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You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / Black Jimmy Carter / Man the Fainting Couches!

Man the Fainting Couches!

by John Cole|  June 8, 20107:55 pm| 106 Comments

This post is in: Black Jimmy Carter, Assholes, Our Failed Media Experiment

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No one could have predicted:

Not everybody was pleased with President Obama’s uncharacteristic line on the Today Show, spoken in the pre-school hours Tuesday morning, that he wants some “ass to kick” in the Gulf oil crisis.

Becky Quick, who co-hosts Squawk Box with lead anchor Joe Kernen and co-host Carl Quintanilla, slapped Obama for using unpresidential language in an interview he knew would be aired as children prepared for school.

“If you’re the president of the United States and you go on the Today Show which is a morning show, where you’re going to have a lot of kids sitting around watching this, I think you choose your words more carefully,” said Quick. “Using the A word when you are on the Today Show talking with Matt Lauer, yeah, that disturbs me. But I also think that this is a way of trying to prove that I’m mad, to do exactly what everybody’s been pushing me to do, and it doesn’t ring true.”

Obama has been under pressure in the media and even among his friends, notably film director Spike Lee, to air more passion when addressing the oil crisis. But Quick, who said she likes the president, said he sullied the office on the Today Show.

Oh, shut up. OMG- He’s not mad enough! OMG- he said “ass.”

It just never stops.

And I can’t be the only one wondering why everyone at CNBC has not hanged themselves after what Jon Stewart did to them recently.

*** Update ***

Steely eyed warrior and decorated member of the 101st Chairborne, Peter Wehner, last seen upbraiding George Will for not having enough resolve to keep fighting the war in Afghanistan from a keyboard, also has a sad. “We don’t need no Clint Eastwood,” he whines.

Joe Klein says STFU, Wehner, and thanks for Hamas, you jackass.

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Reader Interactions

106Comments

  1. 1.

    slag

    June 8, 2010 at 7:57 pm

    And I can’t be the only one wondering why everyone at CNBC has not hanged themselves after what Jon Stewart did to them recently.

    You mean when he kicked their asses?

  2. 2.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    June 8, 2010 at 7:57 pm

    “sullied the office” For the love of christ.

    I can’t think of a thing to say that would adequately express my resigned disgust and contempt for these people.

  3. 3.

    MikeJ

    June 8, 2010 at 7:57 pm

    If they hanged themselves it would demonstrate that they know the meaning of the word shame, and if they did, they wouldn’t be on CNBC.

  4. 4.

    Jrod

    June 8, 2010 at 7:59 pm

    OMG, he sullied the legendary studios of the venerable Today Show? Can we draw up articles of impeachment already?

    Also, anyone who would say “a-word” instead of ass is an asshole. I’m pretty sure that word is OK for Saturday morning cartoons nowadays.

  5. 5.

    freelancer

    June 8, 2010 at 8:00 pm

    But Quick, who said she likes the president, said he sullied the office on the Today Show.

    “Those WMD’s have got to be somewhere?!”
    “I thought they were all Muslims?!”
    “Iraq, blah blah…Now watch this drive!”
    “The United States does not torture.”

    GO FUCK YOURSELVES! Oh, Go Fuck Yourselves!

    Sing with me! Go Fuck yourselves!

    You in the back! “Go Fuck Yourselves!”

  6. 6.

    Jrod

    June 8, 2010 at 8:01 pm

    I wish Obama would be more like Bush or the BP execs. They know that shitting all over an entire region of the earth is ok, but naughty words are not.

    Now Biden, he’s free to say whatever he likes. Call it the “Go-Cheney-Yourself” exemption.

  7. 7.

    Shade Tail

    June 8, 2010 at 8:02 pm

    The really stupid part of this pearl clutching is that the President was answering a question that was specifically about kicking ass. Matt Lauer specifically asked Obama about his reaction to the media insistence that he needs to “spend more time in the Gulf and…kick some butt” rather than continue to consult with experts and advisers.

    And Obama quite reasonably replied that he needs to consult with those experts and advisers specifically to find out whose butt needs kicking.

    Yeah, yeah, I know. “Context” is so pre-9/11.

