Althouse: "I mean, last week I was totally crying watching it" (the "Yes We Can" video)...

February 15, 2008

"I mean, last week I was totally crying watching it" (the "Yes We Can" video)...

"Now just thinking about how choked up I got gives me the creeps."

47 comments:

Mark Kleiman said...: Just in case you hadn't noticed, Lithwick's column is an ironic comment on irony as a style of being. The tareget of her statire is not Obama, but those whose need to be cool prevents them from experiencing any actual emotion.; 2/15/08, 10:22 PM
Palladian said...: "Just in case you hadn't noticed, Lithwick's column is an ironic comment on irony as a style of being."

As much as I dislike the overuse of irony in the arts, I think it's positively healthy in politics. The more ironic, detached and emotionally distant people are from politicians and political ideas, the better and healthier. There is nothing more dangerous than political emotionalism.; 2/15/08, 10:50 PM
Trumpit said...: Thanks for sharing with us, Palladian, the fact that you are a (political) bottom. But we already suspected that laid back tendency of yours. Passive secondhand smoke just chokes me up as well. I think I'll have a good cry now; I need the catharsis. Now don't jump down my throat for getting all emotional about so much tripe. Have you tried acupuncture?; 2/15/08, 11:05 PM
Palladian said...: On the contrary, honey, lefties are the bottoms of the world. They need daddy to feed them the cock to make them feel better. The tops of the world can just jack off when a partner isn't available. The bottoms need someone to fill them up.

The best advice I can give to you, bossy bottom, is to go fuck yourself. Then maybe you'll realize that you can pleasure yourself without having the government fuck you.; 2/15/08, 11:19 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: *afraid to join this thread*

like they've just done 12 Obama shooters in 20 minutes and then barfed in the cloakroom.

^^^Favorite line.

Is this going to turn into a series of contrived letters?; 2/15/08, 11:22 PM
Synova said...: I think my favorite line was....

"Supporting you wholeheartedly was the best damn 14 days of my life."

"The tareget of her statire is not Obama,..."

Doh! Like I didn't realize that, living in a house with teenagers like I do. Heh. It was a satire of Obama supporters such as the one with the Cuba-Che flag and no clue.

And a satire of the whole concept of the "youth" vote.

(Like an old lady is going to miss *that*.); 2/16/08, 12:00 AM
Trumpit said...: You have some nerve talking about getting the shaft after what the right-wing has put us through the last eight years. Up yours with "dangerous political emotionalism."; 2/16/08, 12:26 AM
ricpic said...: Looks like the yutes just de-energized.; 2/16/08, 12:39 AM
docweasel said...: Armpit: your comment doesn't even make any sense. How does being detached and rational about the political process all the sudden make you a bottom bitch?

The good news in all of this is that the dilettantes who are creaming for Obama right now probably won't vote in November. Its hard to keep a hard-on for 8 months, and reality and policy will carry you through times when emotion and man-love get old and stale.

I personally think Obama is just Dean 2.0, Hillary is so despised by her own party that they gladly jettison her to embrace even an empty suit like Obama.

When crunch time comes though, cooler heads will prevail and Obama is going to get creamed in an electoral landslide. Much of his support is pure hype, and all of his credentials are. I look for McCain to crush him.

Very few people will say this, but the stone cold fact is, were Obama not half-black, he would have no campaign. If he were a white, first term Senator with little legislative accomplishments, a record full of non-votes and dodging controversial but courageous stands, a jug-eared bloviator who spews platitudes and cliches instead of real policy or solutions to real problems, he'd never have even lasted through Summer '07.

I think he's being very overestimated as a campaigner. He just looks good because right now he's running against the most hated political figure of the last 100 years, on BOTH sides of the fence.; 2/16/08, 12:59 AM
dick said...: Actual if he were a white first term senator with no history, he would be Edwards in 2004.; 2/16/08, 1:29 AM
Danny said...: Mocking the people who mock the people who fervently support Obama. Did I get that right? A little too meta if you ask me.; 2/16/08, 2:23 AM
rhhardin said...: Very few people will say this, but the stone cold fact is, were Obama not half-black, he would have no campaign.

