Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Anchoress

Home
Catholic
Election ’08, Dems: Mocking, Memes & Apologies

Election ’08, Dems: Mocking, Memes & Apologies

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 12:50 am by Elizabeth Scalia

Election ’08, Dems: Mocking, Memes & Apologies 2017-03-17T00:50:38+00:00 Elizabeth Scalia

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

You know, I might be better at this political analysis stuff than I knew. A few weeks ago I predicted Hillary’s Pre-New Hampshire Primary tears and a day later (maybe it was just the new year’s champagne) I wrote this:

Team Clinton has just given Team Obama the weapon which could well take Hillary down: mockery. Since it is unlikely that the mainstream press will ever cover the fundraising issues and shady connections that would bring down any politician other than Mrs. Clinton, her opponents cannot rely on “scandals” to whittle Mrs. Clinton down to size. Therefore, the candidate who can – by simply shining a humorous light on her own words, actions and tactics – get the country laughing at Mrs. Clinton, is the candidate who will defeat her.

Seems that the Obama campaign has come to the same conclusion:

Barack Obama has stepped up his campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton, and he’s trying to use humor to bring her down before this weekend’s Democratic presidential caucus.
[…]
Obama began by recalling a moment in Tuesday night’s debate when he and his rivals were asked to name their biggest weakness. Obama answered first, saying he has a messy desk and needs help managing paperwork – something his opponents have since used to suggest he’s not up to managing the country. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards said his biggest weakness is that he has a powerful response to seeing pain in others, and Clinton said she gets impatient to bring change to America.

“Because I’m an ordinary person, I thought that they meant, ‘What’s your biggest weakness?'” Obama said to laughter from a packed house at Rancho High School. “If I had gone last I would have known what the game was. And then I could have said, ‘Well, ya know, I like to help old ladies across the street. Sometimes they don’t want to be helped. It’s terrible.'”

“Folks, they don’t tell you what they mean!” he said. Obama chuckled at his own joke before riffing on another Clinton answer in the debate, when she said that she is happy that the bankruptcy bill she voted for in 2001 never became law.

“She says, ‘I voted for it but I was glad to see that it didn’t pass.’ What does that mean?” he asked, again drawing laughter from the crowd and himself. “No seriously, what does that mean? If you didn’t want to see it passed, then you can vote against it! People don’t say what they mean.

Oh, my. This is trouble. There is no more powerful weapon on earth than mockery founded on truth. If Obama succeeds with this, and I’m thinking with that voice, that timing and that charisma he very well may, then Hillary might be toast.

This man is no one to take lightly or toy with. And the Republicans had better pay attention to this. If the “people don’t say what they mean” meme catches on – and I do believe it may, because it is an articulation of how everyone currently feels about politics, but presented as a punchline, like “sock it to me,” or “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more” – then the GOP candidates better be ready to say what they mean or get creamed for doubletalking by an American public eager to use the new, buzzy line. Pop culture is, after all, simply the glamorous cousin of the mob mentality.

Obama finished his routine:

“Those kinds of tricks, that kind of approach to politics is what has to stop because what happens is then nobody believes anything,” Obama said. “The voters don’t believe what politicians say. They get cynical. Folks in Congress, they’ll tell you they’re looking out for you – they’re looking out for somebody else. We have to change that politics and that’s why I’m running for president.”

If any politician thinks that is not going to resonate with the American electorate, circa 2008, well…buh-bye, then.

Quick aside: Chris Matthews has apparently apologized to Hillary Clinton for saying the following, on January 8:

the reason she’s a U.S. senator, the reason she’s a candidate for president, the reason she may be a front-runner is her husband messed around.”

His apology:

Was it fair to imply that Hillary’s whole career depending on being a victim of an unfaithful husband? No. And that’s what it sounded like I was saying

Well, it’s not what it sounded like he was saying – it was what he said. Probably what he had meant to say was something more along the lines of, “where would Hillary be without Bill Clinton? If she hadn’t married him, what would she be today, lead council for Ms. Magazine? Would she be defending Ms. Magazine for refusing an ad from Israel that didn’t follow the magazine’s narrative? Would she have any sort of political career without Bill Clinton?”

