It's clever, the way the video uses the jukebox business from the last "Sopranos" episode to remind us of Hillary's theme song contest. In case you care, I'll just tell you that the winner is "You and I," sung by Celine Dion, and if for some reason, you actually want to listen to that song, click here.
So what do we think of this video? The NYT political blogger Kate Phillips proclaims it "the best campaign spot we’ve seen this season." I don't think so. It was amusing seeing a cameo from Johnny Sack, but I've got some problems.
1. Not everyone gets HBO, so you've got a cultural reference that's a bit elitist. And some people wait for the DVDs, and they rankle at spoilers. But maybe everyone's supposed to have heard about the ending by now. Still, it might rub you the wrong way, to assume familiarity with "The Sopranos." And lots of Americans don't even approve of watching a show that is permeated with violence, obscene language, graphic sex, and the subjugation of women.
2. Do we really want to think of Bill and Hillary sitting in for Tony and Carmela? Tony is a monstrous criminal and Carmela willfully blinds herself to his horrible flaws so that she can keep living in a highly desirable house. Are these good associations for Hillary?
3. Bill is a much better actor than Hillary, and this heightens the sense that she's a pale substitute for the old President we can no longer have.
4. Bill says "No onion rings?" and Hillary responds "I'm looking out for ya." Now, the script says onion rings, because that's what the Sopranos were eating in that final scene, but I doubt if any blogger will disagree with my assertion that, coming from Bill Clinton, the "O" of an onion ring is a vagina symbol. Hillary says no to that, driving the symbolism home. She's "looking out" all right, vigilant over her husband, denying him the sustenance he craves. What does she have for him? Carrot sticks! The one closest to the camera has a rather disgusting greasy sheen to it. Here, Bill, in retaliation for all of your excessive "O" consumption, you may have a large bowl of phallic symbols! When we hear him say "No onion rings?," the camera is on her, and Bill is off-screen, but at the bottom of the screen we see the carrot/phallus he's holding toward her. Oh, yes, I know that Hillary supplying carrots is supposed to remind that Hillary will provide us with health care, that she's "looking out for" us, but come on, they're carrots! Everyone knows carrots are phallic symbols. But they're cut up into little carrot sticks, you say? Just listen to yourself! I'm not going to point out everything.
ADDED: 5. The scene, as derived from "The Sopranos," is designed to create anxiety that an assassination is about to take place. Having Johnny Sack walk by and glare at her preserves that feeling of threat. It's supposed to work because with "The Sopranos," we were waiting to find out how the series would end, but here we are waiting to learn the outcome of the song contest, but it's pushing the envelope for the campaign to suggest an act of violence toward the candidate.
UPDATE: This post has spawned a whole subgenre of anti-Althousiana. I discuss that here.
ANOTHER UPDATE: I have another post on the subject here. Excerpt:
A quirky post about a Clinton campaign video touched off a giant blog swarm and what I think was my highest traffic day ever. Based on an earlier blog swarm last September, I now know that what sets the left blogosphere into intense, concerted action is calling attention to Bill Clinton's old sexual problems. I wonder why....
I just want to emphasize that I stand by my original sexual interpretation. You've got a married couple talking about two foods, one of which is obviously a hole, and the other of which is so clearly phallic that this Google search gets over 70,000 hits.
The man wants the hole-shaped item, and the woman forbids it. She insists that he confine himself to the phallic item, which has been sliced down to puny, thin stick form. The man looks at it sadly, and the woman tells him it's for his own good. If you don't see sexual imagery there, you exist on a very narrow band of human imagination....
When Clinton sadly bites into the carrot stick of his own castration, it makes a crunch noise -- ouch! -- and it's that noise that causes the ominous looking man at the bar ("Johnny Sack") to turn and look at him. He then walks by and gives him a glare. What does that glare mean in the Clinton video? I think it means: "What kind of man are you?"
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227 comments:
1 – 200 of 227 Newer› Newest»Lady, you are bug fuck crazy.
Bug. Fuck. Crazy.
Wow...I mean just Wow. I don't even know where to start with that one.
This one does go into the crazy lady who watches too much Sanjaya drinking cheap wine file.
Sorry. You are entering Chris Matthews/Dick Morris land. It's a scary little world.
I doubt if any blogger will disagree with my assertion that, coming from Bill Clinton, the "O" of an onion ring is a vagina symbol
Nobody listens to retarded kids with Tourette's, but, coming from a rational adult... you're joking, right?
but I doubt if any blogger will disagree with my assertion that, coming from Bill Clinton, the "O" of an onion ring is a vagina symbol.
Dave may have a point. (just kidding)
The carrots do remind me of what I fear from Hillary's health care agenda.
Dave absolutely has a point.
Having Johnny Sack walk by and glare at her ...
I've never seen the Sopranos so I didn't no what to make of this. Best I could come up with was "She's the candidate that angry, white males hate".
Mike: Yes, I'm very interested in what the scene looks like to people who don't know the references.
You other people: You make it soooo easy.
You make it soooo easy.
You certainly do.
Lay off the wine boxes.
I never followed the Sopranos (nor did I see the last episode), so I'd have to agree with you about the first point. Because I didn't catch that reference, I just assumed they were going to a neighborhood diner someplace near Chappaqua. Still, the reference to Chelsea parking the car probably doesn't make much sense without having seen the episode. And the ending of the commercial clearly depends on at least a familiarity with what happened at the end of the episode--which has been written about all over the place in the last week and a half.
I really like your first point #2, though--why would Bill and Hillary want to compare themselves to Tony and Carmela? And the second point #2 (oops!)--about Bill being a better actor than Hillary--is a good one also.
With regard to point #3 (about the onion rings), I think such a reading is not unwarranted, but I also want to say sometimes an onion ring is just an onion ring. After all, even if we're just talking about onion rings, I think that the clip will only reinforce some of Hillary's long-established negatives about being an advocate for the "nanny state" or reminding too many men of some controlling or nagging woman that they're not fond of (either because they're married to her or they once were or they once had a relationship with such a woman).
Cue Blithering Misogynist Idiot's "It's just a joke!" defense in 4... 3... 2...
We make it easy Ann?
You are thinking of hot monkey love in a greasy onion ring and we have the problem?
Ok.
I've been saying for weeks that the voices in Ann's head were getting louder and louder.
She's reaching meltdown, folks.
Seriously, the preening narcissist and one-woman non-sequitur generator is, I think, only one glass of chardonnay away from buying and Uzi and taking out 30 college kids while vlogging an American Idol rerun.
Don't say you haven't been warned.
Exactly! Onion rings are v-jay-jay symbols because they're crunchy and rough. Carrots are pee-pee symbols because they're orange with lots of green foliage on top. You guys make this soooo easy.
I think the onion rings are probably meant to evoke the Pre-Lewinski comedy schtick poking fun at Clinton's pudginess and weakness for fast food. There was a great early/mid-nineties SNL skit that had him jog into a McDonalds and make small talk with star-struck strangers, all the while taking bites of their sandwiches.
I think that's probably an affectionate memory of Clinton in the minds of many, fictional or no. The onion rings gag evokes this nostalgia, and makes Hilary seem like a good, caring wife.
That, and onion rings don't seem like a very ready stand in for the vagina. I suppose it's possible I've just been very lucky in my private life.
Jesus. Put up a mildly sardonic view of a Clinton product and the mannerly, intellectual responses overwhelm you.
Ann, some good thought there. Under-the-surface message and subliminal image is what advertising is all about. And it's often VERY Freudian, full of sex and violence. Your esteemed panel of commenters here must not work on Madison Ave. Maybe Sesame Street?
Kurt: "sometimes an onion ring is just an onion ring..."
Yeah, but this isn't one of those times. I will concede that this is a possibility, but that just doesn't sound like Bill.
O, nooooo, it's a vortex!
Kurt said: "the reference to Chelsea parking the car probably doesn't make much sense without having seen the episode."
Yes, that didn't even make an impression on me (I had a fleeting question mark about the relevance of Chelsea being a bad driver, then promptly forgot about it).
Kurt said: "the ending of the commercial clearly depends on at least a familiarity with what happened at the end of the episode--which has been written about all over the place in the last week and a half."