I hope this is not covert jug-earism.; 2/16/08, 3:41 AM
TJ said...: "Mocking the people who mock the people who fervently support Obama. Did I get that right?"

That's how I read it too, Danny. "Do worse, Obama," Lithwick writes. Mildly clever idea, but poor execution. Fads are fleeting, especially among Gen-Xers. We get it.

Pieces like this are as inevitable as the phrase "Bush fatigue" (coming soon to your political coverage!). Also inevitable are the "Did Obama peak too soon?" pieces after he gets the nomination.; 2/16/08, 6:20 AM
MadisonMan said...: Correlate her moods to her menstrual cycle, that's my suggestion. Last week her period was approaching, now it's here. Of course she's feeling differently.; 2/16/08, 7:21 AM
Peter V. Bella said...: docweasel said...
Hillary is so despised by her own party that they gladly jettison her to embrace even an empty suit like Obama.

I whole heartily agree. But, why don’t they. She has given them every excuse to dump her. The fallout would last about two days, then it would be move on and Hillary who? Hillary needs the Democratic Party. They do not need her. Her resume and Obama’s are the same so there is no difference.

hardin,
Some of my best friends have jug ears. I have worked with jug eared people. I hear the Democrats want to make criticism of jug ears a hate crime. Rumors abound that a man was pulled a block by his ears and is suffering deep emotional distress. His family is claiming the Republicans are deaf to jug earism. I now have a new reason to help make history. Obama will be the first openly jug eared person to be President of the United States. He could pick Alfred E. Newman was VP. Of course they could not walk through a double door together.

Of course jug eared people are supposed to have, ahem, well, it is a size issue...

legendary hearing prowess.; 2/16/08, 7:41 AM
Fen said...: Good article, nicely done. I wonder how many people it will reach and resonate with? Will the talking heads pan it?

lefties are the bottoms of the world. They need daddy to feed them... The best advice I can give to you, bossy bottom, is to go -

I wish there was a dildo equivalent we could toss them when they get this way. Perhaps a Global Warming treaty or somesuch.; 2/16/08, 7:54 AM
J said...: Was that written by the same 21 year old who wrote to Sully?; 2/16/08, 8:03 AM
Bissage said...: I guess Ms. Lithwick makes good money and all that, but that piece was only eight paragraphs and she couldn’t even stay in character; a bogus character at that -- does any adult on earth actually say “soooo” or is that a catchphrase from some television show I’ve never seen?

Even by the broadest definition of the category, the very last member of “Generation X” officially grew out of his self-conscious, competitively hip phase on December 15, 2007. It’s in wikipedia. LOOK IT UP!

Anyway, there are commenters at Althouse who do that sort of shtick much better; consistently and for free.; 2/16/08, 8:03 AM
KCFleming said...: After gaining the right to vote in 1971, 49.6% of 18-24 year olds voted in the next US election for President. This was less than in 1964 or 1968, when the voting age was 21 (50.9%, 50.4%)*.

Age----18-24----Total voting ages
__________________________________
2004----41.9%----58.3%
2000----32.3%----54.7%
1996----32.4%----54.2%
1992----42.8%----61.3%
1988----36.2%----57.4%
1984----40.8%----59.9%
1980----39.9%----59.3%
1976----42.2%----59.2%
1972----49.6%----63.0%

Even in 1984, with Reagan being nearly universally despised by the press and, supposedly, young people, turnout was not great.

Why will the youth vote for Obama be different in this election?; 2/16/08, 8:23 AM
Balfegor said...: I personally think Obama is just Dean 2.0, Hillary is so despised by her own party that they gladly jettison her to embrace even an empty suit like Obama.