  8. 8.

    beltane

    June 8, 2010 at 8:03 pm

    I’m sorry these people were never put in their place back in high school. My ninth grade son’s Facebook conversations are way more intelligent than the blabbering you hear on TV.

  9. 9.

    Violet

    June 8, 2010 at 8:03 pm

    Leigh Anne Tuohy, the real life woman that Sandra Bullock played in “The Blind Side” is a big time Christian. She allows her husband to say ‘ass’ because it’s in the Bible.

    Just how bad can the word be? It’s in the Bible. Does that mean Jesus was wrong? Did God sully the Bible?

  10. 10.

    MikeJ

    June 8, 2010 at 8:04 pm

    @Jrod: Almost makes you think John Nance Garner was wrong. I think it’d be great fun to be veep.

  11. 11.

    Josie

    June 8, 2010 at 8:07 pm

    Ms. Quick has obviously not kept company with a group of kids lately if she thinks the president’s language would be detrimental to them. As an elementary and middle school librarian for thirty years, I can guarantee the word “ass” is mild compared to the language they use on a daily basis.

  12. 12.

    slag

    June 8, 2010 at 8:07 pm

    @Shade Tail: Complete this sentence: “Butt” is to Palestinian cinnamon as “ass” is to Palestinian _________________.

  13. 13.

    beltane

    June 8, 2010 at 8:07 pm

    Does anyone recall this many twisted panties when Dick Cheney told Pat Leahy to go f–k himself on the Seante floor?

  14. 14.

    arguingwithsignposts

    June 8, 2010 at 8:08 pm

    Lady Smudge is already on her fainting chair. (much better picture quality tonight)

  15. 15.

    Jrod

    June 8, 2010 at 8:09 pm

    @slag: Qassam rockets?

  16. 16.

    Johio

    June 8, 2010 at 8:10 pm

    and the number of children who actually watch the Today Show is what? 6? 7?

  17. 17.

    Donald G

    June 8, 2010 at 8:12 pm

    Jesus Harold Christ, I’m sure lots of schoolchildren – especially Southern schoolchildren – have heard the word “ass” used by their parents in comments directed toward them. Commands to get one’s “ass over/in here” or parental threats to “get one’s ass whipped” were – and probably remain – quite common in the parental vernacular, even if the threat isn’t carried out. Pretending otherwise and gettin’ the vapors over it is genteel suburban hypocrisy.

    Hell, my grandmother – a devout godfearin’ Christian woman who prayed for an hour every morning – took great pleasure in pointing out to me that the word “ass” was in the Bible, and pointing out the passage where Jesus rides an ass into Jerusalem. Then again, this was also the woman who taught me certain naughty words at age three because it offended my mother’s sense of propriety.

  18. 18.

    Mark S.

    June 8, 2010 at 8:12 pm

    @Violet:

    I seem to remember Jesus riding into Jerusalem on an ass.

    Also, I think children getting ready for school would much better off being exposed to Ann Coulter attacking 9/11 widows.

  19. 19.

    LT

    June 8, 2010 at 8:12 pm

    That lady oughta be careful. If any kid heard that stupid shit she said – right on daytime teevee – they might want to kick her ass.

  20. 20.

    The Dangerman

    June 8, 2010 at 8:14 pm

    I’m proposing a new Cabinet position so this sullying of the Presidency won’t happen again; the Department of $%^&, for when some ass needs to be kicked.

    Samuel L. Jackson should be a natural.

  21. 21.

    El Cid

    June 8, 2010 at 8:14 pm

    President Obama should be more careful to tailor his speeches and interviews such that they could be aired on Sesame Street.

  22. 22.

    Napoleon

    June 8, 2010 at 8:15 pm

    Jesus, if CNBC has a problem with the word ass running on the today show I have a suggestion for them. Contact the party really at fault, their corporate parent NBC who are the ones who ran it at the time they did. NBC could have edited it out, or bleeped it, or run it after 10pm, but they didn’t, instead they pimped it.

  23. 23.

    Jrod

    June 8, 2010 at 8:16 pm

    @MikeJ: Well, you do get your own airplane. OK, it’s Airforce Two, but it’s still better than my ride.

    You also get a posse of dudes in suits and Raybans who’ll beat up anyone who fucks with you. I’m not seeing any downside. Oh sure, occasionally you might have to break a tie in the senate, but in this age of auto-filibuster it shouldn’t come up much.