Yes, I know about the ending.
Kurt said: "I think that the clip will only reinforce some of Hillary's long-established negatives about being an advocate for the "nanny state" "
That was my overwhelming reaction to the piece.
Thanks, Kurt!
Ann Althouse said...
Kurt: "sometimes an onion ring is just an onion ring..."
Yeah, but this isn't one of those times. I will concede that this is a possibility, but that just doesn't sound like Bill.
I will concede that the more likely possibility is that Ann is completely insane.
Mike said...
Kurt: "'the reference to Chelsea parking the car probably doesn't make much sense without having seen the episode.' Yes, that didn't even make an impression on me (I had a fleeting question mark about the relevance of Chelsea being a bad driver, then promptly forgot about it)."
For anyone who doesn't know the "Sopranos" scene, it should seem sexist to portray the daughter as a bad driver and to have the father smirking about it.
At least Althouse seems smarter than her fans.
Admit it, Professor Althouse. You're hitting the tetrapaks hard because you're dulling the pain of knowing how down-market your appeal is.
Wow, this post is really bringing out the rage in anti-Althousia.
Why would we be attracted to someone who would take away our delicious onion rings and give us carrots instead?
Yes, Ann, it seemed out of place in a Hillary ad.
President Bush choked on a pretzel. This was subliminally a manifestation of his masturbation addiction.
The oval office rug, carpet, and poor Barney all had to be dry cleaned. Bush stuck the pretzel in his mouth as a means to auto-erotic fixation. He fixated on his task, like he fixates on outdoing his father in Iraq.
Oooh. Sanjaya has a new hairdo tonight! Shiny!
Ann is buying an Uzi as we speak, mark my words.
If I was going to school in Madison, Wisconsin I'd be very nervous tonight....
Ann--I gotta tell you, Professor--I think you over-analyzed this one. Never having seen a sopranos episode, I still have been able to follow the general plot line--esp with the hullablo about the final episode.
My take on this is its a hell of a good effort to inject a bit of humor into a political campaign--I give her credit for trying. The more people attack Hillary, the more I am coming to like her (among the bloviators that make up the democratic field). Yeah, she's a creature of the polls, but I think she has a spine. In fact, I have enjoyed her not backing down on her vote for AUMF. She's not a saint; she's a politician.
Roger, what did you make of the angry man?
As an aside, seems like the crew from NYMary's blog are out in force today. Slow day in the reality-based community boys and girls? Why don't you folks volunteer to be human shields to save the darfur refugees from the janjuweed militias--satisfy your progressive impulses! Do something good
Mike--I didnt see the last episode; nor any episode for that matter. I have no idea about the angry man--I think its just a neat attempt to do a different political add based on something topical.
Have you ever noticed that the little strip of land between Lakes Mendota and Monona looks just like cleavage?
And the Capitol Dome? Obviously a breast.
In fact, State Street is like an engorged phallus ... it's like the university wants to fuck the Capitol.
Honestly, Ann, you really need to get help. Soon. This obsession can't be good for you or your students
I have an automatic filtering device in my brain when it comes to most commercials (unless they feature a dog or cat, in which case I am riveted), so for what it's worth:
I don't have HBO, I've never watched the Sopranos and I wouldn't have known the ad was based on a Sopranos theme. I also had no idea Hillary had a campaign song contest going.
When I saw the carrots, I thought "where are the wings?" The oddest thing in the ad to me was the "focus on the good times" remark. It caused me to wonder about the other times when they may have said that to each other.
Trademark Dave: I doubt Ann is fond of box-o-wine.
trifecta: "You are thinking of hot monkey love in a greasy onion ring and we have the problem?"
I said the carrot looked greasy. You're the one who actually pictured having sex with an onion ring. But it's nothing to be ashamed of, trifecta:
Call and they'll come to you
Covered with dew
Vegetables dream
Of responding to you
Standing there
Shiny & proud by your side
Holding your hand
While the neighbors decide
Why is a vegetable
Something to hide?
I thought it was hilarious.
You gotta remember that the Clintons didn't put the onion rings in there, David Chase did. And in the Sopranos final episode they stood in for communion wafers. So I didn't think it was any kind of sexual reference.
It was just a reference to Bill's love of junk food and a reminder that he had heart surgery and needs to eat healthy food. His wife is looking out for him. That's nice.
I love that Johnny Sack was in it. That's pretty cool.
I am unlikely to vote for her, but I liked the video.
Bill is a much better actor than Hillary, and this heightens the sense that she's a pale substitute for the old President we can no longer have.
Bill really has excellent comic timing. That short film he did (for Leno, was it?) of his last days in office was really well done.
But as for your point about it being strange for Hillary to associate herself with The Sopranos, I agree. It wasn't the kind of show where you had positive feelings for the characters.
The vegetables, Ann, they're RESPONDING!
Did this post get linked from one of the moonbat sites? More than the usual number of angry lefties have crawled out of the woodwork in response.
Ann is buying an Uzi as we speak, mark my words.
I wouldn't worry. I'm betting Madison is a gun free zone so I'm sure you're perfectly safe. Besides, Uzi's are so 1980s, kind of like ponytails on men.If I had to guess, I'm thinking Professor Althouse is a HK 416.
I think a lot of you peeps have some serious anger management issues. And to think you progressives are supposed to be laid back.
I said the carrot looked greasy. You're the one who actually pictured having sex with an onion ring. But it's nothing to be ashamed of, trifecta:
Ashamed? Proud. A greasy onion ring doesn't end up boiling pet rabbits or voting for Bush. You should write more vegetable porn.
I always thought it was "covered with goo." Heh.
Revenant: You can see the links to this post at the bottom of the page. This is a very vortextual post... despite the sledgehammerian phrase... What can you do?
Roost: That's after....
Damn, I need to go out and play. You'll have to swirl around the vortex without me for a while.
If they're gonna say Chelsea is parallel parking, shouldn't they show a shot of someone parallel parking?
I thought the ad was too long, and that the booth was swallowing Hillary up.
How come Bill has white hair and Hillary doesn't?
MM said: "If they're gonna say Chelsea is parallel parking, shouldn't they show a shot of someone parallel parking?"
Naughty, naughty.
Won't possibly vote for Hillary in a hundred years, but she still gets kudos for the humorous touch.
Very funny.
I'm with Roger. Although the analysis is quite clever, I disagree with almost all of it.
You can see the links to this post at the bottom of the page. This is a very vortextual post
Fear the power of the vortex!
I really don't get people who hang around blogs written by people they don't like. What's the point? When I think a blogger's an idiot I just stop reading the blog. Some of them, like Doyle and Lucky, are supposedly just here to make Ann look bad. But since most of the people here like Ann, insults directed at her have the net effect of making the person throwing them look bad. Are their egos just so inflated that they don't get that?
This broad has the nanny gene, in spades. If she makes President we're focked.
As someone who has only seen the first couple of episodes of The Sopranos ...
I thought the ad was cute. The parallel parking bit was just a normal kind of family dynamic.
The ad also made a nice counterpoint to the meme from the 2004 campaign when Kerry, or maybe it was his wife, had to ask about the menu at a dairy queen. Fair or not, we were left thinking the guy had no clue about how the rest of us live.
I was pleasantly surprised to see Bill Clinton. My pop culture reference to the carrot sticks was to the episode of Babylon 5 I watched last night wherein Dr. Franklin puts the command staff on a diet. It was funny.
The guy with the dirty look was her acknowledgement that there are some people who will never ever like her, no matter what she does.
Like I said, it was cute. And I am someone Hillary lost long ago with the paranoid "vast right-wing conspiracy" comment.
Ann, I think your points 2 and 3 are completely on target. Very insightful!
Your onion ring/carrot analysis is a little out there, IMHO. Like Kurt, I immediately thought/cringed, "Ooh, nanny state," as Hillary said, "Just looking out for ya." That line was just a horrible choice and plays right into conservative arguments.
Normally, I would have found the parallel parking joke rather sexist but somehow, for me, it didn't seem so bad because, after all, this is an ad proposing a woman to be the next leader of the free world. (True confession: I can't parallel park, but I always figure, "I'm a brilliant lawyer so who cares?")
