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President Selfie
As Jonah Goldberg, Rob Long and John Podhoretz noted on the latest GLoP podcast, President Obama has been on a new-media tear of late. A few weeks back, he was interviewed by a group of YouTube celebrities that infamously included GloZell “Froot Loops” Green. Over the weekend he indulged the “brainiac-nerd types” at low-wattage retraction generator Vox.com. That interview was so reverential, Politico compared it to a Scientology recruitment film.
Today, Obama completed his trivial trifecta with a video by cat-GIF website BuzzFeed. The leader of the free world pranced around the White House with the ultimate totem of the me-llennial generation, a selfie stick. He tried on sunglasses, tried out different smiles, practiced stump speeches, and gazed longingly into the mirror. Watch it for yourself:
http://youtu.be/kgQqljC9P0Q
We realize that most politicians are narcissists. But even rookie state legislators understand that public demonstrations of self-regard turn off their constituents. The modern definition of narcissism includes those who desperately want others to love them as much as they love themselves. With this latest show, Obama reveals himself as an old-school Narcissus, content to gaze lovingly at his reflection as the world passes him by.
Published in General
This man is fifty-three years old. I cannot imagine my father or grandfather’s having done such a thing at that age.
Art imitating life.
The difference is that Reagan would have taken unbelievable heat if he’d done something like this.
And “they” are making a deal about Walker not having a baccalaureate?!?
I may be the only person in America who likes both President Bush and President Obama. I don’t like Bush’s policies much and Obama’s even less, but that’s a different issue.
Both Bush and Obama are able to do their job without taking themselves too seriously, and show us a nice comedic touch based on self-deprecation. That’s something that you’re likely to see in a powerful leader only in America.
Of course, if you think the American president should be the leader of the world rather than the upholder of the Constituion then you might desire more dignity from the man.
But, to me, Bush and Obama easily and naturally display a higher dignity, an American dignity. Americans seem to be able to combine a non-imperial self-deprecation with a world beating sense of confidence. I have no problem with it.
Matty, I think there’s an important distinction. Bush tended to self-deprecate in the face of his critics. Obama tends to in the face of his lovers.
Yeah, and look what happened to that guy. Seems like Nixon is a cautionary tale about why a President shouldn’t debase himself in such a manner.
More evidence of Obama’s Nixonian character and behavior!
Good point, Casey, if true.
The fact that there are Americans not embarrassed by this President’s behavior leaves me little hope for the future of the country.
I think the point is to defuse the narcissism criticism by making a joke of it. This is an “in your face”.
I can’t believe he’s that self-aware.
R,
You are probably right. The real nasty thing about that is he slipped another bait and switch into it for Obamacare. Just how many people in the country are going to get health insurance for under $100 / month. Probably three and Natasha & Malia are two of them.
Regards,
Jim
The Laugh-in spot worked for Nixon because he was known as a grim, humorless, awkward politician. A stick-in-the-mud like him saying “sock it to me” showed another side of him (or, at least it attempted to).
President Selfie has delivered seven-plus years of conspicuous vanity, with an occasional interruption of peevishness. I don’t believe he was making light of this central characteristic — it’s who he is. If Obama wants to confound our expectations, he should make a serious-minded, sober and selfless decision every so often.
Joke:
How did the terrorist get President Obama to take him seriously?
A suicide photo-bomb.
It’s kind of symbolic. Even when the president is looking forward, his focus is myopic, includes himself, his perception, and what’s behind him; President Selfie indeed.
He has been a celebrity-in-chief, comedian-in-chief, and complainer-in-chief since his first day in office, leaving this American wanting for a commander-in-chief.
If I’m not mistaken, Nixon was not yet president when he made the Laugh-In appearance.
That’s true, so much of what Obama does is are in the spirit of ‘in your face.’ Perfect example: he has said ‘I won’ about his elections on more than one occasion. He DOES NOT like to look bad, and his humor is rarely self-deprecating.
When my 11-year-old son, who loves basketball, heard that Obama responded to Michael Jordan’s criticism of his golf game by saying that Jordan should pay more attention to his Charlotte Bobcats team, he (my son) said, “Burned!!” I told him, “Maybe, but the President of the United States ought to be above getting revenge on an athlete by ‘burning’ him.” Obama tried to ‘burn’ Kim Jong Un about the movie/terror threat fiasco by calling him ‘some dictator somewhere,’ and it just looked pathetic.
And he played to that with self-parody. He didn’t just say “sock it to me”. He did it in the tones of an indignant stuffed shirt, growling “Sock it to me?!?! Sock it to me-e-e-E-E?!?!?”
I saw it when it was first broadcast and thought it was a good move. Thinking back, it helped that it was completely unexpected, and there was no after-interview with RN smirking modestly as he is told what a great regular guy he is, when of course the exercise would have been pointless if Nixon had been just any regular Joe Schmoe off the street.