I can’t speak for Matthews, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what he meant to say. In any case, I’m not sure what it was he was supposed to apologize for – for being mean to Hillary, somehow? If implying that Hillary uses a victimhood strategy to succeed politically is hurtful to her and makes her such an victim that she needs an apology, doesn’t that sort of prove Matthews’ whole point? And if she can’t stand up to a really minor tweak from Matthews, how in heaven’s name will she be able to withstand a full-press onslaught (assuming they’d ever try one) in the manner of what President Bush has endured for the last 6 years?

I mean, I know Mrs. Clinton probably assumes – with sound reason – that she will not have a White House Press Corps demanding apologies and admissions of mistakes nearly every month, but just imagine if it does happen. What is she going to do, tell people to stop being mean to her and to apologize immediately?

Hillary gets apologized to a lot, and I don’t think it helps the public perception of her. When her minions demand apologies, and the sensitivity-challenged miscreant who displeased her does the public retraction/grovel, it doesn’t make Hillary look strong. It makes her look weak and hypersensitive, and it also makes her look remote and cold. When Elizabeth Edwards made the mistake of daring to suggest that she was a more joyful person than Mrs. Clinton, her apologetic retraction was swift, but to my way of thinking, it diminished both women by displaying their lack of artfulness, and politics is an art:

…If Mrs. Clinton had the political acumen of those who’ve gone before her – or of her husband – she might have…made a thoughtful and, if not self-deprecating, at least gracious statement, herself.
[…]
It’s not really that difficult. It takes a willingness to drop the imperiousness, think a thing through and be a little warm. Instead, Hillary did the silence, then the apology-acceptance, but she left us all with the same sense we’ve always had of her: Joyless, humorless, entitled, Godfather-esque. Kiss the ring and back out. Very good. You can go back to your little life, now, Mrs. Edwards, and when I need you, you’ll be there for me.

Can we stipulate that a president or a presidential candidate is entitled to a certain amount of respect, and that either of them should be apologized to for truly disgraceful remarks, such as Rep. Pete Stark’s recent burp that President Bush derived entertainment from the deaths of his troops. A stupid crack about race or gender might deserve an apology because it harms the society itself, but otherwise, honestly, Mrs. Clinton – and all the candidates – need to grow thicker skins.

As president, you have to live with it – you can’t shut everyone up, or spend a part of every day demanding apologies.

By the way, President Bush the big “nazi” who wants to “take away freedoms” and “silence dissent”? He’s not the one who does that. Never has been.

It’s going to be very interesting, in the day of the blog, hard-drives and alternative media, to watch how a more dictatorial president with a thinner skin will compare in the “free speech” columns, with this president. Assuming, of course, that such a one is elected.

UPDATED: I like this bit from Siggy:

A president of the United States of America must guide this nation without regard for appearances or immediate gratification or adulation. He must guide this nation based on the principles of freedom and the preservation of freedom.

A president of the United States of America must believe with every fiber of his being that ‘All men are created equal,’ not just those born here and that all people, everywhere, are best served if they are free.

The legacy of a president of the United States of America is not a list of achievements or accomplishments, but rather the health of the office he leaves. If the temporary occupant of the White House carries on the work begun by Washington or Jefferson and their successors, then the legacy is a good one. If the legacy tramples on the ideals of this ‘great experiment,’ then we are all poorer for the experience.

Great presidents are not born of the ideologies of one political party or the other. Great presidents are those who share the same values as the people they represent.

Protein Wisdom is thinking similarly to me.