All in all: I thought the ad was endearing, but unlikely to appeal to people outside of Hillary's base. Also, this was the first time I ever found Bill charming. His much vaunted charm had always escaped me in the past.
A couple of last thoughts: This may be the only political ad I have ever seen in my life that didn't turn me off. I am a Democrat who has never been too crazy about Hillary, but will likely vote for either Hillary or Obama. This ad may have scored a teeny subliminal point for Hillary in my mind.
Lay off the wine boxes. Says trademark dave.
You say this same insult in practically every thread. Can't you come up with something more creative once in a while?
I suppose it's Giuliani (Italian American) who's gunning for her?
But I think she's projecting her hostility on to him?
Lay off the wine boxes. Says trademark dave. You say this same insult in practically every thread. Can't you come up with something more creative once in a while?
It doesn't even make much sense as an insult, since box wine isn't associated with people who drink too much. Winos drink Thunderbird and high-class drunks drink pinot noir. Box wine is consumed by middle-class married couples looking for something cheap to make punch with for their holiday parties.
Rev--I have to tell you that there is some excellent wine being put into boxes--Teftt cellars in Eastern WA has a great cab-merlot; some of the aussie reds are excellent--and they keep much better. Try Banrock Station if you can get it.
Christy said:
My pop culture reference to the carrot sticks was to the episode of Babylon 5 I watched last night wherein Dr. Franklin puts the command staff on a diet. It was funny.
God I loved that show. The best was when Franklin busts Garibaldy in the shipping dock for importing olive oil to make bagna cauda.
And as long as we're pointing out over-used and lame-to-begin-with Althouse insults, how about this new "one-woman non-sequitur generator"?
I think it was coined a week or so ago by Glenn Kenny, who (I may be mistaken*) didn't seem to mean it as an insult. It's a comment about the breadth of her interests, right?. You know: Supreme Court, Flowers, Politics, Politics, Dead Bird...
Anyway, the trolls have picked it up and keep calling her that like it's a really cutting insult. Ah well. Pillow Fight!
*If you're reading this, GK, and I got you wrong, feel free to correct me.
That's a good trick, writing a phrase ("carrots are phallic symbols") in a blog entry that immediately turns up on top of the Google search page for that phrase. I guess Google is as deep into the vortex as anyone here... Now, to Google "bug fuck crazy"...
dave™© said...
Lady, you are bug f[*]ck crazy.
Bug. F[*]ck. Crazy.
I think Dave may have wet his pants.
Echo ¶3 of Kurt's 4:00 PM and Roost on the Moon's 4:07 PM and Margaret's 5:59 PM in their entirety. The onion thing's a bit of a reach.
Revenant said...
"Box wine is consumed by middle-class married couples looking for something cheap to make punch with for their holiday parties."
I tell you what, a box of Black Tower in the fridge is one of the few things I miss about England. I've yet to see it for sale in the U.S. outside of a restaurant in Chicago one time. If anyone knows a good place online that ships, I'd be happy to get sloshed in honor of the liquored-up and liquorous contingent of the anti-althousiana. ;)
Justin - you have to understand it from the perspective that folks like Doyle and dave™© are so fanatical in their abuse that you have to assume they just don't know any healthier way to cope with their crush.
Simon said...
Justin - you have to understand it from the perspective that folks like Doyle and dave™© are so fanatical in their abuse that you have to assume they just don't know any healthier way to cope with their crush.
In that case, maybe he did something else in his pants.
I think that Ann spends waaayyy too much time thinking about Bill Clinton. A psychiatrist would have a field day with that one.
The ad was cute. Nothing more. I thought that it was clever.
good god
YOU'RE the people who this country allows to vote?
THIS is what passes for political debate?
it's a joke.
bill eats unhealthily.
don't read into it any of your disturbing thoughts.
David - democracy would be a lot easier if we didn't have to give a vote all those stupid people who don't agree with us, huh? Perhaps there should be some kind of test. (Administered in English and Spanish, of course.)
I can't say much about the ad, having never seen any of The Soprano's, but the Chelsea bit struck me as odd.
She might have been a novice driver when President Clinton was in office, but she is 27 now and it is kind of time-warpish to still think of her as if no time has passed since their days in the Whitehouse.
I suspect that they just wanted to provide as many elements from the show as they could and if they sacrificed logic--well, so be it.
The onion rings might not qualify as sexual symbols, but the "librulz" round these parts are certainly rubbing one out tonight over Althouse mentioning them.
An amusing thought experiment: when you read a comment from "Doyle" or "dave®€" or one of the other anonymous twatbots with droll screen names, imagine they wrote it while stroking their undersized phalli...
Honestly, Ann, [grunt] you really need [gasp] to get help. Soon. This obsession [grunt] can't be good for you [wheeze] or your students...
I know it's an unpleasant thought experiment, but it certainly explains their seemingly uncontrollable need to, uh, unburden themselves at the slightest provocation. And it makes reading their boring, predictable, humorless and repetitive comments slightly more interesting.
As for the prudish "You're the ones allowed to vote?! - You have a dirty mind - You, a law professor" types, perhaps they need to put the carrot into the onion ring a little more often and lighten up.
YOU'RE the people who this country allows to vote?
You'd better hope your poll test doesn't have a grammar section.
Does no one have a sense of humor anymore?
Me, I thought Althouse's post was funny. I'm finding it funnier to think I might get to be a moonbat, as change of pace from being a wingnut, as defined by who-the-hell-ever. (Though I'm certain I'm not responsible for actual traffic, much less comments.)
The whole damn thing makes me want to moan.
For onion rings. Gotta mean recipe for those, and, just now, the time and freedom to whip some up.
LOL.
The va-jay-jay imagery is contingent on a couple of things being true that just aren't:
1. That Hil has a sense of humour about the whole infidelity thing.
2. That Bill would want to remind her about it.
3. That Chelsea would be cool with the fact that her parents were tossing references to genitalia (esp with their background).
or 4. (least likely) that at least 2 of the 3 actors would be too dumb to notice what every stand-up comedian and their mothers have been joking about since 1992.
Sorry Ann, nothing personal, but sometimes it is possible to over-think things. Sometimes an onion ring is just an onion ring.
Hmmm. The video spot made me think that maybe those two really did kill Vince Foster.
Small correction to the last post, I meant:
AND 4. (least likely)
Minor correction, but the "or" contradicts my 1st sentence.
Look, the whole thing was just weird. They try so, so, so hard to be the average Americans, that their failure at it just shows right through. Why do they have to go to such lengths to try and humanize or soften this womans image only belies the fact that peoples perception of here, rightly or wrongly, is not good.
Aside from her political aspirations and political policies, trying to elevate this woman to presidential caliber because her husband was one is foolish. You only have to look at her record as a short time junior senator of the state of New York to see that she is utterly incapable of leading an entire country. Others have already connected her dots in a dynamic portrait that is Hillary Clinton and that portrait doesn't really look that good. Under any light.
Because this is the Clintons the video is absoutely awful. If it would of been any of the republicans it would of been like totally cool but it isn't so it like totally sucks.
Excellent analysis. If this was the Romneys or Giulani (especially) I would of went gaga but because it is the Clinton's it makes me so mad and I need to analyze it to pieces and find vaginal symbolism in onion rings and penis sybolism in carrots.
I bet when the Clintons did this they said no onion rings-too much like a vagina. Their are truly wicked.
Also, the Sopranos are totally elitist being on HBO and all that high falutin pay cable "artsy" station.
Also, what a spoiler for the Clinton's to air this. Think of all the pour souls who haven't seen the ending and now their hopes and dreams are shattered because their were "waiting for it to come out on dvd".
Your "analysis" of this is completely psychotic. How long did it take you to come up with this stuff? What is going on in that mind? Anyway, at least the analysis is moderate the way we love our blogger.
The Clinton's have no shame. But it Rudy did it it would of been totally awesome.
Boy, are those two out of touch with the country.
You called it, Professor.....
A pair of millionaires pretending to be diner regulars.
And they sure do look like they like each other, don't they....
Very creepy assassination overtones, as well. Very creepy.
NPR did a segment today on Hillary's Canadian theme song. Guess she's sewed up the Vermont vote.