Hey -- Dean was a governor with a solid and (for Vermont) moderate record. He had experience, a track record, all those things Obama lacks. The only thing they really have in common is that their most fervent supporters are offputting and crazy.; 2/16/08, 8:41 AM
Bissage said...: OT, but I guess I’ll never understand why some of you gay men at Althouse (or pretend gay men, anyway) think it’s a vicious put-down to call another gay man a “bottom,” which I assume means the partner in a committed, loving relationship who usually receives the penis into the rectum when performing sexual relations in the so-called “doggie” position.

I find it hard to believe that the typical homosexual coupling results in someone feeling hatefully degraded.

Just saying.

Color me naïve.; 2/16/08, 8:42 AM
From Inwood said...: Bissage

You're right about Ms Lithwick's short attention-span note.

And what does she think about Hill's message, which seems, schizoid, to be

"Experienced Change; Vote For Me & It's The '90s Again!"?

Some having missed 9/11 or the recession of 2000 hear "Yes We Can. Four More Years So Arcadian".

BTW, Hill's gonna change Bill, too. Really. After she's Pres, next time he goes in for a heart check she's gonna have the doc do on him what was done to Reagan's character in King's Row!; 2/16/08, 8:44 AM
Peter V. Bella said...: The post also points out the fast obsolescence factor among the youth culture. Today’s cool item is tomorrow’s trash. Today’s cool person is history tomorrow. In their ever ending quest for the newest fad or coolest person, everything and everyone is left behind in their wake. It is a trail of litter.

I hit the links attached to the post and came up with the following interesting items:

And this morning I found myself giving my daughter a spontaneous what-we-owe-Hillary speech on the way to school.

Obamaphilia

Tasteless, but funny, Penn Jillette joke from Maureen Dowd:
“Obama is just creaming Hillary. You know, all these primaries, you know. And Hillary says it’s not fair, because they’re being held in February, and February is Black History Month. And unfortunately for Hillary, there’s no White Bitch Month.”

What the mother thinks she and her daughter owe Hillary is beyond me. Obamaphilia is the disease of Obama fandom. The joke was tasteless, but it was in the NYT, so I guess it is acceptable.; 2/16/08, 8:44 AM
garage mahal said...: Idol worship is for jazz musicians, not politicians.; 2/16/08, 8:48 AM
Fen said...: think it’s a vicious put-down to call another gay man a “bottom,”

I think the insult meant to be directed more at "queens" who give the gay community a bad rep with the straight public. They combine the worst traits of male and female [aggressive yet petty emotional drama queens].

When I was biased against gays, it was because of queens and the bondage freaks you see at a gay pride parade. It wasn't until some gay friends took me to one of their bars that I realized those types aren't at all representative of the gay male.

So maybe some gays are tired of the image that some bottoms/queens display. PR disaster.; 2/16/08, 9:15 AM
garage mahal said...: personally think Obama is just Dean 2.0, Hillary is so despised by her own party that they gladly jettison her to embrace even an empty suit like Obama.

Indeed. And progressives can always look back with a sense of pride that they aligned with the apes at MSNBC in their relentless public goring of Hillary. My fellow members of the Reality Based Community has completely lost it fucking minds, and the Kewl Kidz like Josh Marshall and Keith Olbermann have all decided who our candidate will be. Blech.; 2/16/08, 9:37 AM
MTfromCC said...: Dream on, delusional ones. You don't see the wave at all. I know lifelong republicans who are supporting Obama. Why is that?

You think this election will be about Obama's inexperience, but it won't be. It will be about Bush and Cheney and the war and the tax cuts and negligent oversight that McCain has tied himself to, and it will be about the abject weariness everybody feels about politics as usual. McCain is running on the war and the tax cuts and thus the Bush economy (and now he is condoning torture, the fianl sacrifice of his integrity) The "Maverick formerly known as McCain" (or is it the McCain formerly known as a Maverick?) is long gone, his integrity at issue, his credibility gone with the center (me) and left, and despised by the right. And you think this 73-year old man who looks he may stroke out at any moment has a chance against either of them, and in particular, a brilliant intellect whose improbable campaign reeks of poise, cool, authenticity and integrity?