As does Ann Althouse

The Perpetual Adolescents

TV/Pop Culture/Music

Previous Post

January 17, 2008

Pater Noster

Next Post

January 22, 2008 Attn GOP: Meet the Woodshed

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category "Remaking" Ourselves 'Remaking' America 9/10 Mindset 9/11 trials Abortion ACORN Adoration Advent Advent 2008 Advent 2009 Advent 2010 Alternative Energy Alternative Media America American Catholic Church American Church American Genius Ameridolatry ANCHORESS BOOKSHELF Anglican-Roman Reconciliation Answers & Questions Anti_Semitism Archbishop Hilarion Ayn Rand Bad Mass Barack Obama Baseball Benedict Benedict & Islam Benedict in UK Benedict XVI Benedictine Bill Whittle Birth Control Blogs and Blogging Blogs and Blogging Bloodless Coup Bobby Jindal Bookchat Breitbart Bride at every wedding... Bride at every wedding... Buckley Bullies Bush Bad? Bush Good Buster Capitalism Catholic Fiction Catholic Vocations Catholicism Celibacy Chaput Charitable Stuff Chesterton Chile Chris Christie Christians in Exile Christine O' Donnell Christmas Christmas Gift Ideas Church Hates Science? Church hates women Communion of Saints Compline Conclave 2013 Confession Constitutional Stuff Conversion Crisis & Opportunity Critical Thinking Crooks and Liars Crucible of Faith Cuba Culture of Life Culture of Life/Death Culture of Treason? Dancing Death Dialogue re Islam Dick Meyer Divorce and Remarriage DOJ Domestic Terrorism Dominican Order Don't try me too high Dowd Dumb Democrat moves Dumb GOP moves Economic woe Education Egregious Harry Reid Elder Son Elder Son's Sweet Girlfriend Elderly Election '10 Election '12 Election '16 Election 2004 Election 2006 Election 2008 Election 2010 Election 2016 Elena Kagan Elitism Embryonic Stem Cell Research End Times? English language Enhanced Interrogation Erosion of Rights Eucharist Euthanasia Exorcism Extraordinary Synod Facebook Faith Faith and Reason Faith Friday Faith Perspective Faithful Friday Fascism Again Fascism in America Fatima FCC Feminism Film First Things Forgiveness Fr. James Martin Francis and Islam Francis in America Frassati Fred Thompson Free Speech? Freedom of Worship FutureChurch Global Pandemic GOP Congress Haiti Head Covering Health Care Here and Queer Hermits Heroes Hitchens Holy Spirit Holy Week '09 Holy Week '10 Hoo-Hah & BS Hoo-Hah & BS Icons Illegal Immigration In The Arena Interviews Interwebz Iran Uprising Iraqi Christians ISIL ISIS Islamic State Islamification/Islamofascism Islamification/Islamofascism Isra-El It's all about me! Me! ME! James Burke Jerry Lewis Jesus Christ Joblessness John Boehner John McCain John Paul II John XXIII Juan Williams Just Words Katrina/Rita King is a Fink Latin Mass Leadership Lectio Divina Lent Lent '08 Lent '09 Lent 2010 Lent 2011 Limbaugh Listen to Lizzie Litigious Society Liturgy Liturgy of the Hours Mainstream Media Manliness Marriage Mary Media Excess Medical Merton Michelle Obama Mighty John O' Connor Misc. Miss Ella Missionaries Mitt Romney Monasticism My brother S My Irish Aunties Mystic Monks Nanny Statism Nature NEA Neri New Media Newman Noonan Notre Dame NPR Stuff Nun News Obama Bad? Obama Good? Obama White House Oil Spill Online Retreat '08 Online Retreat Days Oratory Orthodoxy Our Hillary! Parenting Passionists Patheos Patheos Book Club Patrons Paul Ryan Penance Penn Jillette Philosophy PJTV Podcasts Poetry Politics-free zone Pop Culture Pope Emeritus Pope Francis Prayer Predictions Priesthood Pro-Life Public Sector Unions Purgatory Questions about Catholicism Quotes of the Day Quoting the News Race in America rants Recipes Remarried Catholics Reposts by request Retreat thoughts Rome Rudy Giuliani Russia Saints Sarah Palin Scandal Scott Brown SCOTUS Scriptural stuff Secularism Send in the clowns Serving up hot links Sexuality Sherrod Shroud of Turin Sisters and Nuns Social Entrepreneurship Social Media Social Security Socialism doesn't work Sports and Faith Stem Cells Strange Gods Suffering Synod Tea Parties Tea Party Terri Schiavo The 9/11 Commission The Catholic Answer The Constitution The Desert The Fourth Estate The Pelosi The Perpetual Adolescents The Rosary Third Party? Timothy Dolan Touch of evil TSA Tsunami TV/Pop Culture/Music TV/Pop Culture/Music Twitter Uncategorized Unemployment Unintended Consequences US Military Vaginal Musings Vatican Vespers video faves Vile Joe Biden Voter Fraud War by Litigation War on Terror War, What it good for? Why can't weeee be ... World Youth Days Year of Faith Year of the Priest

Select a Month August 2016 July 2016 April 2016 March 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 August 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What were the first man and woman’s names in the Bible?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Jacob and Rachel Adam and Eve Joseph and Mary Samson and Delilah