  24. 24.

    Jrod

    June 8, 2010 at 8:19 pm

    @Napoleon: CNBC might also want to consider not giving asses their own shows. The Preznit would have to perform a George Carlin routine in front of a 3rd grade class visiting the Holocaust Museum before he matched the offensiveness of a single episode of Mad Money.

  25. 25.

    Calouste

    June 8, 2010 at 8:19 pm

    @The Dangerman:

    And the head of that department wouldn’t be the Secretary, but the Big Bad M*#$%!F#$%&* of $%^&.

  26. 26.

    Napoleon

    June 8, 2010 at 8:19 pm

    @Napoleon:

    A PS, the reason the FCC levied a fine against a broadcast network and not Janet Jackson’s boobs when she was exposed on tv was because Janet Jackson’s boobs aren’t the party who made the decision to run images of them on TV.

  27. 27.

    jl

    June 8, 2010 at 8:19 pm

    I heard some other media talking head, who has been complaining about Obama;s attitude, say today that anger is not what people want and will not stop the leak.

    I forget who, since for my mental health I turned off the TV immediately and decided to pay no more attention to the nonsense. Was it the Morning Brute? I forget.

    As for naughty language, I guess we should be glad that Theodore Roosevelt or Harry Truman, those damned lefty s o s h u l i s t commie dirty hippies are not around any more. Otherwise we might hear words like horseshit coming out of the Holy President’s mouth. And our precious delicate innocent children, who we alternatively abandon or abuse, may be debauched by very mildly salty language.

    Edit: maybe Obama should try an Eisenhower style crabby old man who barks out rambling indecipherable bafflegab in these situations. Eisenhower said that no one could figure out what he was trying to do or say, and that was a way to shut up reporters. Might work.

  28. 28.

    Midnight Marauder

    June 8, 2010 at 8:19 pm

    @Johio:

    and the number of children who actually watch the Today Show is what? 6? 7?

    Does it even matter? Any kid watching Today is a terrorist heathen too busy playing hooky with OFA stromtroopers.

  29. 29.

    ruemara

    June 8, 2010 at 8:20 pm

    I’m not sure, could be wrong, but wasn’t there some big time moving picture show with ads running all over called Kick Ass? And it’s a comic book, scuse me, graphic novel, freely available in book stores?

  30. 30.

    Bender Bending Rodriguez

    June 8, 2010 at 8:21 pm

    What? This is an outrage! I’m going to have my own press conference! With blackjack, and hookers! In fact, forget the press conference!

  31. 31.

    robertdsc

    June 8, 2010 at 8:21 pm

    What a fucking joke.

  32. 32.

    Joel

    June 8, 2010 at 8:23 pm

    Kids don’t watch the Today Show.

    I hope someone kicks the ass of every salaried pundit on CNBC.

  33. 33.

    Jrod

    June 8, 2010 at 8:25 pm

    @ruemara: Sure, but it’s not like Obama was a narrator. You see, it’s only once that word leaves the President’s lips that it becomes an outrage.

    This is similar to the process by which a perfectly valid birth certificate becomes an obvious forgery pointing to a multi-generational conspiracy to destroy the USA when it’s handed over by the Prez.

    He just has that, eh, “aura” about him. Like something about him is, I dunno, darker than we’d like. I can’t put my finger on it, though.

  34. 34.

    slag

    June 8, 2010 at 8:25 pm

    @jl: I swear, if Obama ever gave this kind of speech, I would never ever criticize him again.

  35. 35.

    And Another Thing...

    June 8, 2010 at 8:25 pm

    You know, there’s this conundrum…you want the White House to not be in a bubble but you don’t want them actually responding to the cacophony either.

    For example, all the hectoring/baiting of Obama to show who’s boss with BP or even take it over, and if he did it would be a chorus of cries of SOC 1ALISM in a New York second. Oh, and there’s also that “angry black man” stuff too. Obama has to walk a very thin line.

  36. 36.

    jl

    June 8, 2010 at 8:27 pm

    Maybe it was Anderson whoever on whatever it is that complained that Obama shouldn’t look ‘angry’. Not sure who it was. As I said, I turned off the teevee for my mental health as soon as I saw it.

