New new election thread

[Tweedling]

No kidding. Maybe this political thing is too much like the entertainment industry and we expect something new everyday. It seems rather mundane right now. Barry is taking a stroll through some rural spots of our state of MO this week. McCain is emphasizing the need to use sunscreen. Exciting, huh?

I don't know, I've enjoyed watching the medias love affair with "Huey". It's kinda like my little sisters crush on my friends who would come over to the house . However, her heart was broken when she found out 2 of them ended up being drug addicts and 1 was a homosexual.

[MrRain422]

I don't know, I've enjoyed watching the medias love affair with "Huey". It's kinda like my little sisters crush on my friends who would come over to the house . However, her heart was broken when she found out 2 of them ended up being drug addicts and 1 was a homosexual.

 

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/07/27/Stu...43191217211564/

[bobbob1313]

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/07/27/Stu...43191217211564/

 

Thats because the media spent the previous year collectively fellating him. Their jaws were hurt.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/07/27/Stu...43191217211564/

 

 

I remeber this kind of 'empirical study' about press coverage for Reagan being torn to bits in a Graduate School statistics class.

[sweetheart-mine]

I remeber this kind of 'empirical study' about press coverage for Reagan being torn to bits in a Graduate School statistics class.

i didn't see it but my mother emailed that she thought brokaw treated him badly during the long interview the other day (i assume she meant on Meet the Press). she was furious and said brokaw kept trying to trip him up. i said that's part of brokaw's job.

 

anyway, i sure wish the election were today, now, this minute. for one thing, my mother is 83 and the suspense just might kill her. for another, the talking heads have gone on for so long since the primaries that i can't watch tv anymore for fear one of them will pop up unexpectedly. and for another, if obama wins i can finally enjoy the idea of possibilities.

[bobbob1313]

Well, I guess we can read it after all!

 

How to make fun of Obama

Tips for those who find it too hard to joke about the Democratic candidate.

Joel Stein

 

July 18, 2008

 

I believe comedic change is possible. Since the New Yorker dropped a bum joke on its cover this week, comedians have appeared on every news outlet to whine about how hard it is to make fun of Barack Obama. Really? They have an arsenal of jokes to use against a 71-year-old ex-POW cancer survivor and Obama is too touchy a subject?

 

I'm here to help. I called some comedian friends to compile a guide to making fun of Obama. The consensus is there's not yet one standout attribute to pound away on (McCain is old! Clinton cheats on his wife! Bush is stupid! Al Gore is a robot! John Kerry makes me feel inexplicably sad inside!), but there are areas to explore. If we just work a little harder, and sacrifice a little bit, we can achieve greatness. We are the immature jerks we have been waiting for.

 

He's a nerd. Yes, he seems cool because he plays basketball and fist-bumps and knows about pop music. But that's because we're comparing him with other politicians, all of whom are older than our grandparents. Compare Obama with other 46-year-olds and he's Urkel. He's the kid at the Model United Nations conference who says, "Guys, guys, c'mon. Let's not make fun of Eastern Europe." And the brutal truth is, even if women faint at your rallies, you'll never feel cool inside when you have Alfred E. Neuman's ears.

 

He's ridiculously earnest. Obama is the kind of guy who not only talked you into showing up for Hands Across America but afterward insisted that it was awesome. On "Saturday Night Live," Fred Armisen plays up Obama's weird pauses and brow furrows like he's Yogi Bear getting bad news from a doctor. Comedian Marc Maron does a really smart bit about how Obama stares out into the distance while giving a speech. "The first time you see him you're like, 'What's he looking at?' But then you're like, 'I don't know, but it's good and full of hope. And he's the only one who can see it. If we vote for him, maybe he'll take us there.' "

 

He's black. Apparently, the differences between black people and white people can be funny. Trust, me I've seen this on HBO's "Def Comedy Jam."

 

When I called "Simpsons" writer Matt Selman for help on Obama jokes, he came up with this: "A lot of people are worried about Obama being assassinated because he's black. The solution to that is a much blacker vice president. I'm thinking Flavor Flav." Admittedly, Selman nervously said, "Don't make me look racist!" about 20 times before and after telling me his joke.

 

He's manorexic. No one loses weight on the campaign trail, when you're grabbing fast food and eating whatever is offered out of politeness, but this guy is always turning down doughnuts. It's like he signed up for running for president because he thought "president" was some kind of 10K race.

