTube clip has 400,000 views and change, and there are many vigorously viewed copies. | But politics plays out in arenas. Sometimes in stadiums. It increasingly plays out across social networks in which buzzy material spreads and boring material dies. The point is to win the crowd. Few politicians have been as good at it as Obama is. That YouTube clip has 400,000 views and change, and there are many vigorously viewed copies. |
| • Read the full post on our US politics live blog | • Read the full post on our US politics live blog |
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