Obama girl!!!

[OOO]

http://www.cnn.com/ has coverage on this.

[WilcoFan]

I'm not much of a fan of McCullough's work. All presidents were a-holes. nice guys can't do the job (see warren g. harding as an example). At least Ike warned america as he left about the dangers of an unchecked military.

 

 

Have you read Truman? Great book. Ike was just following the doctrine set up by Truman and by his example of not giving into the widespread isolationism in this country at the time. This world would be the USSR now if it weren't for Truman. Ike was largely an ineffective president IMO. He took all of the credit for ending the Korean war, a war that he criticized but reaped the benefits of a more stable and democratic Korea and a stable south east Asia. -- For a while at least.

[Dreamin']

Nothing would more negatively affect his gravitas/dignitas than to court or even acknowledge such foolishness. The guy is running for President trying to prove he has new ideas to offer. Such bullshit like that video will allow people to point to his paper thin resume.

 

He's running for President, not first Rock Star. Clinton tacitly encouraged such attitudes and it allowed people to think of him as being lighweight.

 

Obama is deadly serious and stuff like this will only make his path rockier.

Why so prissy, America?

 

Barack Obama reminds me of Pierre Trudeau. Trudeau wasn't a good looking man by any stretch of the imagination (unlike Obama - rowrr), but he was super charismatic and women loved him. When I was a baby, my mom used me as a prop just to get close to him. You go, mom! If I could choose between meeting one of the Beatles or meeting Pierre Trudeau, I'd pick Trudeau (RIP) in a heartbeat. Yet despite all the Trudeaumania hype, he was anything but a lightweight. In fact, he was probably our last great visionary.

 

 

If you don't want Obama, we'll take him. Almost anyone would be better than the cold fish conservative we have now.

[anodyne]

Have you read Truman? Great book. Ike was just following the doctrine set up by Truman and by his example of not giving into the widespread isolationism in this country at the time. This world would be the USSR now if it weren't for Truman. Ike was largely an ineffective president IMO. He took all of the credit for ending the Korean war, a war that he criticized but reaped the benefits of a more stable and democratic Korea and a stable south east Asia. -- For a while at least.

 

i read it, but didn't care for it much. truman was a conflicted man to be nice. let us not forget he's the only person to use atomic weapons on people in world history. as far as the book's view that truman stopped this from being a province of the Soviet Union - that's bunk. the domino theory was absolute drivel. when stalin died, the threat of soviet aggression died with him. the only communist aggression the US ever faced (and by proxy at that) was China.

 

 

truman should be credited and blamed for the korean war. the best thing he did in that conflict was firing macarthur, which cost him tons of political capital and helped ike, even though macarthur strongly disliked ike.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

Eisenhower was an a-hole. Read McCullough's Truman and you'll see why. But as far as Obama, he strikes me as a person with real passion about making change and should capitalize on his outsider status as someone who could potentially inspire a nation and as someone who doesn't have a 20 year career in DC making sure the status quo is perpetuated.

 

I'm sure that's the perfect place to look for an objective opinion about Eisenhower.

lol

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

Why so prissy, America?

 

Hell...I can't speak for America.

 

Maybe I'm just taking my country's political future and standing in the world a little seriously.

 

The next President will have a hard row to hoe after the debacle of the Bush years. And if Obama is the man, he needs to be regarded as a man of stature not a figure open to ridicule.

[WilcoFan]

i read it, but didn't care for it much. truman was a conflicted man to be nice. let us not forget he's the only person to use atomic weapons on people in world history. as far as the book's view that truman stopped this from being a province of the Soviet Union - that's bunk. the domino theory was absolute drivel. when stalin died, the threat of soviet aggression died with him. the only communist aggression the US ever faced (and by proxy at that) was China.

truman should be credited and blamed for the korean war. the best thing he did in that conflict was firing macarthur, which cost him tons of political capital and helped ike, even though macarthur strongly disliked ike.

 

I'm not sure the domino theory was absolute bunk since Germany was occupied by Stalin and if left unattended would have been the first stepping stone. Maybe not though. It's hard to say what Stalin, a man who killed millions of his own people would have done.

[Dreamin']

Maybe I'm just taking my country's political future and standing in the world a little seriously.

Not really. I suppose it's unfair to compare post 9/11 America to the innocence of Canada in the swingin' 60's. I just wanted to point out that great leaders and intellectuals (Trudeau certainly was both) can be pop culture icons as well.