What a fatuous, idiotic analysis, even for Althouse. She stated months after her Garance meltdown that she was trying to "ruin" the blogger meeting with Bill Clinton -- that was her "real" motive.
Likewise, she makes these outrageous and insane observations about the Hillary video, I suspect for the same reason: to try and spark a debate that will "ruin" Hillary's new spot.
That's the most generous interpretation of this post that I can muster. The scary prospect is that Althouse actually believes what she wrote, and isn't merely trying to sabotage Hillary.
Never watched the Sopranos. Voted for Bill (fooled me once). Never vote for Hill.
I would not have outsourced the campaign song to a French Canadian. Don't know what the choices were, don't really care, but if you asked me:
Springsteen: Born in the USA... Strong lyrics, great beat, very blue collar. East Coast. Asbury Park, NJ. Patriotic, etc.
Ann A. said....."I'm very interested in what the scene looks like to people who don't know the references."
I may well be the only person here who has never (thats right, never!) seen even one episode of "The Sopranos". In fact, I dont even know the name of the actor who plays Tony. So, I obviously qualify as one who doesnt "know the references". I saw the commercial for the first time earlier this evening while channel surfing, and had no clue it was a take off of the final Sopranos show while watching.
What did the scene look like to me? Well, my first impression was a feeling of utter disgust. But I am honest enough to admit that I get disgusted just about every time I see either one of them on TV. So, after a quick trip to the bathroom with my favorite gagging spoon, followed by chugging down a 16 ounce tumbler of Bromo Seltzer, I was able to view the bit a little more objectively. My verdict? It worked!... and on a few different levels.
First off, I have never seen Hillary with a more pleasant and even feminine expression on her face. And then there was good old Bubba playing with his carrots (sometimes a carrot is just a carrot) - eyeing his loving wife like a kid would look at his mom while trying to sneak a candy bar before dinner. Add Chelsea (outside parking the "family" car) into the mix and you have one GREAT modern day political ad. Does the ad have anything to do with actual politics though? No, not unless all one cares about is voting for a "nanny state".
Speaking as one who has worked on 'Madison Avenue,' you're out of your skull.
Firstly, 'Madison Avenue' is embarrasing, circa-1982 terminology that remains alive only in news writing, despite the continual mockery of those in the business. To claim some currency in advertising and to use the term 'Madison Avenue' blows you out of the water right from the start. It's a little like saying you're down with what's going on in 'Frisco.'
Second, not a single advertising writer thinks that way. Not consciously. Not subliminally. I say this as someone who knows chapter and verse of the work of, lessee, a couple hundred of the better ones.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, sticking to the things you know a something about is a very very good idea.
doubt if any blogger will disagree with my assertion that, coming from Bill Clinton, the "O" of an onion ring is a vagina symbol.
Good lord, this woman is demented.
djangone - the only person who used the term "madison avenue" in this thread is a commenter. Try again.
I doubt if any blogger will disagree with my assertion that, coming from Bill Clinton, the "O" of an onion ring is a vagina symbol.
Certainly not.
So . . . was there, um, any ranch dressing in the scene?
Re: "Speaking as one who has worked on 'Madison Avenue..."
Wow, an advertiser who wants me to believe he doesn't consider all of the ramifications of an ad, including exploring subtle sexual connotations?
I call bullshit, or colossal incompetence. In an industry that uses sex to sell everything, a cigar is never just a cigar.
Madison Ave: shorthand, a metonym still in use although sneered at by putative insiders who are so important they are complete jerks to little blog commenters:
"The term 'Madison Avenue' is often used metonymously for advertising, and Madison Avenue became identified with the advertising industry…"
NYT headline: “Google Wants to Dominate Madison Avenue, Too”
“…Even then, they approached advertising with the mind-set of engineers: Ads would look more like fortune cookies than anything Madison Avenue would come up with…”
Forbes headline: “Cannes Journal/ Madison Avenue's Oscars”
“…It's the Oscars of the ad industry, the industry's biggest and best-regarded creative commercial competition attended by 11,000 executives from the advertising, media and technology worlds…”
I’ll take a little time to document the subliminal messaging used in marketing, because it’s going to be fun reading.
Sinfonian observed....
"In fact, State Street is like an engorged phallus ... it's like the university wants to fuck the Capitol."
Are you from here? You know it's the Capitol fucking the university, right?
Well, we've seen the Clinton War Room V3.0 rapid response team begin to click in.
And, judging by the responses so far, its obvious they put their absolute best minds, the senior political staff, in charge of their early efforts.
Ann should bask in the reflected glory of the Clinton campaign's senior staff using her as a test case. First Ann, then Obama, and then Fred Thompson. It's kinda cool, when you think about it.
The Hillary!, on the other hand, should think more carefully about whom with she associates, but given her "marriage," it's apparent she's comfortable with the worst among us.
H&B: 2 L7s.
Ann, I hope you can answer Instaputz' question.
If the onion ring is a vagina, what's up with your mouth in that picture?
LOL, Pogo and Tim. Maybe Berger stole some of the comedic material we're seeing his team use tonight.
Btw, great article on single-payer systems, Pogo. Just now finished it :}
Anyone forwarded a link to this to her bosses at the U of W yet?
No self-respecting law student, regardless of political affiliation, would want to be caught dead in one of this nutjob's courses.
Jane, read more slowly. It's an outdated term not used by those in the business. If you're going to claim some kind of intimacy, using an outdated term rather blows your cover. Nobody, not a single person, not one, who is in advertsing, knows advertising or watches the agency business except for news writers (again, read more slowly, because I included news writers the first time) uses the term 'Madison Avenue.' Metonymy is a nice shiny nickel of a word, golf clap for that, haven't used it above fifty times myself, go English majors.
And yes, Ann didn't say 'Madison Avenue'--I should have directed my comment to the commenter.
Pogo, the ramifications? That the onion ring stands for a vagina, eh? That's not a ramification, that's not a ram, that's not a fication, that's what's known as, to quote dave™©, bug fuck crazy. Now you're probably going to go on about sexual references in ads, and I'm going to laugh at you because that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about this video, not Paris Hilton eating a burger, not Datsun naming its car the 200sx with-the-excluded-e-heh-heh, not the phallus-man in the Camel cigarette box, but this video.
Well, we've seen the Clinton War Room V3.0 rapid response team begin to click in.
And, judging by the responses so far, its obvious they put their absolute best minds, the senior political staff, in charge of their early efforts.
Wait...I'm one of Clinton's "Rapid Response Team"? When did this happen?
You people are crazier than a pack of rats in a coffee can. I've run into some true wackos on the 'net, but y'all take the cake, the pie, and all the doughnuts in the display case. Are you people really allowed to run loose?
Just to remind you, the assertion is that Onion Ring=Vagina in this commercial. It's not a reference to the final episode of the Sopranos like it so clearly appears to be. Onion Ring. Equals. Vagina.
Let's not lose sight of that.
djangone - the only person who used the term "madison avenue" in this thread is a commenter. Try again.
These people seem to spend a lot of time around Glenn Greenwald's blog. Maybe they just assume that supportive commenters must be the blogger in disguise.
"If you're going to claim some kind of intimacy..."
Write a little bitty comment juxtaposing Madison Ave. with Sesame St. and you'd think ad execs' heads from around the world have exploded over the OUTDATED parochial shorthand.
For godssake, somebody needs to tell those major papers in NYC to get it straight, too, else they're gonna get a good talking to by Mr. Insider!
Re; "that's not a ram, that's not a fication"
1) Anyone putting Bill Clinton in a commercial better be hyperaware of innuendo and double entendres, especially if your point is to sell BC version 2.0 or something, you know, the one that has ED or is a eunuch or something. Failing to pay attention to that is sheer incompetence.
2) Anyone putting Bill and Hillary together and trying to gain new voters (not merely their base) better also be hyperalert to any hidden meanings in dialogue, props, set-up, etc. Failure to do so is sheer incompetence, willfull ignorance, or a death wish.
3) Madison Avenue remains the common term to refer to the advertising agency as a whole. Insiders might hate it, but the public hates insiders.