Dream on, delusional ones. McCain hasn't got a chance.; 2/16/08, 11:09 AM
Palladian said...: "Dream on, delusional ones. You don't see the wave at all."

Oh, we see the wave alright. And like a tsunami, it will only leave devastation in its wake.; 2/16/08, 11:15 AM
Paul said...: "Idol worship is for jazz musicians, not politicians."

You're an idiot.; 2/16/08, 11:17 AM
Fen said...: Delusional is the dream that Ahmadinejad will negotiate with Obama in good faith. After four years of appeasement, of liberals claiming that we shouldn't attack our enemies while they are growing in strength, then later claims that our enemies have grown to strong to attack, the adults will take over and stop this Chamberlan madness.

Of course, the price will be higher, compounded with interest, because the Left will have deferred all the hard choices so that America will be "popular"
with the world.

Again, its the same historical pattern. Carter -> Reagan, Clinton -> Bush. Take another party break from history and count on us to pull you out of the fire when you pass out.; 2/16/08, 11:19 AM
Fen said...: "Idol worship is for jazz musicians, not politicians."

Paul: You're an idiot

No, he's not. At worst, this idolotry leads to you supplicating yourself before the likes of Stalin, Hitler and Che. At best, Jimmy Carter.; 2/16/08, 11:21 AM
Latino said...: Even when Lithwick has a rare lucid moment, she pisses me off no end. It's the voice of a spoiled 16 year old Valley Girl. And she gets paid for this?; 2/16/08, 11:32 AM
Bissage said...: Thanks, Fen. The insult "queen," I get. "Bottom," not so much.

Oh, well.; 2/16/08, 12:21 PM
Anonymous said...: I know lifelong republicans who are supporting Obama. Why is that?

I don't know why liberals always fall for this storyline. But they do.; 2/16/08, 12:43 PM
Palladian said...: Bissage, I think the pejorative usage of "bottom" stems from the idea that being sexually receptive is feminizing and therefore a negative characteristic in males. Gay males are not exempt from the negative feelings associated with being perceived as feminine/weak, and will often lash out at each other using words like "bottom", "cocksucker" and "faggot" pejoratively. All these words carry the association of femininity and weakness in our language.

At least, that's what I'm implying when I call my fellow queers cocksucking faggots.; 2/16/08, 12:44 PM
garage mahal said...: Paul: You're an idiot

Sayeth the Kos Brownshirt. Ah, Unity!; 2/16/08, 12:52 PM
Synova said...: "You think this election will be about Obama's inexperience, but it won't be."

And is that a *good* thing?

Is it a virtue that (apparently) a whole bunch of people consciously give not a thought to the actual experience of the person they intend to hire as President?

Do any of them make other hiring decisions that way? "Oh, I don't care that this guy never fixed anything but flat tires, I'm sure he'll do just fine retooling the intake valves... because he gives me hope!"; 2/16/08, 1:11 PM
Paul said...: Fen,

"Idol worship is for jazz musicians, not politicians."

Paul: You're an idiot

No, he's not. At worst, this idolotry leads to you supplicating yourself before the likes of Stalin, Hitler and Che. At best, Jimmy Carter."

He's an idiot for using a jazz musician as an example of someone who engages in idol worship. I am a musician who plays jazz among other styles and I can assure you that if there is any form of music that requires enormous dedication, encyclopedic knowledge of harmony, and a high level of mastery of one's instrument it is modern jazz. His analogy demonstrated his ignorance of jazz music. But demonstrating ignorance is his MO.

garage mahal (what a silly moniker)...Kos brownshirt? You're like the Moore's law of exponentially increasing stupidity.; 2/16/08, 1:36 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: joe said...
Even when Lithwick has a rare lucid moment, she pisses me off no end. It's the voice of a spoiled 16 year old Valley Girl. And she gets paid for this?

