December 22, 2013

A puffy, glum Obama at an NCAA basketball game.

Pictured here (and at the top of Drudge). What a drag to go to a recreational event, to look like someone on vacation, and to know that photographers will be photographing every instant of your expression and that editors will be able to select from the 1000s of images the one that expresses whatever message they decide they want to send about you... you and your wife and your daughter. There is no recreation, only the appearance of recreation. So why go to the game at all? Because you want to get your phony-baloney message out, that you're on vacation, Christmas vacation, and that everyone else ought to chill out and get all holiday-ish and off your case.

Stop talking about Obamacare. Please talk about "Duck Dynasty." Not my puffy face. Please look away. It's not that puffy. It will be puffier if I must cry myself to sleep another night. No. Don't look at me. Not in that shot anyway. Look at the "Duck Dynasty" guy. Isn't he hateful? Me, I'm that very nice, very likable man who works so hard for you and then vacations in Hawaii and goes to basketball games with his wife — don't look at her grim underbite — and his charming, lovely daughters.

43 comments:

PB said...

I suspect as this whole presidency unravels, Michelle is letting her inner shrew out behind closed doors.

The Godfather said...

I don't think there's any time or place that Obama isn't doing politics.

Paddy O said...

When you're watching your college basketball games there are time-outs and commercial breaks. Take these moments to talk about the importance of healthcare with family members or random strangers at the bar.

Ken Mitchell said...

Proposition: BuzzFeed ran with the Justine Sacco twitter gaffe in order to divert attention away from Obamacare, since the Phil Robertson distraction seems to be running its course.

But the President looks depressed because at the current rate of decay of artificial media outrages, he knows he doesn't have enough lined up to distract the populace for the entire period of his vacation.

m stone said...

Not puffiness at all. It is the chiseled appearance of a man who has for years consciously displayed that "strong look"...and conditioned his facial muscles in the process. All very natural now. Car salespeople and con-men (women) have mastered the look.

He's hiding much and it's nothing to do with the game which State won.

Tell me Obama didn't somehow swing the game venue and timing at taxpayer expense.

Clyde said...

I think they looked glum because Oregon State was losing (Akron won the game 83-71). Michelle's brother coaches Oregon State. In this case, I don't think that politics was involved so much as sports loyalties.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Clyde said...
I think they looked glum because Oregon State was losing (Akron won the game 83-71). Michelle's brother coaches Oregon State. In this case, I don't think that politics was involved so much as sports loyalties.


Good effort to point out the self-evident. Althouse could take a few lessons. What a shallow pointless post. Almost constitutionally incapable of seeing beyond the surface.

AZ Bob said...

Shouldn't he keep a stiff upper lip?

cf said...

We need a few thousand more photographs that are NOT stage managed by these creeps. Bring it on.

Just like we need thousands of words of the real Truth about the machinery that got this fraud into the White House -- twice.

The same machinery that tried to foist John Edwards upon us.

Turn on all the cameras. Report what you know, not just what you want us to know. Or get thrown through the rhetorical plate glass window, lying sacks of journ0list pajamaboys.

I am feeling pretty churlish about now, with the politicization of our National Day of Thanksgiving and now -- for God's sake! -- Christmas! I feel like Getting In Their Faces.

Turn on all the cameras. Tell the fucking Truth.

Unknown said...

To me they look unhappy. I don't see the puffiness.

I agree it must suck to live like that, but one takes the bad with the good. He's certainly had more than his share of fawning press and PR photos.

Joe said...

It's basketball; how can you not look bored out of your mind?

gk1 said...

Oh Boo-frickin-hoo. I can't think of a shot AP or UPI took of Bush that didn't have him picking his nose or showing him in the absolute worst light.

Original Mike said...

Embrace the suck.

glenn said...

I, I, I, I, Me, Me, I.
I, I, I, I, Me, Me, I.
I, I, I, I, Me, Me, I.
I, I, I, I, Me, Me, I.

Sadly he's not alone.

glenn said...

And waiting in the wings, House flipper and one term Senator Elizabeth (The Redskin) Warren.

mccullough said...

In fairness to Obama, this wasn't Kansas v. Duke. This was a family function to see his brother in law. He'll look better on the golf course. We all do.

David said...

Oregon State/Akron?

Ok, I get it. Her brother is the coach of the Oregon State team. That's a very nice family kind of thing to do. But I don't think this was Barack's idea, do you? The dude is tired. He's getting beaten up. The have this great house. Basketball? WTF? Invite the team over, but I want to stay home.

So I am wondering why the President of the US of A can't just tell his wife that it's been a kind of rough year and a long flight and he'd rather stay home and enjoy the pool and the view with her and the kids.

My guess is that he did say that.

And she says (nicely because this is nice time), "I think I'll just take the girls and go. We'll have fun. You stay home if you want, honeybun."

And she knows he's thinking "Shit. I can't stay home and let her go. The press will kill get all goofy now that they are not running cover for me 24/7. BARACK AND MICHELLE ON THE OUTS?! DETAILS AT 11."