    BTW, in the clip I saw, Lauer loaded the question with “shouldn’t you be angry?’ prompts.

    The US national affairs media is dangerous joke.

  37. 37.

    JenJen

    June 8, 2010 at 8:27 pm

    @Shade Tail: Yes, this part seems to have escaped all of the chatterknobs today.

    Because it’s a lot easier, and more fun, to just talk about how un-Presidential the word “ASS” is. Like Tweety did tonight. And Chuck Todd earlier.

    I just knew this was going to happen. The moment he showed any flash of temper or anger, the entire thing was going to backfire. Because that narrative was pre-written from the beginning, after all.

  38. 38.

    demkat620

    June 8, 2010 at 8:28 pm

    @MikeJ: What he said.

    They have no shame.

  39. 39.

    Bad Horse's Filly

    June 8, 2010 at 8:29 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts: She has grown into a beautiful young cat. That milky white fur looks so soft. Want to snuggle.

  40. 40.

    stuckinred

    June 8, 2010 at 8:33 pm

    @jl: He managed to shut Hitler up.

  41. 41.

    jl

    June 8, 2010 at 8:34 pm

    Which reminds me that I saw an youtube clip of an old version of the Today Show which some chimp fooling around with a comedian/host. And the news segment was serious news, not infotainment.

    Today’s Today Show sucks compared to that.

    The goofs on the current today show are straining so hard on being personalities, and getting some sort of scoop or starting or furthering some BS narrative, that they look like clowns. More like clowns and maladjusted teenagers, and less like adults, even than the comedy/host playing with the chimp from, what, 50 years ago.

  42. 42.

    stuckinred

    June 8, 2010 at 8:35 pm

    Did anyone notice that Hanoi Jane was on Tweety (she’s soooooo pretty and is the only one who tells the truth)and she and Ron (slack-eye oreo) Christie agreed on almost everything?

  43. 43.

    mellowjohn

    June 8, 2010 at 8:36 pm

    iirc, lbj was once quoted as saying he could rely on a certain senator’s vote because, “i’ve got his pecker in my pocket.”
    obviously, the msm’s fee-fees have gotten rather more delicate in the intervening years.

  44. 44.

    J

    June 8, 2010 at 8:36 pm

    @Shade Tail: Shade Tail

    Exactly!

    “But I also think that this is a way of trying to prove that I’m mad, to do exactly what everybody’s been pushing me to do, and it doesn’t ring true.”

    In fact as the context–for which see Steve Benen (http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_06/024153.php) or Kevin Drum (http://motherjones.com/comment/reply/63847 ) shows, he was doing precisely the opposite, saying he wasn’t going to favor empty tough talk and theatrics over the work necessary to get clear about what to do, including, among other things, holding the guilty parties responsible (=’kick ass’ in the terminology introduced by the interviewer). I suspect, however, that, among the refined sensibilities of the village, there is an impassable gulf between ‘butt’ (permissible in polite conversation) and the–hushed voices please and blanched complections–‘A word’.

    As far as ‘ass’ being in the bible, that will be a term for donkey or onager, not the equivalent of Br. English ‘arse’ or German ‘arsch’. ‘You silly ass, Bunter’ means you silly donkey.

  45. 45.

    Rod Majors

    June 8, 2010 at 8:37 pm

    He can’t win with these fools. First they want him “mad” and “emotional”…..but if he says the “a-word” that is too far? What kind of pantywaist says “a-word” anyhow? How lame. Not to mention, I don’t know a single kid (or adult for that matter) that watches Today. Besides, aren’t most of the kids, besides up north, done with school already? Mine are. CNBC sucks.

  46. 46.

    stuckinred

    June 8, 2010 at 8:40 pm

    @J: Oh boy more of English 101!

  47. 47.

    Bruce (formerly Steve S.)

    June 8, 2010 at 8:41 pm

    Yes, this was one of the more moronic episodes in recent media history. The puling about the indecency reminded me of the Miley Cyrus photos in Vanity Fair. Remember the newscasters breathlessly telling us that it was borderline child porn, and to drive the point home showing us the pictures full screen? Remember Williams and Couric and Gibson intoning gravely about how controversial and borderline pornographic the pictures of that young girl were, and making sure we got the point by showing us the photos? And remember them showing the pictures to us several nights in a row, just to be sure we didn’t miss that important story about borderline child pornography? You remember seeing those borderline child porn photos on the nightly news several dozen times, don’t you?