Ain’t America great?; 2/16/08, 1:54 PM
rhhardin said...: I don't know how faggot came to be pejorative.

It opens up bassoon section jokes, however, so you take the good with the bad.

I thought it meant sticks. Gays have to stick together. There is strength in numbers. That was some parable of the faggots or other.; 2/16/08, 1:58 PM
garage mahal said...: He's an idiot for using a jazz musician as an example of someone who engages in idol worship.

Look asswipe, if you can read music why can't you read a post? I worship jazz music, and jazz musicians. I didn't say jazz musicians worship others. Jazz never lets me down, politicians will always let you down. Got it?; 2/16/08, 2:05 PM
somefeller said...: Gay males are not exempt from the negative feelings associated with being perceived as feminine/weak, and will often lash out at each other using words like "bottom", "cocksucker" and "faggot" pejoratively. All these words carry the association of femininity and weakness in our language.

As a lesbian friend pointed out to me when I asked why gay men and lesbians, despite some political alliances, don't tend to hang out with one another: "Because gay men are still men".

Now, gentlemen, let's all go out for some beers.; 2/16/08, 5:12 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: Gay males are not exempt from the negative feelings associated with being perceived as feminine/weak, and will often lash out at each other using words like "bottom", "cocksucker" and "faggot" pejoratively. All these words carry the association of femininity and weakness in our language.

Kinda like the word "gay" in mine.; 2/16/08, 8:35 PM
MTfromCC said...: The only devastation from the Obama Tsunami will be the GOP, which may never recover. The progressive wave that was stopped in its tracks by assassin's bullets in 1968, and the consequent election of Richard Nixon, is re-energized, and the 40-year cycle of political conservatism which was born of RFK's assassination is drawing to a conclusion, not a moment too soon.; 2/16/08, 10:48 PM
Synova said...: Wow.

Just... wow.; 2/17/08, 12:02 AM
Synova said...: Kennedy was a popular guy but he was hardly the source of progressive thought and his death was hardly any sort of set-back for the movement.

When you look for reasons why progressivism hasn't delivered on promises it makes more sense to look at the actual ideas. I consider some vids I saw recently of Naomi Klein talking about progressive economics and how they didn't really fail in the marketplace of ideas after all and then go on to blatantly scoff at the mere notion of externalities... which are about as basic as the sun rising in the East when it comes to either politics or economics.

Unintended consequences. And a voice for progressivism mocks the mere concept.

But it's not about ideas. It's about personalities? That explains a lot.

Obama is so wonderful and everyone is so hopeful... and he may well get elected. But unless what he does *works* that happy afterglow isn't going to continue on the strength of his personality alone.

And it might not help much that Obama's election isn't going to do a dang thing to keep Chavez from imploding his country and economy. It won't keep reports of waiting times and invasive rules penalizing life-style issues in "universal healthcare" Europe from making their way to this side of the Pond. And it won't keep radical islam from hating us. And it won't keep people employed. It won't keep China or India from continuing to innovate and develop faster than they can buy concrete to make another skyscraper. And it won't turn back global warming.

And it won't make the rank and file *cooperate*.

And that's going to piss the progressives off more than anything. Because regular people will make decisions about their own lives and a whole lot of those decisions will be ones that "progressives" disapprove of and which work contrary to "progressive" plans and "progressive" visions of what is best for the unwashed masses, the red necks and the trailer trash.

It's not that people will refuse to cooperate out of spite. They will refuse to cooperate because they simply don't agree with you.

Are those looking to the grand Progressive future that will come with an Obama presidency prepared to deal with a population that actually thinks they ought to have personal sovereignty?; 2/17/08, 12:23 AM
Bissage said...: Palladian, thank you very much.

I think maybe I'm starting to get it . . . a little bit, anyway.

Thanks again.; 2/17/08, 6:38 AM