June 3, 2009

That book saying the Obamas' marriage isn't so hot.

Seems pretty creepy to me. "Renegade" is reaping the PR with stuff like:
There was little conversation and even less romance. She was angry at his selfishness and careerism; he thought she was cold and ungrateful.
Ugh. You can squeeze material like that — or just as bad in some different way — out of the raw material of almost any marriage.

47 comments:

Swifty Quick said...

The picture of him coming out of the surf showing off his body rather than a picture of him romping with his kids on the beach speaks volumes of how he wants to be seen and known. It's pretty obvious to even the casual observer that Barack is not that much of a family man.

Fred4Pres said...

Creepy is not the right word to describe it. Sleazy is better. It is more about a writer trying to find something that is not out and out slander and libel because there is no way to refute it and run with it to sell a few books.

I think there are many couples out there where the wife has called the husband selfish and the husband called the wife unappreciative. Hey wait? My wife and I have said similar things to each other in the past in the Fred4Pres house! Have others had similar conversations? Maybe we are not so different than the Obama.

If this is it, there is really not a lot to see here. Move along folks, move along.

Bissage said...

Phew! That was close. For a second there I was afraid that story wouldn't have a happy ending.

J. Cricket said...

Seems creepy, eh?

Creepier than posting pictures of your children on the internet? Creepier than posting details from your personal life on the internet?

Just trying to understand your incomprehensible creepiness gauge.

Jason (the commenter) said...

This is how it starts. Soon it will become common knowledge that the Obama's have a troubled marriage and people will be speculating on how many more months they have together.

This is how politics works.

MayBee said...

It is sleazy, but..
The Obamas must not be too upset, because their people went to celebrate at the book release party
and
The Obama people have used the romance of the Obamas to try to sell the Obamas. They've introduced this storyline for their own benefit, so it feels fair to determine how much is real, and how much is a sales job to keep him popular when his policies are not.

Jason (the commenter) said...

Juris Dentist : Creepier than posting pictures of your children on the internet? Creepier than posting details from your personal life on the internet?

Creepier than watching anonymously?

Unknown said...

Are Juris Dentist and Maxine the same person?

holdfast said...

Look, inter-species romance is not easy. He's from Earth and she's from Kronos. He wants to watch a basketball game and she wants to practice Bat'leth fighting. That said, Barack Obama's America is a place where everyone, black, white, human and Klingon can live together in peace and harmony. Plus back on Kronos those forehead ridges make Michelle a real hottie!

Ann Althouse said...

When did pictures of children become "creepy"? I guess around the same time as it became unacceptable for a man to smile at a child he doesn't know. Sad world.

I'm Full of Soup said...

My gauge indicates Juris Dentist has gone from obnoxious but harmless to idiot and possible stalker.

Also let me restate my golden rule developed by gathering purely solid anecdotal (heh) evidence over the years:

Law degree plus medical or dental degree = maroon.

KCFleming said...

I do not want to know anything at all about the personal lives of celebrities I like, such as singers, artists, actors.

Once that narrative begins, I cannot view their work dispassionately and fairly, and their art is always skewed by that knowledge.

For celebrities I dislike, the effect is even worse, as my confirmatory bias takes a shameful satisfaction in their foibles as mere humans.

I have learned from our erstwhile friend rhhardin why these books and magazines exist, however, and for that I am eternally grateful.

TitusDidAGoodThing said...

I loved the picture of him coming out of the surf showing his body.

If you got a decent body why not flaunt it?

Everyone should have a picture of themselves cumming out of the surf showing their body.

As far as their marriage I don't give a shit.

Jennifer said...

That's odd. A couple with a husband engaged in a losing campaign and a wife late in her pregnancy had a rough spot in their marriage? Sounds like the stuff romance is made of. Oy.

Ann Althouse said...

"If you got a decent body why not flaunt it?"

Because you're just asking for people to talk about what's less than perfect about it. With Obama, there was that pecs-or-man-boobs debate.

KCFleming said...

"As far as their marriage I don't give a shit."

How very odd, coming from Dr. Strangeloaf himself.

traditionalguy said...

Remember that the "gift" Obama uses on the world and on US voters comes at the cost of channeling all of his sexual energies into the seduction of audiences. He has very little left over to give to the Stage Prop Wife. She is tough enough to endure it, but she will get her revenge on her husband's lovers...you and me clinging to our religion and our guns.