    It’s terrible the profane sewer our society has descended into. I mean, the President says “ass”? Are the rest of you as offended by the word ass as I am? I mean, what will become of society if our President can casually say “ass” this and “ass” that? Ass, ass, ass…I’m just fed up with all the indecency.

  48. 48.

    Cacti

    June 8, 2010 at 8:41 pm

    The funny/sad thing is, it’s never the kids that are bothered by swearing.

    Most kids are saying ass by the time they’re in 3rd grade.

    It’s the school-marm adults who get a case of the vapors.

  49. 49.

    MikeJ

    June 8, 2010 at 8:41 pm

    @J:

    As far as ‘ass’ being in the bible, that will be a term for donkey or onager

    When the crossword clue is “wild asian ass”, just answer onager and don’t google it. (ht: the news quiz)

  50. 50.

    The Dangerman

    June 8, 2010 at 8:43 pm

    @mellowjohn:

    lbj was once quoted as saying he could rely on a certain senator’s vote because, “i’ve got his pecker in my pocket.”

    Exactly why we need a Department of $^%&; imagine if the quote was:

    I’ma call a coupla hard, pipe-hittin’ niggers, who’ll go to work on a certain senator with a pair of pliers and a blow torch.

  51. 51.

    stuckinred

    June 8, 2010 at 8:45 pm

    @The Dangerman: Do the three minute motherfucker on em with an entrenching tool!

  52. 52.

    Cacti

    June 8, 2010 at 8:45 pm

    At last, the media has proof that the President is an angry black man.

    ZOMG

  53. 53.

    SiubhanDuinne

    June 8, 2010 at 8:46 pm

    This interview was taped a day before it aired. NBC and the Today Show producers had plenty of time to bleep out the word. Adults would have known exactly what he was saying, small children wouldn’t have been scarred for life, and we still would have been able to watch the raging furious out-of-control president stomping around and throwing things.

    Don’t you get it, Villagers? You should be complaining to GE about your poor assaulted fee-fees.

  54. 54.

    jl

    June 8, 2010 at 8:49 pm

    Obama said he goes to expert meetings about the oil spill so he can go out and kick poor defenseless donkeys?

    That is horrible. Worse than pics of Miley Cyrus semiclothed!

    And I am sure there is some kind of Equus tie in there, if you are able to confuse horses and donkeys. But Ann Curry confused too colleges with the same name, so it is doable. And pit bulls too, which brings us to rappers (sex violence and money!), who represent all African-American culture, and Obama is half African-American.

    The next stage of this pointless and stupid media narratoid will be fun. I may tune in for it (because I think they will find a way to show the Cyrus pics again).

  55. 55.

    Donald G

    June 8, 2010 at 8:51 pm

    Man, I remember John Cougar Mellencamp using the word “shit” in a 60 Minutes interview about the late eighties farm crisis during a Republican administration. It went out unbleeped and there was nary a complaint. Two decades later, ass is now used regularly on television in dramas and comedies and certain segments of the media get into a tizzy if the president uses it in an interview. C’mon.

  56. 56.

    Violet

    June 8, 2010 at 8:52 pm

    If a young blonde girl goes missing, this will all be forgotten.

  57. 57.

    Cacti

    June 8, 2010 at 8:53 pm

    Some people are offended by profanity.

    Fuck ’em.

  58. 58.

    arguingwithsignposts

    June 8, 2010 at 8:53 pm

    @slag:
    I would also imagine this speech, with Obama talking to Heyward.

  59. 59.

    stuckinred

    June 8, 2010 at 8:53 pm

    @Violet: Or a shark bites someone. . .on the ASS!

  60. 60.

    J

    June 8, 2010 at 8:55 pm

    @MikeJ: and above all don’t google it at work!

  61. 61.

    slag

    June 8, 2010 at 8:56 pm

    Joe Klein is wrong. It didn’t smack of “Obama trying to prove that he was really, really pissed off about the oil spill”. It “smacked” of Obama rephrasing the question that was asked of him.

