১৪ ডিসেম্বর, ২০০৭
Obama's ease and Hillary's nervous laugh.
How much can we read from this little exchange? I love the way he pauses, giving her a chance to cackle (as if to say "gotcha"). After he utters his witticism, it's plain that the pause worked as comic timing. He used the pause to word the witticism perfectly, thus creating this delectable YouTube clip, which ends with more of that laughing of hers. Now, she's both laughing at his joke, which was a joke at her expense, and sounding nervous when he's being especially cool.
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A nifty way to avoid answering the question.
Not a fan of Obama but that was one of the best 'gotchas' I've seen anyone do.
Obama is doing very well in letting the Clinton campaign continue to commit suicide and staying above the rising tide of mud--It is beginning to look the the HRC campaign may not last as long as Howard Dean's campaign four years ago.
That laugh. That voice. She really is awful.
This is the American version of Kremlinology, trying to deduce great meaning from subtle clues.
We're left with laughter, I think, because the press is lazy and fearful of being seen as politically incorrect.
Sen. Obama, by his own admission, was quite the high school stoner. Says he didn't try "smack." Glad to hear it. What about 'shrooms? Acid? Valium? Was he dealing?
The question is--will the story sell newspapers? Sure. How hard can it be to get his senior yearbook and start making phone calls?
Also, it's been a week since Romney's Mormon speech. Maybe I read the wrong stuff, but I've seen no features on what Mormonism is all about. Again, it may not be relevant, but it sure is interesting to learn (via Wiki and Mormon websites) that Mormons think the resurrected Jesus lived with American Indians and that its founder was convicted of fraud. Does Romney think Jesus walked American soil? It would be interesting to hear his answer.
My sense is that he needed the pause to think of a good comeback. Kudos to him for doing so.
"Also, it's been a week since Romney's Mormon speech. Maybe I read the wrong stuff, but I've seen no features on what Mormonism is all about."
Here's the absolutely best summation...
Obama's riposte cannot have been scripted---sure, he was likely prepared to answer a question about potential advisors, but he couldn't have counted on a facile comment from Hillary. A small moment, but we're beginning to catch a sense of the mental agility that explains the endorsements of celebrities and executives who've had face time with him.
As for George's comment about high school drug use, some of Obama's friends are listed in this article from the alumni magazine for Obama's high school. See https://www.punahou.edu/page.cfm?p=601
The reason we focus on the Obama's skin color and Hillary's laugh is simple. There's not a dime's worth of difference between them on policy. They'll probably appoint the same people to the cabinet.
As for Romney's religion, Who gives a damn. I'm more concerned about his policies on trade, taxes and immigration then his views on the Nicene creed. I'll let others wallow in trivia.
Who's better looking Rudy or Thompson?
Madisonman,
He was being nice. Plainly, those people also want to get away from the Clintons.
Think different.
Hopefully Obama would not employ Sandy Berger or Madelyn Albright, as Hillary fully intends to if she wins.
Palladian--
I watched part of the video. I naively thought you'd be sending me to NBC or PBS.
So, tell me again, which campaign do you work for?
Anyway, it seems that Catholics and Methodists both require Mormons desiring to join their churches to be re-baptized.
A Methodist pronouncement (item #21) says..."Mormonism has ''some radically differing doctrine on such matters of
belief as the nature and being of God; the nature, origin, and purpose of Jesus
Christ; and the nature and way of salvation.''
The Methodists said Mormonism incorporates a ''gendered, married and procreating god'' with ''a body of flesh and bones,'' and has a theology that ''more closely resembles a tri-theistic or possibly a polytheistic faith'' than monotheism --worship of the one God.
The Methodists also objected that ''the Jesus of Mormonism is not co-eternal with the Father and of one substance with the Father'' and that Mormons add other scriptures to the Bible."
Clearly, nobody wants to talk about this stuff.
Too bad Romney isn't Muslim. Then nobody would dare question his faith out of fear of being labeled religious bigots.
It almost reminds me of the Lloyd Bentsen slap-down: Senator, I work with Bill Clinton's appointees: I know Bill Clinton; Bill Clinton was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Bill Clinton.
It wasn't funny as a joke, it wasn't effective as a jab, and I'm still mystified as to what it is that everyone else in America seems to hear when she laughs, because to me it just sounds like a slightly nasal midwest-to-south transplant woman laughing.
"Palladian--
I watched part of the video. I naively thought you'd be sending me to NBC or PBS.
So, tell me again, which campaign do you work for? "
Which campaign do you work for? That video, from the brilliant "South Park" obviously, is actually an accurate, if irreverent, depiction of the founding of the CJCLDS. I say this as someone who knows; my patrilineal heritage is Mormon, and I am a direct descendant of one of the early leaders of the Mormon Church. Did your great(x4) grandfather have 11 wives and 57 children? Neener, neener.
" I'm still mystified as to what it is that everyone else in America seems to hear when she laughs, because to me it just sounds like a slightly nasal midwest-to-south transplant woman laughing."
They hear what the media tells them to hear. The media says Hilary's laugh is obnoxious so they believe that Hilary's laugh is obnoxious.
Simon: Sen. Clinton's laugh (laughs), itself, doesn't bother me either. But I do think Althouse is right about how she's chosen to deploy at least one version of it in certain circumstances.
The one good thing that can be said about that moderator is that she makes Hillary look warm and easy-going in comparison.
Palladian -- are you therefore related to the potato commercial Andrus? (the Idaho governor, as I recall)
If one says that a strong woman "cackles", is one not arguably being derisively sexist?
"Palladian -- are you therefore related to the potato commercial Andrus? (the Idaho governor, as I recall)"
If he's a Mormon, probably.
It's a shame Tiger Woods isn't running. It would be a return to traditional values, back to the Eisenhower era.
EnigmatiCore said...
"If one says that a strong woman 'cackles,' is one not arguably being derisively sexist?"
It does seem to summon connotations of witches, doesn't it?
I'm saddened and deeply concerned that the termagant wife of a contemptible former president, a junior senator with two years of national service and a profligate ambulance chaser are the best candidates the once august democratic party has to offer in 2008. I'm concerned and deeply saddened that if HRC wins I'll have to pluck my eyes and shear my ears from my head to avoid seeing or hearing this horrid harridan for four years.
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