What Stephen Bainbridge would want:- Knows which wine to match with the foie gras-stuffed quail being served at a state dinner
- Won't wink at the Queen
- Doesn't hunt, fish, or go with girls who do
- Smokes cigars
- Is sometimes accused of having a metrosexual streak
- Only drinks beer with foods that would score at least 10,000 on the Scoville scale
- Can credibly debate the relative claims of The Matrix, Star Wars, Bladerunner, and Star Trek II to be the greatest science fiction movie of all time
- Can credibly debate the relative claims of the Who and Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band to be the world's greatest rock and roll band
(More items at the link.) I'm going to assume these are all things that are true of Stephen Bainbridge, who is mainly sick of all the Southern pop culture in presidential culture. But, frankly, he's got a few in there that would be
disqualifiers for me. "Claims of the Who and Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band to be the world's greatest rock and roll band"? And you just know he means the 70s Who. I want my President to take a firm stand preferring pre-"Tommy" Who to post-"Tommy" Who. And I don't care if he -- Bainbridge's character is clearly a guy -- winks at the Queen, but I do want to see him do a karaoke performance of "We Are The Champions."
ADDED: Speaking of metrosexuals,
this is pretty funny.
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I don't care what the President knows or doesn't know about pop culture, so long as I don't need to know anything at all about it to be able to tell what he's talking about.
a firm stand preferring pre-"Tommy" Who to post-"Tommy" Who
Without giving it due consideration, I don't think I care about a prez's pop culture preferences.
But I SO AGREE, and firmly, about pre-Tommy Who versus post-Tommy Who--and post Who Who's, for that matter, (you better, you better, you bet, by golly).
I want my President to be,
Sturdy "Ox" Entwistle on Defense,
Roger Daltrey on all meetings with the French and all female White House interns,
Windmilling Pete Townshend on Energy,
and Keith Moon on everything else.
It does seem as the current administration has picked "I Can't Explain" as their war policy theme, so there may be more Who connections than we thought!
An American president can't very well endorse a British band as the greatest ever. Also, bear in mind that the pre-Tommy Who is now more than thirty years old. For a current president or candidate to chat about it would be the equivalent of President Nixon going on about the music of the 1940s. That just doesn't seem like what one commonly thinks of as cool.
Here's my pet peeve:
I have no problem if the President is a hunter (i.e. Jimmy Carter). But I do have a problem with the fact that every wannabe President-- of either party-- feels the need to get a gun, go shoot something (usually something that has been 'set up' so (s)he can't miss) and pose with it, just to show how 'manly' (s)he is, and score points with the NRA crowd.
Why should they purport to be something they're not?
As far as 'don't go with the girls who do (hunt and fish)? What is that about? Since when did knowing how to hunt or fish make a woman undesirable?
And yeesh-- he wants a guy who smokes cigars? How reprobate is that?-- it brings up the worst images of the old Washington, where (exclusively male) pols would meet in a smoke filled room in the basement and buy, sell and trade people's futures like so many poker chips.
Frankly, a politician with a cigar is like a cop with a doughnut; just the wrong person to put with the image.
Put it this way-- give me a choice between a hunter (a real one, not a phony photo-op hunter) and a cigar smoker, and I'll take the hunter.
Eli Blake - I have no problem if the President is a hunter (i.e. Jimmy Carter). But I do have a problem with the fact that every wannabe President-- of either party-- feels the need to get a gun, go shoot something (usually something that has been 'set up' so (s)he can't miss) and pose with it, just to show how 'manly' (s)he is, and score points with the NRA crowd.
Hint: They also don't give a flying fuck about babies, the suffering Muslims of Darfur, Israel, Cuba, the poor Bosnians, Haitians or any other crappy little country of no strategic value. But have to make like they do to open wealthy donor's wallets or get the Foreign lobby's USA votes. They could give a hoot about the ethanol welfare Iowans extort before the primary or who has to pay for it later.
They have to pretend they like people they despise and revere people they have no respect for, care deeply about bunghole countries they couldn't locate on a map.
What else is new?
But the act masks the reality. They come across as ready to be taking away more gun rights, they
walk into Noble Algore's punji pit. They diss the Cuban-Americans and their asinine "embargo", they lose Florida. They call teachers dunber than the average American, cops overentitled, farmers not the most moral Americans, or not treat celebrity as royalty - they pay a big price for it.
I am sorry but the entire metrosexual thing is so tired. Although there is a funny website called "gay or eurotrash" which you have to try and identify if the man on the street is either gay or eurotrash. When I travel to Europe they all seem to put quite a bit of effort (I know this is a stereotype) in their looks and I have no idea who is gay or straight anymore.
Pre-Tommy is a long time ago. Perhaps some of these presidential candidates know about that but many of us don't know the difference between pre and post Tommy Who.
I just went on Bainbridge's website and I have to say his picture doesn't match up with many of the pop culture issues he mentions.
He definitely doesn't looks metrosexual.
sorry for the multiple postings but if you were to look at Bainbridge's list I would assume he sounds like the stereotypical liberal but he is conservative.
Knows which wine to match with the foie gras-stuffed quail being served at a state dinner...
Depends on the stuffing, but a Californian Zinfandel of the first rank should suffice - white or even a light red.
But then isn't that why one has servants?
I'd like a guy who's...
....clever and convincing enough to get a high school football trainer to leave campus..during practice...to get him a Coke-a-Cola...
...who's constantly underestimated by his peers (as he was in high school)...
...and who couldn't give two sh*ts about dumb*ss questions like this...
That's Fred Thompson.
Based on the various desiderata being bandied about the internet today, I am forced to conclude that Rudy Giuliani is the preferred candidate, as I analyze at Stubborn Facts... with tongue planted firmly in cheek, of course, in keeping with the apparent spirit of the day.
I would really, really like a president who didn't give two hoots in hell what anyone associated with an entertainment industry thought about taxes, policy, or world affairs and subsequently refused to respond to any of their pronouncements.
Really. Really, really, really.
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