4) Thanks, jane. Now two people have read it: you and I! ;)
Bear in mind that Ann was an art student. She could probably find sexual symbolism in a bowl of grits if called upon to do so. This is what too much deconstruction will get you. :)
Anyway, I thought the video was a pretty clever Sopranos reference, but it is just going to seem weird to people who didn't see the series finale. Bill and Hillary... in a diner? Bill, sure, but Hillary? I'm also not sure if it was smart to play up Hillary's nanny side like that, since that's a major negative of hers with male voters (i.e., with the majority of people who'd get the Sopranos reference in the first place).
P.S. Re: Bug. F*ck. Crazy.
You know, dave™© has some really really weird interests. But insect porn? Woah. But, you know, uh, not that there's anything wrong with that, dave™©.
JD Rhoades, thanks for your comments, and the laughs. It does get strange here.
I agree the original point was about onion rings implying vaginas. And, I don't see the resemblance. Ann's really reaching.
But, Ann, can you answer instaputz's question? What's with that picture?
Has nobody here studied Freudian psych? I mean, it's pretty hot, and most of you are acting like a mountain is just a mountain, a tree just a tree...
Don't you think you're stretching with this a bit? I didn't think of Vaginas at all.
Are you a genuine academic? You're doing other academics a great disservice. Your writings and your lunatic rants are a good argument against tenure.
Come to think of it, The Onion Ring Monologues is a lot less embarrassing to say and probably would be presented in better taste and a crisper format, too :)
But only third-graders react in shock to the very idea of rings and sticks, onions and carrots, suggesting anything at all other than grandma's stew... if they're highlighted in the sainted Clintons' video. But if it were a blonde and a banana in a spot for anything else, then well the little boys here would be all a'titter.
Maureen Dowd must of read your blog her editorial today is exactly regarding this same subject
Maureen Dowd must of read your blog her editorial today is exactly regarding this same subject
The shocking thing about that is that somebody has actually read Maureen Dowd.
Dear Ann:
About Saturday's dinner party. Change of plan. Dinner's off.
The endive has been carrying on with the Jerusalem artichoke despite many lectures about the need for abstinence between leafiness and roots.
I'm so ashamed.
Another time perhaps?
It works if you consider Celene Dion's music violent.
Well, it's criminal. But not violent.
Doug
Ms Alth+use,
I'd say, contact your doctor. When your vagina resembles an onion ring, you've probably contracted genital warts.
annd,
methinks you've really gone off the deep end.
phallic symbols? vaginas?
hey...and the juke box must have represented...a GIANT VIBRATOR!!!
then again...maybe:
bill: carrots...heart surgery...diet
bill: onion rings...heart surgery...off-diet
jane,
get a life.
I feel very sorry for you. I don't know what happened in your life to create such hatred and vitriol towards others but you really need help. To take a parody of a show and catapult its premise into a statement of Hillary vs Vaginas is but a frightening peek into your self-hating little mind. I believe there are doctors out there who can help you and I wish you luck conquering your manias.
Alrighty then.
So, when Bush says he's going to use the "carrots and sticks" approach, the carrots are actually penises.
Thanks for clearing that up.
Obviously, he's stealing the Catholic church's outreach policy.
No no, the onion ring is clearly a sign of the capitalist pig-dog oppression of fire ants.
What kind of drugs are you on, so I can get some? Remind me what school you teach at, so that I can avoid it.
A black cat is buried in my backyard. Round fish swim in the tidal pond. Strangly shaped birds hover in the air. A voice on my radio says "John has a long moustache". I get an email saying "Wounds my heart with a monotonous languor" over and over.
Strange men with rifles appear in the woods. Sophia Loren rides a bike....in the distance bagpipes play...
Am I seeing too much?
>but I doubt if any blogger will disagree with my assertion that, coming from Bill Clinton, the "O" of an onion ring is a vagina symbol.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHA!
You are insane.
The really shocking thing is that anyone would pay to read MODO.
Ann Althouse said:
I've got some problems.
Understatment of the century.
But hey, admitting you have a problem is the first step to institutionalized treatment.
I was just looking at the other blogs who linked to this post. Everyone is laughing at Ann, again. Even in her own comments, the majority reaction is stunned disbelief, and frank concern.
She has become one of the best forms of entertainment in the blogosphere. I hang on every post for more of that irresistable crazy that Ann gives so generously.
You know what you never see, by contrast?
You never see people linking to Ann's posts talking about how deep and insightful they are. No one ever talks about the profound observations or reasoned argumentation they found on the Althouse blog.
She's simply a freak show. A one woman freak show.
What's really funny about this post is how easy it was to tweak the noses of the Glenn Greenwald-firedoglake set with a dada-Paglia riff on the Clintons, something usually limited to crit-lit feminist journals and Maureen Dowd.
Not just verso above, who demonstrates how complete idiots write. Not just the usual stalkers, Luckyoldson, dave™©, and Doyle, but an entire menagerie of rubes usually hiding under Glenn Greenwald's skirt (or with his hand up their sock). All come as instructed to beat the piñata, not recognizing they've just been taken.
Sort of fascinating, but mostly sad. But now I understand why they are so gullible elsewhere, too.
I suppose we can thank the Higher Powers Mrs. Clinton didn't have the calamari and mozzarella sticks with marinara sauce....
Hate to be a wet blanket on your love fest/deride Ann day but....
The law professor is also an excellent marketer of her blog. Everyone is linking up to it and the "hitometer" is soaring.
Don't you get it? She tee'd this up. It is a sure middle fairway drive and probably a hole in one.
Crazy? Like a fox (or vixen I guess is more appropos). I wish I had clients who would go for this type of creativity to drive to site and to linger, comment, link to and generally spread the word.
Nice Ann. If you quit law, I've got a spot open in my agency.
hdhouse, I could probably get a lot of attention and blog hits if I stripped naked, painted my blog URL on my ass, and tried to scale the fence at the White House, but I doubt that anyone would take me seriously as a political commentator afterwards.
If all Professor A. wants is blog hits, well then I reckon she's done what she set out to do. But I doubt that's ALL she wants. When your marketing undercuts the credibility of your product, that's not a good thing, wouldn't you agree?
JD Rhoades, since the left dismisses all nonbelievers as lacking "credibility", that charge is pretty much meaningless.
Whereas you, pogo, engage in a sober analysis of the writings of whoever you casually lump into the category of 'leftists'. Am I right?
you moronic twat. i can't stand hillary but you just made me feel protective of her.
I doubt if any blogger will disagree with my assertion that, coming from Bill Clinton, the "O" of an onion ring is a vagina symbol.
Two things are converging here at once:
1. the rightwing's obsession with Bill and Hillary Clinton
2. Freud
The rightwing's obsession with Bill and Hillary Clinton started with the Arkansas project and grew to infect the MSM. However, it's stunning to see the pandemic reach academia.
The claim that Bill Clinton uttering "onion rings" is a vaginal reference because the word onion has an "O" in it, harkens back to Freudian theory that during the phallic stage, a daughter becomes attached to her father and more hostile towards her mother and developes penis-envy.
Roger Ann pays to read Modo-how shocking is that?
oh no
pogo
we left you
long ago
JD Rhoades said...: "Am I right?"
No.
Most of the "you so crazy" talk here arises straight from the leftist camp, so it's a good bet that additional pilers-on are so affiliated.
You know, like your blog.
P.S. Geez, hdhouse, your roommate's back. Better change the password again.
JD...she is cruising along at about 2000 hits an hour at least and probably brining in a lot of new people....i agree with your premise but assert that those who know her realize this isn't normal and those who don't read that it is abnormal in the posts.
so everyone should think "what's up"
Maybe the onion ring represents Bill's administration, the way things were when he was in charge, while the carrot is how Hillary is going to run things. The onion ring is Monica, the delicious tramp that felt good while it was going down, yet was so bad for you and made you sick to your stomach a half hour later. The carrot is Hillary, the plain, boring, everyday staple that is uninspiring but safe to eat. The onion ring gave Bill the things that the carrot would not give him.
Now, Hillary is assertively telling the nation, there will be no Monica's in her White House, Bill will eat what I tell him to, and will keep it zipped up.