    If people in the media are going to comment on something, is it too much for them to at least look at the source material they are commenting on? Really? Is it?

  62. 62.

    Violet

    June 8, 2010 at 8:58 pm

    @slag:

    If people in the media are going to comment on something, is it too much for them to at least look at the source material they are commenting on? Really? Is it?

    You aren’t asking them to do actual work, are you? The very thought of such a thing is shocking.

  63. 63.

    MikeJ

    June 8, 2010 at 8:59 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts: “And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.”

    Poisoning and destroying? That parts done. Time to start striking.

  64. 64.

    J

    June 8, 2010 at 9:01 pm

    @stuckinred: OK I admit it, a stray pedantic impulse seized control of the reins there!

  65. 65.

    stuckinred

    June 8, 2010 at 9:02 pm

    @J: What ever gets you through the night.

  66. 66.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    June 8, 2010 at 9:03 pm

    @Bruce (formerly Steve S.): Go fuck yourself.

  67. 67.

    SiubhanDuinne

    June 8, 2010 at 9:03 pm

    @thread: Napoleon made my point better and earlier.

  68. 68.

    stuckinred

    June 8, 2010 at 9:04 pm

    @MikeJ: I wouldn’t go so far as to call a dog filthy but they’re definitely dirty. But, a dog’s got personality. Personality goes a long way. . .

    Well we’d have to be talkin’ about one charming motherfuckin’ pig. I mean he’d have to be ten times more charmin’ than that Arnold on Green Acres, you know what I’m sayin’?

  69. 69.

    Elisabeth

    June 8, 2010 at 9:04 pm

    @Donald G:

    My friend’s four-year-old daughter called another driver a “dumbass” the other day.

    I swear she didn’t get it from me. :)

  70. 70.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    June 8, 2010 at 9:06 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    Lady Smudge has been the saving of you, and I thank her for that. She is a glorious example of the species, and every day I am thankful for her existence, because she holds your butt up while you are hanging on by your fingernails.

  71. 71.

    Alex Scott

    June 8, 2010 at 9:07 pm

    Meanwhile, Howard Dean is shaking his head, thinking, “Sure, NOW they want a president who’s angry!”

    I mean, geez, if anger’s going to solve anything, then Lewis Black could get it done in five minutes.

  72. 72.

    slag

    June 8, 2010 at 9:08 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts: That’s definitely some rage I can believe in.

    And then, there’s this kind of Black rage, which I wouldn’t mind seeing from Obama.

  73. 73.

    J

    June 8, 2010 at 9:11 pm

    @slag: Yes, but I don’t think you’re going far enough. Obama didn’t just rephrase the question, he challenged the false and puerile opposition on which it was based. Well what’s it going to be: sitting around wasting your time consulting experts and thinking about how to solve the problem–how silly–or manly theatrics (in the manner of the sainted George Bush of ‘bring it on’ ‘smoke ’em out’ and other old favorites)? I think it’s fair to read him as saying that thinking carefully about what to do (by consulting experts if need be) is essential preparation for ‘kicking ass’, meaning holding the guilty responsible, among all the other things that need doing. Which is completely right. The question was dumb to begin with, and the abbreviated clip was a–relatively minor–crime against truth.

  74. 74.

    AngusTheGodOfMeat

    June 8, 2010 at 9:12 pm

    Proving that no teapot is too small for a pundit tempest.

  75. 75.

    Polish the Guillotines

    June 8, 2010 at 9:12 pm

    From Wehner, via Chait:

    …the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.

    This must go into the banner rotation.

  76. 76.

    slag

    June 8, 2010 at 9:16 pm

    @Violet: I know, I know. Gathering at least some information on a subject that they’re going to write about is really a lot to ask. They’re all David Brooks now.