A.W. said...

Seriously, i don't care about their relationship. so long as it doesn't affect his job, i don't care.

and i say that as a person who agreed with the impeachment of bill clinton. there is a world of difference between lying under oath, and just sleeping around. That former is an important issue; the latter is not.

And on the other hand, i think Geitner should never have been appointed head of treasury due to his tax situation.

And as for Zeb's claim he is not a family man, i won't be so harsh. it is clear that he wanted to emphasize the sex appeal and demphasize the family as a result, but that is not the same as saying he is not a family man. there is surely a whole universe in his life that has nothing to do with the cameras.

what has struck me is that he is not publicly very affectionate. but it doesn't follow that there is a lack of affection.

And besides, do we really want him to be affectionate in public? on one hand it was nice to see Bush Jr. and his wife show that they really genuinely love each other. on the other hand, we all remember al gore's creepy kiss with his wife.

Kirk Parker said...

"You can squeeze material like that... out of the raw material of almost any marriage."

Not mine, that's for darn sure.

Cedarford said...

Intrusive and creepy. I'm for giving both the benefit of the doubt to both Obamas. Not least because they have two young kids and other White House marriages have survived worse than what is alledged, even if true.

TMink said...

Their marriage is of concern to nobody but themselves and their immediate family. I do not care about their sex lives, his smoking, what he eats for breakfast or what he reads. Those are private matters and are best left as just that, private.

What upsets me are his policies.

Trey

TitusMissionControl said...

Good point Althouse. His tits were a little on the man booby side, which you wouldn't think looking at him in a suit.

Clothes can be so deceiving.

His ass looks pretty bubbley though. When he wears cream chinos that thing sticks out...in a good way.

The real important question is what is going on with that hog. Wouldn't you all love to get a pic of that thing. My sense is long and uncut, but once hard the head pops out nicely and the foreskin is not really an issue. At least I hope not for Michelle's sake.

TitusMissionControl said...

My gaydar also has pretty good hogdar. I usually can tell if a man is uncut or cut.

William said...

From what I've heard, the Wolffe book is mostly hagiographic. The acknowledgement of a rough patch in a marriage will not tarnish the great man's reputation.....The Kennedy's were presented as characters in a fairy tale romance. I believe nothing about a politician or his domestic life until he's been dead for one or, ideally, two generations. I won't live to read it, but the real story of the dynamics of the Clinton marriage would make interesting reading.....So far as professional hybrids go, aren't engineer-lawyers the worst? Most patent attorneys are murdered by their wives. They are nearly always acquitted by sympathetic jurors. In one famous case, the judge stepped down from the bench and shook the defendant's hand for performing a service to humanity.

Unknown said...

Why the horror at these revelations? The story of problems in their marriage was around even during the campaign. And The Os have cultivated a PR campaign that involves People Magazine, Entertainment Tonight, and other entertainment outlets. They have a claim to privacy like Paris Hilton does.

What's really sad is that most of the electorate will gobble up this story and continue to ignore the SCOTUS or bailout or Gitmo stories. You know, the government stuff. Well played, O.

David said...

It's hard to understand what is going on in your own marriage. Someone else's: impossible.

David said...

I think it's a bit creepy to use your cute kids as a basis for publicity. It seemed for a while that the Obamas might be going in that direction. They've not continued on that path though. Good for them.

holdfast said...

It might not matter so much if the media (both "serious" and entertainment) didn't portray her as the hottest first lady evah!!!!! with the cutest family evah!!1!!

She's average at best, homely at worst, with an ass like a satellite dish and a habit of making very strange facial expressions.

AlphaLiberal said...

When did pictures of children become "creepy"? I guess around the same time as it became unacceptable for a man to smile at a child he doesn't know. Sad world.

Amen.

former law student said...

Sometimes in a long marriage the day-to-day grind takes over, and you forget that wives still need to be courted, that you need to go out as a couple for dinner and a show.

former law student said...

The picture of him coming out of the surf showing off his body rather than a picture of him romping with his kids on the beach speaks volumes of how he wants to be seen and known.

Zeb wants to see preteen girls wearing bathing suits?

Ewwww.

Fred4Pres said...

Titus--you really need to get out more. Fire Island and P-Town will not even have a summer season until you arrive.