And pogo spake unto them, saying:
No.
Ah, so you DO engage in exactly the same behavior you accuse 'leftists' of. Thought so.
Most of the "you so crazy" talk here arises straight from the leftist camp, so it's a good bet that additional pilers-on are so affiliated.
You know, like your blog.
You mean the blog where I talk about how the Hillary ad and her choice of campaign song provide yet more reasons NOT to vote for her?
You keep using this word 'leftist'. I don't think it means what you think it means.
I think the phallic interpretation is probably a bit of a reach. But I see where you're going.
However, I do think Hillary withholding dangerous, unhealthy food in the name of Bill's health speaks to her penchant to create a nanny state.
"I ordered for the table."
"I'm looking out for ya."
That's what troubles me most about this spot.
As an aside to the left wing sniping. The larger issue shouldn't be whether a blogger is having fun at the Clinton's expense and that represents the emptiness of those who oppose the Clintons.
If you thing this whole post is a waste of time by a law professor who should worry about greater things, what do you make of a sitting Senator and woman who aspires to the biggest job in the world wasting valuable time over a Celine Dion song.
HDHouse, I agree this is another "pump up the traffic" stunt from Annie Ax Grinder, darling of the deluded right.
So, I followed the links critical of her to give them some traffic. Sure, it's a little thing.
I see she has stubbornly refused to address Instaputz' question, which is fair as her genital analysis.
Oops. Here's Instaputz's question for Ann. Personally, I think it's her "O face."
Re: "Ah, so you DO engage in exactly the same behavior you accuse 'leftists' of. Thought so."
Pretty weak, JD. I trust your novels are better at plot and character development than this suggests.
Re: "I don't think it means what you think it means."
Heh. You invent that saying, too? I careened through your blog, looking for evidence to refute a leftist viewpoint, but found none, none at all (opposing Hillary isn't itself a sign of moderation, some of the looniest left hates them some Hillary). It's a pretty standard lefty lovefest. I mean, seriously, you quote Tom Tomorrow?? Jesus Christ onroller skates, man, the lamest and leftiest cartoonist ever.
Gave me the creeps when Bill plaintively asks, "No onion rings?" and Hillary cooly shakes her head and says she's looking out for him. He looks like a whipped man and that serving of carrot sticks she forces on him rather shiny sickening and completely unnatural for American diner fare. It's like a Twilight Zone scene.
"I ordered for the table,” implies that Hillary presumes to know what we want and need. And she's already decided what that is- she scarcely looks at the menu. Hillary is Strong Woman, a strict mother-wife figure making our choices for us and dishing out our unpalatable forced "welfare" with an indulgent superior smile. Hillary and her nanny state.
Sopranos allusion or not, the menacing gangster who sits alone at the bar like a hard drinker, unfamily-style, and then who glares at Hillary just as dear hubby asks how the campaign is going is a stand-in for the angry, white reactionary Republican. Very VRWC stuff. Those mean men are threatening poor Hillary, again.
Gosh, there's a lot of lefty spooge to scrape off the computer monitors of America this morning. They've cranked themselves raw over this one.
Is DireFogLake full of cesium or something that it makes its swimmers so f**king retarded? Grow a sense of humor, mutants!
And since when did the loony bin of the left become Clinton supporters?
re: the "O" of an onion ring is a vagina symbol
how so? does the scent make his eyes water?
The Middle East is burning, civil rights are in the toilet and this (and Paris Hilton) are what passes for important stories.
Ann, onion ring = vagina? Is that a batter dipped or breaded one. It would tell us a lot about your personal hygiene.
Gosh, there's a lot of lefty spooge to scrape off the computer monitors of America this morning. They've cranked themselves raw over this one.
Jesus, what IS this obsession you people have with the sex habits of so-called 'leftists'?
"Jesus, what IS this obsession you people have with the sex habits of so-called 'leftists'?"
Jesus, when DID the left become so prudish and humorless?
I'd much rather live in a world where the prime motivator is sex rather than politics.
And thank you for admitting that you and your kind are "so-called leftists". There's a distinction there, perhaps too subtle to be detected with the blunt tools you're working with. You're "so-called". You're not liberals and you're not even leftists. You're boring little 5 dollar political whores who will drop to your bruised knees and take whatever is shoved your way ... er...
Damn you, Bill Clinton! It's impossible to get a good sexual metaphor going when discussing the man who single-handedly uh... oh no!
Forget it.
Rhoades, sex habits of the Left haven't been under discussion. Bill's cheatin' heart is a matter of record and his Presidency had a crisis over his "use" of a WH intern on top of sexual harrassment charges-- because he was unfaithful, treated the Oval Office like a motel room and especially 'cause he lied to us and the law, etc.
OK, so there's some sexual innuendo about Bill in this spot. But the lamest point of this Hillary campaign vid is its written message. Hillary does a contrived flipping through the juke selections to highlight key words and phrases we should associate with her. Certainly, her interest in music is supposed to make her seem less stiff and more hip, but no sale. But it's the song titles (and artists) on which the camera focuses and that are to be at least subconsciously imprinted on us. In order, they are:
Flat Baroque (budget deficit and war costs)
Superstar (Hillary as rock star and Second Coming)
Bless the Beast & the Child (um, Bill & Chelsea? Islam and Christianity?)
Brandy You’re a---/ Looking g--- (alcohol and sex- subconscious appeal)
Jesus Joy(?): Right Here (appeal to evangelicals)
Without You (we can’t get along w/o Hill. It’s been terrible since the Clintons left the WH )
You & I (she’s with us, we’re a team, Hill & Bill as co-Prez’s)
If I Could/ Right Here (If a woman could win Prez in the US?)
Believe/ Rock this Country/ Your (sic) the One/ Ain’t No Stopping Us Now (excited now?)
The Police: Can’t stand Losing You (law & order supports her. Also, work for her election or she’ll be gone)
The Temptations: Get ready/ Don’t Look Back (no more failed GOP WH/ progressivism as forward-looking. Also, temptations has a subconscious naughty appeal)
The Best (she and her Dem advisors and appointees)
One Day Soon (Hill and the Dems ’08!)
The Freedom Movement: I’ve Found Someone of My --/ I can’t Convince My (she’s the one who will rep the 60s ideals best for the leftists, but shhh)
I Believe in Music (she’s hip, Up with People, Sound of Music, gospel)
I’m a Believer (reassuring Christian base, Progressives, people who worry she’s anti-American)
Hold You High (she’ll elevate the US to top standing, she’ll hold the American people out of harm’s way, and it’s kinda druggy)
Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard (Mexican and NEA base, multicultural)
Congratulations (has it made as first woman Prez)
Anywhere Like Heaven (Hillary makes it all good, utopian)
Tell/ One Day Soon/ I’ve Found Someone of My Own (spread the news she’s the one)
The Freedom Movement: I’ve Found Someone of My Own (repeated for emphasis- she’s really the one for the committed Left)
[Ends with:]
U2: Peace on Earth/ Suddenly I See/ Ther Side of the World (she’s a utopian globalist. Aren’t “you, too”?)
I’m a Believer/ Hold You High (the electorate needs to believe in her, vote her in and exalt)
Um. What?
I don't know where to begin. How about this.
1) No, HBO is not elitist. In fact most average people, people who often barely make minimum wage, go without basics like health insurance or a workable car rather than give up their cable tv. It's an escape from the world. It's actually the anti-elitist escape. I know I have done it (and still sort of do).
And even if you don’t have HBO, have you been living under a rock? The last scene of the Sopranos has been replayed on you tube, cable news, Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, talked about on the late night talk shows ad nauseum, and around the workplace, every where… (I am currently working for HBO’s direct competitor and EVERYBODY is still talking about it.)
2)Tony/Carmella vs. Bill/Hillary: The end of the Sopranos solidified that fact that in the end, despite both their flaws and their moments of nobility, they are just people. Normal almost.
3) Who’s the better actor? Oh give me a break! You really think about this shit? How about neither. Hillary was connected, but there was something stiff about her delivery. (Not disingenuine, but nervous and unpracticed.) Bill was a little over the top. He his his first beat beautifully but the carrot moment was overplayed and forced. They had a great chemistry, though and each knew their objective in the scene. (Now THAT is an acting critique.)