Shit!

"It might even be good for you, Barack, just to stay home for the night. The girls won't mind."

Shit.

"What do you think I should wear, Michelle."

"The turtle neck is nice. Wear that. Nothing too Hawaii."

Anonymous said...

Like a puffy, glum Roman Emperor at the public games. I'm thinking Justinian at the chariot races, unaware that the people will start shouting "Nika!" any day now...

Kirk Parker said...

Maybe, just maybe... if the media didn't indulge in their pathetic, disgusting Messiah fantasy in the first place, the Obamas could just attend a [entertainment event of their choice] in relative peace.


OK, and I can't resist this one jab: imagine a comparable photo of GWB watching a sporting event during his tenure. I'm waiting... ... ... ... ... ... ok, exactly! Me neither!

madAsHell said...

What a shallow pointless post.

They were dismayed because they couldn't re-distribute the points.

Anonymous said...

"The Duchess of Windsor once said that she hated to have dinner in a restaurant alone with her husband because if they failed for one moment to chatter sparklingly at each other . . . everyone at the restaurant would be saying, 'You see? That's what he gave up a throne for, and now look how bored they are.'" (Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior, p. 261)

Ernst Stavro Blofeld said...

Da Beavs lost, and Robinson's rep at Oregon State isn't that hot. I hear he's quite negative to players in practices. (Yeah, OSU is currently 6-2, but they're beating up on the likes of the University of Portland and Towson.)

Kirk Parker said...

Joe @ 10:48pm:

LOL! But hey, at least it's not golf!!!

Gene said...

That's an apt phrase--Michelle's "inner shrew"

Gene said...

That's an apt phrase--Michelle's "inner shrew"

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Something I noticed during the Bush administration was that the President and his cabinet never, ever, got a good picture published. The pictures were always the worst possible take the media could find.

Now I'm starting to see bad pictures of the current President in major media (not the shots that conservative publications use.) I think it means something.

JoyD said...

Pointless and mean-spirited.

Bandit said...

The USA and Oregon St athletic dept agree on one thing - this whole AA hiring thing really didn't work out

MadisonMan said...

I don't think any President photographs well as the stress of the office piles up.

Consider the possibility that Michelle is alarmed at the physical toll the office is taking on her husband.

I would willingly go see anything my in-law was coaching (if he/she coached). How nice for Michelle to be able to see her brother in action. Too bad about the score.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

I was unhappy too the first time one of my plans at work failed.

Fortunately for the country, it was only a small software module on a much larger system, and I only missed the deadline for our testing phase.

From that and a few other subsequent experiences early in my career, I learned to not take huge risks with other people's time and money if I hadn't thought out the full solution and made sure it worked in my head before I did it.

Unfortunately for the country, this is Obama's first lesson at this, and what an epic failure it is.

To me, the question of the ages is: why did not Obama have in his character any sense of the risk he was taking, any natural hesitation on something he had never done ever, or any sense that this was not going to go well?

How did he get this far with apparently no ability to examine a plan or see how far out of a limb he is?

Unknown said...

@Quayle- Shakespearean hubris, or if you prefer, Icarus flying too close to the sun. Tale as old as time.

CWJ said...

joyD,

I think you meant to post that over on the Justine Sacco thread.

James Graham said...

I am no fan of this administration but I know jet lag when I see it.

Big Mike said...

I'm trying to think of any other president that wouldn't be cancelling his vacation, or sending Michelle and kids to vacation without him while he at least makes a show of working hard. Lights on until 1:00 or 2:00 in the Oval Office, vacation ostentatiously cancelled, etc.

That's the right message to be sending.

FedkaTheConvict said...

Craig Robinson is probably the worst coach in the Pac-10 but Oregon State can't fire him because he's Michelle's brother. His coaching record at Oregon State is 107 wins against 116 loses, and he's 28 games under .500 in conference play. But as long as Michelle is first lady he's untouchable.

FedkaTheConvict said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Left Bank of the Charles said...

Their faces are glum because Oregon State, where Michelle's brother coaches, got beat 71-83.

And why was Oregon State playing the Akron Zips in Honolulu, Hawaii?

So that the President and the First Lady could watch her brother win.

lemondog said...

For goodness sakes, in addition to 'glum' the
Picture Gallery of the Obama's at the game show a varying expression of emotion.

Skeptical Voter said...

The puffiness is what's left over when you've syffered from a lifelong condition known as "swelled head".

cassandra lite said...

Althouse: "What a drag to go to a recreational event, to look like someone on vacation, and to know that photographers will be photographing every instant of your expression..."

How horrible not to be able to pick your nose in public.

cassandra lite said...

Althouse: "What a drag to go to a recreational event, to look like someone on vacation, and to know that photographers will be photographing every instant of your expression..."

How horrible not to be able to pick your nose in public.

Mountain Maven said...

O is the last person I feel sorry for, except perhaps MO.