CarmelaMotto said...

holdfast - thanks for the laugh

they are all about the image. the cheering at the soccer field; running around in the lawn with the dog chuckling for the cameras. Then the hamburger run stunts!

All meant to say AW! They are JUST like the Kennedy's! It's CamelotII

I don't recall the Clintons putting Chelsea on display as much as the Obama's do, especially when she was so young in 92. They never allow coverage of soccer games etc.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

That "date" the other night makes more sense in the likelihood of a troubled marriage.

Hoosier Daddy said...

Look, inter-species romance is not easy. He's from Earth and she's from Kronos. .

I'm not sure about that first part. He has a distinctly Romulan look about him.

I think its the ears.

holdfast said...

Chelsea Clinton was a pretty awkward looking kid (she's turned out ok, though not exactly Maxim top 100 - the Gore daughters on the other hand, rawwr!), the Clintons mostly avoided using her as a prop and the media (rightly) respected her privacy. Too bad they were unable to do the same with the Bush kids (OMFG! An 18 year old tried to buy a drink!!), and of course their gyno exam of Sarah Palin pushed things over the edge. That said, no matter how much Obama uses his kids as props, the media should leave them alone - beat up on Obama for being an exploitative idiot (and for taking them to Uncle Jerry's hate church for indoctrination) but don't say anything about the kids. Michelle on the other hand went beyond the "supportive spouse" thing and made some pretty acerbic speeches during the campaign - she's fair game.

holdfast said...

Actually, Obama looks like Tuvac, the half Vulcan, half African-Human on Star Trek Voyager, but that seemed a little too inside baseball.

UWS guy said...

I remember fondly the idle discussions my friends and I had about what type of fictional space alien Laura Bush was....

Oh wait, we only do that to negros.

Synova said...

I'd always thought that the female Klingons were exceptionally sexy... on purpose, of course. Some people need a sense of humor. (I think Michelle is a perfectly ordinary looking person and see no reason to either gush about her beauty and lovely arms or try to claim she's scary looking. She's not.)

Also... UWS guy must not buy groceries or he'd have seen all the Laura Bush pictures and headlines on the tabloids. I couldn't guess how many times she was threatening to divorce him or having a nervous breakdown or they were actually separated... and it hasn't stopped. I think I saw one of those a week or so ago.

Balfegor said...

Look, inter-species romance is not easy. He's from Earth and she's from Kronos.

Shouldn't that be Qo'noS?

Anyhow, the article indicates that their marriage was strained by his failed race for Congress in 2000, which is not all that surprising. Many people apparently experience stress in their marriages when their career ambitions are frustrated -- when they get passed over for that promotion, etc. Add in that the Obamas apparently had minimal savings and were overleveraged on credit until they got a windfall from Obama's book in 2005, and it's entirely understandable that there might have been a rough patch there.

MayBee said...

I remember fondly the idle discussions my friends and I had about what type of fictional space alien Laura Bush was....

I believe Laura Bush was called a Stepford wife rather than an alien.

former law student said...

Add in that the Obamas apparently had minimal savings and were overleveraged on credit until they got a windfall from Obama's book in 2005

He was working three jobs back then, as well as being a board member of various non-profits. Maybe he wasn't spending enough time at home?

Daryl said...

Who could love a frigid cow like Michelle?

What an ugly bitch.

I don't blame Barack Obama for putting his weiner in Vera Baker.

Hoosier Daddy said...

I remember fondly the idle discussions my friends and I had about what type of fictional space alien Laura Bush was....

Oh wait, we only do that to negros.
.

I'm happy to see you have successfully come out of your 8 year coma and were able to miss all the Bush=chimpanzee references. Oh and the Bush=Hitler stuff was a laugh riot too.

Please do check your self loathing in at the door.

Hoosier Daddy said...

He was working three jobs back then, as well as being a board member of various non-profits. .

Yes such a rough life for a Harvard Law graduate married to a Princeton and Harvard Law Grad.

Must have been tough out there for a Harvard law grad to be working 3 jobs. Hold on....I think I have tears forming.

Palladian said...

Muslims aren't uncut, Steve honey.

holdfast said...

"I remember fondly the idle discussions my friends and I had about what type of fictional space alien Laura Bush was....

Oh wait, we only do that to negros."

-Well, we can hardly make simian references like the left did with Bush? Besides, I'm not the one who started with the gushing over her strong, manly arms.

-Anyway, isn't bush supposed to be the retard devil?