4) Onion Rings. Seriously? The man has a heart condition. She gave him carrots. Tony Soprano ordered onion rings for the table. Bill can’t eat that shit anymore so when Hillary orders for the table, she orders carrots. They’re just carrots. Not some goofy metaphor for her health care policy. The man used to hoard greasy food until it nearly killed him. She orders him something healthy, we all get it, and it’s funny. It’s called comedy. And you’re. an. idiot.
5) Having Johnny Sack in the shot was not designed to create anxiety about an assasination. We, as viewers, recognized it was Johnny Sack, but if you’ve ever been to a diner there’s always that creepy guy around. He looks at them funny, they look at each other like, “who is that guy?” And if you are going to spoof the real thing, you have to have the “members only guy.” Who better than someone from the actual show.
Again:
You. Are. An. Idiot.
Dave was right. Bug. Fuck. Crazy.
Uh.....
Did it possibly occur to you that maybe she refused him onion rings because he's already had one heart attack and needs to lose some weight?
Here, I'll shoot a hole in your theory that "I doubt if any blogger will disagree with my assertion that, coming from Bill Clinton, the "O" of an onion ring is a vagina symbol"
I'm a blogger. And I rather vehemently disagree.
Also, I never saw The Sopranos. I don't get HBO. But I heard so much about it on the news that I'm not offended at the metaphor being lifted. And to me it worked even without the in-joke information.
That said, you're a disturbed individual with sexual issues who needs to seek counseling if you seriously saw the onion rings as you describe. And I'm still not supporting Hillary at this point. But I did like the ad.
methinks the althouse is being a little too freudian.
lighten up ann. people might begin to think you have issues.
Bill can’t eat that shit anymore
A technical point: Well, but he does, or at least according to an article posted yesterday at nhpols.com, about a New Hampshire diner popular among those on the campaign trails:
Recently, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., made a surprise visit on a busy Saturday morning and Saitas said former President Clinton was in last Tuesday to dine at one of his favorite New Hampshire eateries.
"It was mellow," Saitas said of the visit. "His home away from home, that's what he called it."
And what did he eat? "No red meat. He's watching his health. He had chicken fingers, onion rings ... why do people always ask that?"
(This is something--oh, how fortuitous and delicious!--I noticed yesterday and linked to in my own post on this topic.)
I can't believe this is still being taken that seriously. Must be tiring.
Wow, you suffer from serious Clinton Derangement Syndrome.
the menacing gangster who sits alone at the bar like a hard drinker, unfamily-style, and then who glares at Hillary just as dear hubby asks how the campaign is going is a stand-in for the angry, white reactionary Republican. Very VRWC stuff. [Emphasis added.]
Jane: That's exactly how that character struck me, in context of the commercial.
I think some of you might be missing the real significance of the “no onion rings” – this is the candidate who promised to “take away things from you for the common good” and tries to relate nearly every issue back to health care and what she thinks people “need.”
I can just see the parody of this advertisement with Bill and Hilary look-alikes:
Hillary flips through a juke box with the names of her various scandals substituted for song titles. Bill sits down.
Hillary: I ordered for you.
Waitress places a tray of carrot sticks on the table.
Bill: no onion rings?
Hillary: I’m looking out for you, it’s for your own good.
Bill: listen lady, I’m a grown man, if I want onion rings, I’ll damn well have onion rings!
Bill gets up and angrily leaves the table and storms out of the restaurant as we see the people in the restaurant quickly distancing themselves from Hillary while Paulie Walnuts walks by her lonely booth knowingly shaking his head.
BTW: WTF is it with that bizarre look Senator Clinton gave Johnny Sacks? If that was supposed to be her “tough and determined look” it came off more as “sour and constipated.”
I know you've moved on to another post about the reactions to this post, but I'd rather react to the post than to the reactions....
A) The spot is lame. I'm not a Soprano's watcher, but I couldn't avoid the endless Soprano's finale discussions. So I noticed some of the references, but couldn't really relate. I think to someone like my wife (who would be a Hillary supporter, but is not a Soprano's watcher and DID avoid the discussions about the finale), this spot would do nothing.
B) The entire pick the theme song idea was cute. But do you really want your campaign to be "cute"? And the end result - If I needed anything else to turn me off to Hillary, Celene Dion certainly did it.
C) Your transparent taunting used to be entertaining, but, in the end, off-putting. I thought the little blog-wars were funny for a while, but since it's become clearer that you do it intentionally, it's less engaging. Yes, it's good to see hackery exposed, but I never really read these people anyway. I miss the subtlety.
Ms. Althouse-
Is this what passes for insightful commentary?
Many, many others have already gutted your post like a trout, so I won't belabor the points.
I don't toss around the "I" word casually, but I doubt any blogger would disagree with my assertion that you are an idiot of world class pretension.
I can't believe you can keep a job at a real university with the obvious insanity that runs through your brain. An onion ring is a vagina?! You are beyond ridiculous.
Ms. Althouse, this is not meant as any kind of a put-down, but I think your analysis speaks to a need for a therapy.
If Tony Soprano can do it, so can you.
Again, I don't mean this as an insult. But if you're seeing carrot sticks -- the archetypical health food, thus a natural choice for a man who had a bypass recnetly -- and onion rings (which were in the original Sopranos scence) in terms of sexual imagery, I think you have some problems.
If you're already addressing these problems via therapy, then good for you and in that case, I'm sorry I brought this up.
And what did he eat? "No red meat. He's watching his health. He had chicken fingers, onion rings ... why do people always ask that?"
Bill's been eating vaginas? Someone call Drudge!
And what are we to make of those chicken fingers?
Ann?
Tom T: Perhaps you need therapy. You seem to be very repressed and to have a strange need to express hostility. And no sense of humor... but they can't help you with that. Too bad. Go eat a hot dog.
Damn you, now I can't get "the devil's onion ring" out of my mind. One of those things I wish I'd never heard.
"No red meat. He's watching his health. He had chicken fingers, onion rings ... why do people always ask that?"
fried foods aren't healthy...
Oh, yes. Onion rings are vaginas and carrot sticks are penises. It's all so clear now!
What would the masses do without your brilliant analysis? I would have never figured it all out for myself.
Duh. Get your analogies right.
Melons are more like a vagina. Wet and tight.
Most guys have baby carrots for penises. Bill Clinton's was hung like a daikon radish. You can see the stretch marks around Hilary's mouth.
Come to think of it Ann...you got some of those too.
OK, seriously? Onion rings as vaginas?
Bill had a weight problem and had to have open heart surgery because of the damage he did to his ticker through poor diet. Further, the onion rings were, I believe, part of the Sopranos closing episode which the Hillary spot parodied.
I mean come ON - even if you are determined to overlook the obvious - which, judging by this post, you may well be - don't you know that the most universally accepted food representation of female genitalia is the taco?
Crikey, get a grip. This is about the lowest value-add post I think I've read in the past sixth months.
Fahgedaboudit.
I thought it was great.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Presidents of the United States of America!
They can fix w's disasters.
You never see people linking to Ann's posts talking about how deep and insightful they are. No one ever talks about the profound observations or reasoned argumentation they found on the Althouse blog.
Oh yeah?
Check out this (second update), and this, and there are quite a few more.
One of the messages is: Ann is funny. She also knows how to ring your bell and get you to run up her traffic stats. And you know what, you all sound like the same person. Did you clone yourself?
Oh yeah, this is some of that post modern semiotics shit that is supposed to prove how you're all smart and Deridian and Foucaultian and stuff like that.
I would say in this particular instance that Sartre promotes the use of capitalist feminism to analyse and modify class. Thus, Foucault’s model of nationalism implies that reality is impossible.
The economy, and eventually the collapse, of Lyotardist narrative depicted in Smith’s Clerks emerges again in Mallrats, although in a more mythopoetical sense. Therefore, Debord suggests the use of neocultural construction to challenge sexism.
Several desituationisms concerning Lyotardist narrative may be discovered. Thus, if nationalism holds, we have to choose between neocultural construction and Derridaist reading. And as the Hillary video makes clear, if postcultural nihilism holds, we have to choose between Lyotardist narrative and capitalist narrative. It could be said that the premise of nationalism suggests that society, somewhat surprisingly, has intrinsic meaning.