  77. 77.

    lamh32

    June 8, 2010 at 9:22 pm

    OT, but related, Ambinder had a great post about the Obama as Spock meme being pushed by MoDo and the like:

    President Obama Is Not Spock

    …What bemuses insiders is the idea that Obama is somehow a stoic. That’s laughable. There’s a healthy amount of dopamine in the president. In private, the president can be witheringly sarcastic and profane. He can also be light, playful; he is rarely sad, occasionally angry, and always upbeat. This Spock has emotions. What he does not do — and what he is poor at doing — is fake an emotion simply for the sake of appearing to display an emotion…

    President Obama Is Not Spock

    …We make a logical error in assuming that he does not allow emotional considerations to guide his policy. What Obama wants doesn’t matter; he can’t make a decision without emotion; emotions often (or always) tip the strict logic scales we keep in our brains and use to make decisions. We also assume that the lack of displayed emotion is not emotion at all. When Obama is angry, when he is frustrated, he begins to take stock of arguments; his anger shifts him into law professor mode. He struggles to pack facts into his pre-frontal cortex. He wants to get the decision right. Now, sometimes, he gets paralyzed by analysis, as the author Jonah Lehrer might say; but even here, we make the mistake of separating rationality from emotion. Unless the man’s brain is wired differently, even the process of weighing evidence is washed by the emotional processors of his limbic system. So there are two separate issues here. 1. Does Obama allow feelings to help him arrive at the facts? Yes. 2. Does this process satisfy the collective demand for presidential emotional valence? Probably not. Which is more important?

  78. 78.

    demo woman

    June 8, 2010 at 9:28 pm

    Many years ago, I used to bless my shit and my friends son repeated the blessed shit. My friend of course blamed another neighbor for the blessed shit but I owned up to it.
    What is the difference by the way between kick butt and kick ass?

  79. 79.

    Mark S.

    June 8, 2010 at 9:29 pm

    You know what didn’t sully the office? Nixon talking about blacks and Jews.

  80. 80.

    chopper

    June 8, 2010 at 9:34 pm

    lol.

    america: “goddamnit, obama, i want to see you kick some fuckin’ ass!”

    obama: “so who’s ass should i kick?”

    america: “OMFG you said ‘ass’!”

    the guy just can’t win.

  81. 81.

    Mark S.

    June 8, 2010 at 9:37 pm

    Does South Carolina have a runoff if nobody gets 50%? Nikki’s kicking ass, but she’ll probably not get to 50.

    I’m glad the asshole who said feeding poor children just encourages them to breed is in last place.

    ETA: Whoops! Wrong thread.

  82. 82.

    cleek

    June 8, 2010 at 9:38 pm

    Klein?

    didn’t i hear him on NPR tonight whining that this sounded “out of character” for Obama ?

    pretty sure i did

  83. 83.

    Karen

    June 8, 2010 at 9:40 pm

    No matter what Obama does, it will always be wrong. As long as he is President these imbeciles will always be searching for the magic bullet to get him either impeached, deported or dead. Since Obama is damned no matter what he does, hopefully he continues to do what he feels is right, whether it’s compromising for the greater good or taking responsibility for mistakes. Isn’t the old adage that if you try to please everyone, you please no one?

  84. 84.

    cleek

    June 8, 2010 at 9:53 pm

    As long as he is President these imbeciles will always be searching for the magic bullet to get him either impeached, deported or dead.

    news flash: it’s not just “imbeciles” who are disappointed with Obama.

    A month and a half after the spill began, 69 percent in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll rate the federal response negatively.

    let’s talk about epistemic closure some more!

  85. 85.

    slag

    June 8, 2010 at 10:13 pm

    @cleek: Chicken, meet egg.

  86. 86.

    Paula

    June 8, 2010 at 10:15 pm

    @slag: lol

  87. 87.

    LD50

    June 8, 2010 at 10:16 pm

    @cleek:

    news flash: it’s not just “imbeciles” who are disappointed with Obama.

    Yes, but I feel safe in saying it IS only imbeciles who want him impeached, deported or dead.

  88. 88.

    demo woman

    June 8, 2010 at 10:21 pm

    Why the f**k is kick butt better than kick ass? IOKIYR…I’m so sick of that acronym.

  89. 89.

    James in WA

    June 8, 2010 at 10:32 pm

    @Violet:

    She allows her husband to say ‘ass’ because it’s in the Bible.

    Heh. Yeah. Back before I’d come to my senses and used to occasionally attend church services, I remember that whenever the homily included quoting the line that “thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s ass,” entire pews would erupt in preteen snickering.

