Posted on 07/21/2009 5:40:46 AM PDT by Titmouse
Billy Mays wasn't the world's greatest pitchman.
That title belongs to Barack Obama, the president whose sales spiel bounces Billy like a coconut on a Waikiki wave.
Like Mays, Obama operates from a script — neither of these hucksters ever mined his own material — but Billy taped his infomercials in a studio: If the “Mighty Putty” didn't hold up the garden hose, the stage crew added a rivet.
Obama does “hard sell,” live, and maintains his head-swiveling metronome, unless the teleprompter stops scrolling, or — as it did last week — explodes into a million fragments at the foot of his jet-powered podium.
No president has spent more time in production of set piece messaging. No president has spent more time on the road, in network studios (or importing network studios into the White House), or less time behind his desk during his first six months in office. No president has been so “in-your-face,” from dawn ‘till dusk — on the radio, on the boob-tube, on the newsstand, or on your laptop.
Clickety clack, now back to Barack.
(Excerpt) Read more at aspentimes.com ...
“Black trumps all requirements.”
Almost always, I agree. But did you happen to see Bab’s (”Call me Senator!”) Boxer get her head handed to her by Harry Alford, the CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce?
Priceless!
How gratifying it was to watch Boxer blubbering, helplessly, into her microphone as she fended off the accusation that her citation from the NAACP was “racial.”
Talk about being “hoisted” on your own petard.
Billy was born and raised in my hometown...brought back here for burial. There was an interview on the local channels with his son, where the son said that he didn’t know about his father’s kindness and generosity until people started coming up to him at the wake and funeral. At the time of his death, Billy was putting his own money into building a church here.
Many people have said that they didn’t like his booming voice. To me, as I watch this country’s capitalism be slowly dismantled by Obama and his henchmen, that voice was music to my ears. He made money on his products, which in turn he spent...then there were those people employed to make the products (and they would be spending their pay on goods and services too). Billy represented all that was good about capitalism.
“He got a complete pass from the Lame Stream Media...”
Did you see the discussion about Cronkite, last night, on O’Reilly?
It was interesting and featured comparisons of O’Reilly’s and Bernie Goldberg’s experiences working at CBS Evening News. Very telling discussion of what “journalism” was like during Cronkites’ tenure, and after, when Dan Rather was running the show. Goldberg said that Watergate was the watershed event that transformed journalists’ practice of “covering the news” into slanting the news. Things started to really unwind with Carter’s loss to Reagan, when advocacy journalism took off like a rocket, because journalists felt “disempowered” (gag...) during the Reagan years.
I don’t doubt that Obama is driving the train, but he’s left Congress to shape the legislation and provide the details.
Pelosi has hurt him, big time. Her caustic style has made it easier for Republicans to close ranks and attack the Obama agenda, substituting Pelosi as a surrogate. It’s been a double-edged sword, this one party power, and the way that Pelosi and Reid have wielded it will end up being the Democrats’ undoing. I remember some really skillful Speakers (e.g., Tip O’Neill, Tom Foley) who also had overwhelming numerical advantages, but were able to finesse that damaging image (one-party arrogance and partisanship) much better than Pelosi/Reid. There’s “overreaching,” legislatively, and then there’s just plain bad public relations. The Democrats are setting themselves up for a very big fall in the midterm elections, especially if they can find a new “Newt,” and a new “contract.”
Obama has distanced himself from the sausage making part of the bills so he can see which way the wind is blowing in terms of the polls on the various parts of the bill. This gives him greater freedom and latitude in making changes and he is not publicly invested in one solution or another. Ultimately, the WH will decided what is best in terms of policy and public support. It is just a case of good cop, bad cop. Obama is still in charge despite these orchestrated perceptions.
Yup, I think “Good cop, bad cop” fits.
If Obama were white and resembled Dennis Kucinich, he'd never have been elected senator much less prez. At least Koochnik (as my wife calls him) is honest about his socialism.
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