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Dems 2008: Obama discovers the power of mockery [Karl]

Via Nedra Pickler, “Obama Debuts New Act in Vegas“:

LAS VEGAS (AP) – The White House campaign has brought a new act to Vegas. 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…

It seems like it was just yesterday that I was suggesting:

Now that it is being applied against a charismatic black Democrat, Clintonian über-spin — a key element of Clintonian politics — is becoming an object of mockery, even among a substantial segment of the Left.  Obama will not be able to entirely undo that damage, even as part of a potential Clinton/Obama ticket.

The Clintons have been doing it to themselves, but Obama is now actively lending them a hand.  It appears he is planning for an extended engagement, so don’t forget to tip your culinary workers.

23 Replies to “Dems 2008: Obama discovers the power of mockery [Karl]”

  1. B Moe says:

    “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.’”

    That got a for real LOL out of me, you have to admit the kid is damn good. If Rove really were a genius he would be trying to turn him to the Dark Side.

  2. daleyrocks says:

    He could have said, “back when I did a lot of drugs I used to eat things that weren’t healthy for me. Now I try to eat a healthy and balanced diet, but don’t always succeed.”

    I would have liked to hear that.

  3. B Moe says:

    Just honestly admitting to doing drugs was enough for me. Clinton’s “I smoked but I didn’t inhale” was the beginning of my drift to the right. I couldn’t believe I had just voted for someone too stupid to smoke a fucking joint.

  4. Big Bang (pumping you up.) says:

    – Obama camp, and the man himself without doubt, knew full well going in thats his very presense, the audacity of daring to challenge the designated “queen” in ascending to her rightfull thrown, killed any possible chance of a “ticket”. The Clintons never tell the truth if they can do it better with a lie, and they never forget when some lowly upstart crosses them, particularly the one symbol that effectively offsets Robobitches “womaness” card.

    – Watching the SecProgs munching on each others ankles, (Silky pony has already started campaining for the VP slot in his usual shamless whoreing way, so he no longer counts, even for light humor), is just plain delightful. It appears that for this election cycle, the fun will never end. So much for the “truce”. Its obvious that there will be about as much “truciness” among the Dem candidates as a cease fire between Isreal and Palistine.

  5. Karl says:

    TROOCERS!

  6. SGT Ted says:

    I couldn’t believe I had just voted for someone too stupid to smoke a fucking joint.

    That is a profound statement of political and social clarity.

    I salute you, Sir.

  7. psycho... says:

    Because I’m an ordinary person, I thought that they meant, ‘What’s your biggest weakness?’

    Flubby.

    An ordinary person has had to interview for a job sometime. I haven’t for so long I don’t remember when it was, and even I know that drill.

    Such offhand declarations of extreme privelege have played well with his base — they’re how he got it, and their support for him is the same kind of display — but they won’t fly with the black voters who are trying to defect to him from Hillary.

    There’s a Southern state somewhere he just lost.

  8. happyfeet says:

    Good God in Heaven. He can’t even mock at a twelfth-grade level. That’s not mocking. That’s maybe auditioning for the Today show.

  9. B Moe says:

    Remember his target audience, sophomoric aw shucks populism is dead nuts on. These people only pretend any degree of real intellect, and poking fun at the old school is the height of sophistication. It has been demonstrated time and again on this board that real mockery sails right over their pointy little heads.

  10. happyfeet says:

    I still think when this is all over Obama chuckling at his own joke is going to be a pretty apt metaphor for his campaign. I think it depends on where and when you went to high school. If you thought your Student Council president was super-cool, he’s so your guy. If you can’t remember who your Student Council president even was, he’s just not that compelling.

  11. B Moe says:

    “If you thought your Student Council president was super-cool, he’s so your guy.”

    Exactly, and that is the modern Democrat Party. Has been for as long as I can remember.

  12. Topsecretk9 says:

    That got a for real LOL out of me, you have to admit the kid is damn good. If Rove really were a genius he would be trying to turn him to the Dark Side.

    Remember recently when Rove said of the ’04 primaries that they really feared an Edward’s campaign so they were relieved with a Kerry ticket?

    Uh. Huh,

    Who is Rove asking the electorate respect and bolstering now? Hillary.

    It’s all chess, but who really is he maneuvering. In his last speech he didn’t mention Edwards IIRC.

  13. happyfeet says:

    Oh. You’re absolutely right now that I think on it.

  14. happyfeet says:

    … , B Moe.

  15. Karl says:

    On the actual merits of the mockery, Obama should have had a better answer at the debate. But the answers of the others are mockable, as they were famtastically lame examples of the advice people get as to how to answer that question in job interviews. And in the case of HRC, reinforce the subconscious impression people have of her as Tracy Flick, even if they have not seen Election.

  16. […] Protein Wisdom is thinking similarly to me. […]

  17. But he’s above personal attack.

  18. alppuccino says:

    My biggest weakness is that my IQ is so high that it makes it hard for others to understand me. If only somehow these others would get smarter thereby diminishing my weakness.

    C’mon gang! Admit a weakness. It’s yoga-like in its cleansing powers.

  19. bjtexs says:

    Oh, you’re right, al. I can feel myself changing to accomodate the changes that will bring sweeping change to our country.

    I am being cleansed in a changing kind of way.

    I’ve done corporate seminars where I admonsish the participants never to use the word change when seeking to institute company innovations. They’re all supposed to be improvements don’cha know. Barack is simply another example of how politics operates in an entirely seperate dimension in space/time.

    You know, the one with flying unicorns, Mary Poppins and lots of delicious, edgy change.

  20. JD says:

    BJ – You should come address the folks at my company. Change is still a buzzword. On the other hand, we celebrate our 200 year anniversary next year, so we tend to evolve slowly.

    Osama Obama – Because of teh changey-ness !

  21. McGehee says:

    My greatest weakness is that I will never understand what it must be like to be imperfect.

  22. bjtexs says:

    Well my greatest weakness is all of the mistakes I thought I had made but for which I was mistaken.

    JD: Your company has not embraced the new age. You need to convince people to be other centered and to think outside the box.

    Meaningless corporate seminar words are my touchy feely canvas.

  23. JD says:

    BJ – I had a corporate seminar this week on how best to deal with people 50+. 3 hours of my life gone, forever. We tend to talk about controlled sustainable growth, and servicing our core business model even better.

    how much cash would it take to make a 30 second national ad of Ted Kennedy trying to say Obama’s name in a continuous loop?

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