Do we really want to think of Bill and Hillary sitting in for Tony and Carmela? Tony is a monstrous criminal and Carmela willfully blinds herself to his horrible flaws so that she can keep living in a highly desirable house. Are these good associations for Hillary?
Ann, I'm surprised you missed this as did all the previous commentators: Hillary is playing the Tony part, and Bill the Carmela part, not the other way around! Hillary arrives first and chooses the song and the food. She is in control. That is what the ad is meant to convey. But I agree that being associated with either Tony or Carmela is not good for her image.
You are one sick puppy, without any semblance of conscience, shame or anything useful to say. I'm embarrassed FOR you, since it's obvious you don't have the capacity to see yourself.
Annie dear, I suggest you change the brand of creme rinse you recently started using to ameliorate your chronic Haystack Head.
It seems to be reacting with your hair dye and producing embarassing psychological symptoms.
Just saying.
And it's similarly quite obvious to any reader that you're a blatant butch lesbian: you've got vagina on the mind, wear zero make up and keep you're hair extremely short (not to type-case blatant butch lesbians), and are absolutely obsessed with Hillary - her appearance, her relationship with her spouse, what you perceive to be her pop culture likes and influences, etc.
Goshdarnit Ann, YOU'RE IN LOVE WITH SENATOR CLINTON.
It's ok. Own it. Come to grips. I can't blame you; there's a lot to like.
commentary on the song: WTF? They could have chosen KT Tunstall and they went with Celine Freaking Dion?????
Who ARE these people? I suspect it was an organized Sanjaya-like takeover by the Dion clones.
I won't even get into her citizenship issues, but suffice it to say there's another one of those border hoppers grabbing up a good job any American would willfully do.
**hey internets! That was dry humor!!**
Hey guys, give Ann a break. Did you ever think that maybe her vagina DOES resemble a nasty, greasy onion ring?
And maybe the only men she's been with have had tiny, orange, oompa-loompa penises.
It makes as much sense as any other reason for this post.
I hope and pray that you don't teach 1L students any core classes. You need to re-attach yourself to the planet!
HBO reference, elitist? Well, sitting in your house, watching the repulsive show called American Idol, drinking wine, half tanked, and prattling on about the show in some fake aristocrat accent while video blogging is not elitist???
You really shouldn't be allowed to shape our legal minds!
We don't think you're crazy, Althouse. We just think you're an attention-starved Narcissist who deliberately makes stupid statements so people with websites can make fun of you. Then you claim, "It was all just a joke!" the next day. It happened with Jessica Valenti and you're doing it again.
i just thought the commercial was a little pandering. but then again, obama did meet with luda...
Uhh... not to get personal or anything... but... Is your vagina a circle? Because mine REALLY isn't.
Maybe if onions were more... vagina Shaped this analogy would work. Maybe an anus? Was Bill into the buttsex?
Holy crap! You've got way too much time on your hands. You wrote "the "O" of an onion ring is a vagina symbol"? You know, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar! Well, maybe not the best analogy, but still. Seems like you have vagina on the mind.
The onion ring is just and onion ring and someone trying to read something more than what it is into a silly commercial is trying way too hard to be "insightful". I can't decide if it is attention you desire that makes you actually spend that much time writing something so fatuous or maybe it's just boredom brought on by insecurity.
Shinobi said..."Uhh... not to get personal or anything... but... Is your vagina a circle? Because mine REALLY isn't. Maybe if onions were more... vagina Shaped this analogy would work. Maybe an anus? Was Bill into the buttsex?"
Aw, Shinobi doesn't know vagina from vulva. Tee hee.
Gus: "gus said...
Holy crap! You've got way too much time on your hands. You wrote "the "O" of an onion ring is a vagina symbol"? You know, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar!"
I agree, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but we're talking about Bill Clinton!!! And you bring up cigars??? LOL.
Actually I think the onion rings represent our guns. Hillary Clinton is gonna take our guns away!@
Ann,
Why do you think I mentioned cigars? Especially since I followed it with "Maybe that's not the best analogy." It's called wit and irony and you certainly don't have the market cornered on either of those.
Your never to old to learn. I checked your background and it is impressive. Yet the direction of your comments is sick. I understand now why the infection of our youth by so called educated and respectful people has caused the mess we're in. A President who is a drunk and coward, First Lady an open liar, VP is really Satan and the rest. I know many Republicans and none of them are like the examples that are published. The GOP ran on family values and religion yet all the actions done are those of evil.
I just don't understand the fixation reporter/journalist have on Bill Clinton. Men are acting like BrokeBack and woman are acting like sluts. The United States should clean itself up before telling others what to do. Your comments are sick but it shows who you really are. It also shows what you think of yourself as a woman.
She lost me at "Your."
[blah blah vicious slandering of the Bushies, and then]
"Men are acting like BrokeBack and woman are acting like sluts."
Love the bikini avatar for presenting political opinion and critique of our wanton culture.
Satire, right?
i don't know ann, but when i hear of onion rings the first thing i think of isn't my vagina.
you might try some of the over the counter creams or going to the dr. if that doesn't clear it up.
just a suggestion.
Besides all the Freudian stuff, I agree 100% and more with your review.
It actually shows such a lack of judgment on the Clinton's part, that it should prevent Hillary from holding higher office.
She should fold up her tent and DROP OUT NOW.
Good review and anyone who doesn't
get it deserves the government they
get...
Would all of you conservative women please stop obsessing about vaginas or come out of the closet for christ's sake! Anyone who could even write that sentence about "O"s in her blog has a real need to talk about her lesbian/bi issues. You need to also realize that if this is the best you can do against HIllary, you might as well start blogging your next bit for after she wins the whole thing! Ya got nothing but your pathetic take on a TV show? Are you fucking kidding me? I can't wait to open the champagne on election night and usher in the 21st century for real, with us in the US catching up to the rest of the world - like the Phillipines, India, the UK, and every other country that has decided that the conservative talking points about women being inferior to men are bullshit. How about we really lead for a change? You can start by backing the most qualified candidate with the most experience - Hillary Clinton. I gotta agree with the first poster here. You are bug. Fuck. Crazy.
And furthermore...
Anyone who SUPPORTS Hillary
Clinton for president is Bug,
Fuck, Crazy.
Frank: "And it's similarly quite obvious to any reader that you're a blatant butch lesbian: you've got vagina on the mind, wear zero make up and keep you're hair extremely short."
andrewsac said..."Would all of you conservative women please stop obsessing about vaginas or come out of the closet for christ's sake! Anyone who could even write that sentence about "O"s in her blog has a real need to talk about her lesbian/bi issues..."
So, the homophobia of the left emerges alongside the misogyny. There's this notion that because you're on the left these things don't count against you. But they do. Shame!
If the food in question symbolizes a vagina, then maybe it's a calamari ring, not an onion ring.
Gee, and Madison used to be such a quaint little town.
I, too, think Hillary was wrong to take this approach.
I heard General Taguba, who did the Abu Graib investigation, quoted on the radio yesterday as saying that when he was warned by General Abzaid that he and his report would be investigated:
"I'd been in the Army thirty-two years by then, and it was the first time that I thought I was in the Mafia."
Of course he hadn't been in the Bush army prior to that.
Why would Hillary want to align herself so closely with this disasterous administration?
I don't get it and I'm not even planning to vote for her.
Unless she makes it to the general election, that is.
How did you even get a job teaching anybody? It's a good thing Wisconsin doesn't have a bar exam. Wilfully retarded.
Are you nuts? It's people like you and idiotic fantasies like this that lend credence to the concept of the vast right wing conspiracy.
As the great man Freud said "Sometimes a woman is just bug fuck crazy."
...perhaps Ann's vagina looks like an onion ring...and she uses carrots herself for gratification?
Her analysis then makes perfect sense to her...........and absolutely nobody else......how sad Ann
Sorry Ms. Althouse.
The scene is as simple as a wife looking out for her husband's health--Clinton has had heart problems and surgery for them.
When you say things that are untrue, you damage your credibility.
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