 

As comedian Aisha Tyler told me, "He has the build of an ex-high school javelin thrower. He's the guy on the track team who only does that one event, and he weighs the same as the javelin."

 

He's effete. He's well-dressed. He eats arugula -- which he buys at Whole Foods. He mocks those who use guns. He is, as we mentioned, quite thin. He may only be half-black, but he's three-quarters gay.

 

He called his own grandmother a racist. We all have racist grandmothers, but we don't brag about it to everyone. I like to imagine that his granny wasn't that bad and that Obama was just super-sensitive. Like she would tell him it was bedtime and he'd yell, "Oh, I have to go to bed because I'm black!" Or she'd tell him to clean up his room and he'd start yelling, "Oh, clean my room, huh? My people stopped obeying the white woman 100 years ago, Grammy!" Then they'd both laugh and she'd whip him.

 

His name is weird. The unfunny people beat us to the Osama/Obama bit, which really could have been mined. But Obama also dropped the "Barry" nickname in college. Do you remember those classmates who suddenly found their culture and had to share it with you like they were on the ninth step of AA? You just wanted to trudge through "Portrait of a Lady," but they felt compelled to sit you down in the dorm hallway and explain how they're no longer Susie, they're Mei Mei now. Then they recounted their whole journey of identity by using a lot of words that made it clear that Mei Mei was going to be a lot less fun than Susie was.

 

His platitudes need deconstruction. "We are the people we've been waiting for"? Actually, I'm pretty sure we're the people who put all our money in Yahoo and then bought a house to flip and now are hocking everything we have. We're the people China has been waiting for.

 

Speaking of this. I can't tell if the Daily Show will be more boring if Obama is president or McCain. I want to say McCain, because lately Stewart has actually made fun of OBama for the first time, and I'm really not interested in hearing Jon pander to his audience and do his stupid impressions for another 4 years.

[MrRain422]

I agree that it's the media's job to be hard on the candidates. I think there actually are quite a few things that the media should be much harder on Obama about. They tend to focus on other things though. I think all of the coverage of both candidates, both positive and negative, have been focused mostly on the wrong things. But it seems obvious to me that the media has let a lot of McCain's gaffes go with a lot less scrutiny than they do Obama's much less egregious ones, and that's not even considering the suspicious manipulation with Katie Couric by the CBS News producers.

[Spawn's dad]

Markets rally on news that black U.S. AIDS rates rival African nations casting doubt on Obama's hopes.

[bobbob1313]

Everyone thinks their guy is treated unfairly.

[MrRain422]

And everyone's guy is treated unfairly sometimes.

[sweetheart-mine]

I agree that it's the media's job to be hard on the candidates. I think there actually are quite a few things that the media should be much harder on Obama about. They tend to focus on other things though. I think all of the coverage of both candidates, both positive and negative, have been focused mostly on the wrong things. But it seems obvious to me that the media has let a lot of McCain's gaffes go with a lot less scrutiny than they do Obama's much less egregious ones, and that's not even considering the suspicious manipulation with Katie Couric by the CBS News producers.

i agree on all counts. and the katie couric thing was most interesting -- confirmation of something many of us suspect but don't get to hear out of a media person's mouth very often, if ever.

[bobbob1313]

Which is why it's dumb to complain about who was treated more unfairly. Obama is more visible than McCain, so he's going to get more negative coverage, simply because most commentary on major news networks focuses on flaws.

[sweetheart-mine]

Which is why it's dumb to complain about who was treated more unfairly. Obama is more visible than McCain, so he's going to get more negative coverage, simply because most commentary on major news networks focuses on flaws.

my mother won't like it that you called her dumb, but don't worry, i'll tell her it's part of your job.

 

one thing the media has done with obama that bugs me is the whole "rock star" or "pop star" spin. it's ridiculously manipulative and has nothing to do with anything.

[bobbob1313]

my mother won't like it that you called her dumb, but don't worry, i'll tell her it's part of your job.

 

Oh, really, I called your mother dumb? Ok.

[Guest Jules]

Which is why it's dumb to complain about who was treated more unfairly. Obama is more visible than McCain, so he's going to get more negative coverage, simply because most commentary on major news networks focuses on flaws.

and because he's black, of course.

[sweetheart-mine]

Oh, really, I called your mother dumb? Ok.

kidding!