 

I also wanted to remember what it was like to have a cool Prime Minister.

[Paula Deen]

hmm. i saw this today, followed by a cnn interview of the frail little white girl that's actually the singer. i don't think much of it. i'm not on obama's team, still holding out for gore to step in, i guess. but if i did think much of it, it's pretty shameful. i am no al sharpton or anything, but it's degrading to our black presidential hopeful somehow. i am normally not so touchy feely, i guess...but when i found out scrawny, rich white kids did it using a "ethnic booty dancer" i was like "pfft". i don't know. perhaps i'm being too sensitive.

 

i mean, when clinton played sax on the night time show...that was something he did to himself...so i hope that stuffy white people don't equate o'bama with pop culture Mtv hiphop shit (not that there is anything wrong with it). it likely hurts him more than it helps him, i guess it what i'm trying to say. maybe their working on one for romney where several "wives" are doing something similar, and for kucinich where PETA and the Dali Llama are booty dancing infront of his photo. I dunno. It just seems too obvious. is it just me?

 

ok, end rant.

[ShuckOwens]

Anyone catch Gretchen Wilson shaking her Daisy Dukes for the Thompson campaign on YouTube?

[Sir Stewart]

No, but your avatar is stupid FRESH.

[ShuckOwens]

No, but your avatar is stupid FRESH.

Right at back ya, Big Papi!

[Sir Stewart]

[anodyne]

be sure to watch abc news this week with george snuffaluffagus. how could they not mention this video?

[tugmoose]

Howie Kurtz was all over her in the WaPo:

 

 

Videotaped Valentine

 

By Howard Kurtz

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, June 15, 2007; 8:10 AM

 

I don't have a crush on Obama. And I don't have a crush on Obama Girl, even in her most scantily clad form. But I am enamored of the way that a single video can, in mere nanoseconds, become the hottest thing in the presidential campaign.

 

The funny, sexy, somewhat cheesy video features a woman crooning of her love for Barack, whose image pops in and out as she leaves him a phone message and moves around New York's streets and subways, at one point in a bikini.

 

"Hey B, it's me," she says. If you're there, pick up. I was just watching you on C-SPAN."

 

And: "You're into border security. Let's break this border between you and me. Universal health care reform, it makes me warm."

 

The over-the-top quality seems to poke fun at Obama mania, the kind of mass swoon (fueled by the media) that greeted the senator's flirtation and then plunge into the race. The smitten gal looooves Obama. Does this trivialize him by turning him into a sex object? Who knows? Does it get people buzzing about him? Absolutely.

 

Despite the fictional affair, I can't quite figure out how this hurts Obama, especially since his reputation is as a happily married man. His campaign, which had nothing to do with Obama Girl, isn't commenting.

 

As we were reminded when a former Obama adviser made that Hillary "1984" video, the presidential race is increasingly unfolding on YouTube, and in ways beyond any candidate's control.

 

"The music video, the launch gimmick of a new Web site, barelypolitical.com, put the Obama camp in an odd position," says the Chicago Tribune.

 

"True, the woman in the music video is clearly declaring Obama "the best candidate," arguably a message they'd like to see going viral on the Web. Trouble is, she's half-naked while lip-syncing Obama's praises and she's also warmly kissing his photograph, yet another reminder that candidates have less and less control of their images and messages when everybody has bandwidth."

 

William Beutler at Blog P.I. admits he's fallen for Obama Girl:

 

"It's grade-A YouTube cheesecake for sure, but also helps that the R&B parody lyrics effectively deploy its political references, and it certainly doesn't hurt that they also have that so-bad-it's-good quality."

 

ABC's Jake Tapper provides network-level analysis:

 

"The song and video goes on to poke racy fun at the way some voters have responded viscerally to both Obama's charisma and the personal nature of his political appeal."

 

Who's behind this thing? Oliver Willis has the goods:

 

"Obamagirl is a model by the name of Amber Lee Ettinger and she's lipsynching to the singing of Leah Kauffman (who was also behind the parody 'My Box In A Box'). It's kind of amusing all the money the mainstream media and advertisers pour into viral marketing but the stuff that becomes truly viral is from normal folks . . .

 

"The real question is what Michelle Obama thinks of this play for her man."