[MrRain422]

Which is why it's dumb to complain about who was treated more unfairly. Obama is more visible than McCain, so he's going to get more negative coverage, simply because most commentary on major news networks focuses on flaws.

 

Right, but that's also the reason that the Media Love Affair With Obama is a myth. And it certainly doesn't explain the CBS thing.

 

I can fully relate to your reluctance to fully buy in to any of the narratives about either candidates positives or negatives. It's absolutely true that all politicians manipulate the media to a certain degree. But that doesn't mean that the truth lies directly in the middle in every single instance. Sometimes one side truly is more dishonest than the other (even if the other side isn't 100% honest). Sometimes one side truly is less competent and less educated and the issues than the other side (even if the otherside is not completely competent 100% of the time).

[bobbob1313]

You can't argue that the media as a whole (news organizations aren't the only part of the media) do treat Obama kinder.

 

Also, can I just say politics is the reason I finally cancelled my subscription to Rolling Stone. I could handle their crap reviews because they usuaully have some good features, but their political writing is so fucking terrible I couldn't support them anymore.

[Good Old Neon]

At this point in time, insofar as campaign and candidate coverage is concerned, I cannot help but think the scribes responsible for bringing us said coverage are all bi-polar and/or schizophrenic. Balanced coverage is now sort of achieved by bashing the hell out of one candidate for a week or so, and then like, reversing polarity almost instantaneously, and then like, turning the boot on the other candidate.

 

With that said, Bush and Co. have, for the last seven plus years, gone nearly (fucking miraculously) unmolested by the very same media.

 

It sort of almost makes you want to cry.

[bobbob1313]

At this point in time, insofar as campaign and candidate coverage is concerned, I cannot help but think the scribes responsible for bringing us said coverage are all bi-polar and/or schizophrenic. Balanced coverage is now sort of achieved by bashing the hell out of one candidate for a week or so, and then like, reversing polarity almost instantaneously, and then like, turning the boot on the other candidate.

 

With that said, Bush and Co. have, for the last seven plus years, gone nearly (fucking miraculously) unmolested by the very same media.

 

It sort of almost makes you want to cry.

 

I think the media blasted Bush for stupid things and turned a blind eye when we really needed them to hammer him.

 

Case in point: The first time in his presidency when he was roundly criticized was Katrina, which wasn't really a failing on his part so much as a failing of the government's beauracracy.

 

But they let the fucking war go for 3 years without a word.

[wheelco]

I went to one of those campaigny-type house party/town meeting things the other night and we drank a lot of beer. I mean a bunch, folks.

[Good Old Neon]

I think the media blasted Bush for stupid things and turned a blind eye when we really needed them to hammer him.

 

Case in point: The first time in his presidency when he was roundly criticized was Katrina, which wasn't really a failing on his part so much as a failing of the government's beauracracy.

 

But they let the fucking war go for 3 years without a word.

 

One good thing to come about as a result of the Dante

[MrRain422]

I think the media blasted Bush for stupid things and turned a blind eye when we really needed them to hammer him.

 

Case in point: The first time in his presidency when he was roundly criticized was Katrina, which wasn't really a failing on his part so much as a failing of the government's beauracracy.

 

But they let the fucking war go for 3 years without a word.

 

 

I agree. They were hard on him about things that were stupid and didn't matter, but didn't even report on the worst aspects of this administration. It's how they're covering the campaign too -- a slip of the tongue gets coverage, a drastic reversal in policy, or blatantly dishonest campaign ad goes unreported.

[mfwahl]

I think the media blasted Bush for stupid things and turned a blind eye when we really needed them to hammer him.

 

Case in point: The first time in his presidency when he was roundly criticized was Katrina, which wasn't really a failing on his part so much as a failing of the government's beauracracy.

 

But they let the fucking war go for 3 years without a word.

Actually, I thought Bush didn't get enough for Katrina. It wasn't solely his fault but he was warned numerous times about levees breaking and about how bad it would be and he didn't give a shit. (about black people). FEMA deseverdedly gets a lot of crap but Brownie (heck of a job) was denied extra resources by Bush and Homeland Security. I don't know what difference it would have made but they could have at least tried.

 

EDIT: But I agree that the press has totally dropped the ball on a lot of things. I was talking to someone today about how they ( particularly television) don't do their job anymore. Not really looking for the truth. You see more biased screaming heads than experts on there

[wheelco]

There's a huge swath of this country where the Katrina debacle still looms larger than the war as an issue on the campaign trail