    So if we take the biblical interpretation, I suppose that Obama is out to punch some poor donkey somewhere…

  90. 90.

    uloborus

    June 8, 2010 at 10:36 pm

    @The Dangerman:
    He’s not going to have any motherfuckin’ oil in his motherfuckin’ Gulf of Mexico!

  91. 91.

    El Cid

    June 8, 2010 at 10:42 pm

    I don’t particularly think the federal response has been one which a lot of ordinary people would see as being ‘enough’, but I can’t imagine any hypothetical President being seen as doing a good job while the oil volcano is still gushing and has been for 50 days or whatever it is now.

    Whatever one could have imagined that the absolutely ideal first week response and response PR could have been, by over a month in when the oil’s still erupting and its inexorable destruction of the surrounding areas marches on, I think that initial wonderfulness would have worn off quicklike.

    My guess.

  92. 92.

    mapaghimagsik

    June 8, 2010 at 10:44 pm

    @Violet:
    He’s allowed to say ass because its the only birth control that’s allowed.

  93. 93.

    Karen

    June 8, 2010 at 10:46 pm

    @slag:

    And then, there’s this kind of Black rage, which I wouldn’t mind seeing from Obama.

    And you just said the magic words that are one of the biggest reasons Obama can’t lose his temper.

    The whole narrative against Obama during the 2008 election was different ways they could say “Obama’s an N” without actually saying those words. Instead…

    Fox used the “baby daddy” phrase to imply that Sasha and Malia might not be Obama’s and that Michelle Obama is a slut.

    Hillary Clinton’s campaign said that Obama was unelectable and no working person would vote for him to insinuate that no one would vote for an N in the White House except another N. And before anyone says that I’m being racist in using “N” instead of African American or black, that wasn’t what Hillary Clinton’s campaign meant.

    “No Drama Obama” is what he had to show he was. Someone cool, calm and collected. Someone who didn’t fit the stereotype of the “angry black man.”

    Obama managed to sell the country on his own narrative and was elected because of that.

    Ever since then it’s been the media, the GOP and PUMA and everyone who hates Obama’s job to throw all the mud at him and get angrier when it doesn’t stick. That’s why you have math teachers using assassination as an example, guns and ammo purchases have skyrocketed and the threats against Obama’s life has reached record levels for any President in recent memory.

    For that reason, Obama cannot show an ounce of “Black rage.”

  94. 94.

    The Other Chuck

    June 8, 2010 at 10:49 pm

    Reminds me of one of my favorite bash.org quotes:

    http://bash.org/?178890

    (WP can’t handle it being pasted without its parser getting the screaming fantods and losing its shit trying to format it. Christ, even bbcode is better than this crap)

  95. 95.

    Anne Laurie

    June 8, 2010 at 10:52 pm

    @mellowjohn:

    iirc, lbj was once quoted as saying he could rely on a certain senator’s vote because, “i’ve got his pecker in my pocket.”
    __
    obviously, the msm’s fee-fees have gotten rather more delicate in the intervening years.

    I think it’s more they were afraid that if they pulled this kind of candy-arsed bullshite on LBJ, he would have personally kicked their collective ass from DC to Tinseltown.

  96. 96.

    Batocchio

    June 8, 2010 at 10:58 pm

    So, wait, the chickenhawks who slobbered over Bush’s flightsuit codpiece and fight to suck Jack Bauer’s dick and constantly attack Obama for not being belligerent enough with foreign countries (because that works so well) and base their entire fucking ideology on spite and trash talk now don’t like some (deserved) harsh words? Can they not at least keep their bullshit consistent? They can go Cheney themselves.

  97. 97.

    Malron

    June 8, 2010 at 11:58 pm

    “…on the Today Show which is a morning show, where you’re going to have a lot of kids sitting around watching this…”

    Oh, you have got to be kidding me. What self-respecting kid abandons Sesame Street, Curious George and Yu-Gi-Oh! to watch Matt fucking Lauer?

    EDIT: By the way, John; I hadn’t abandoned you. For the past couple weeks I was experiencing some strange quirk or time-space anomaly that disappeared all my posts. I never stopped reading at home or work, though. Keep up the good stuff.

  98. 98.

    TuiMel

    June 9, 2010 at 12:28 am

    Obama talks about wanting to identify which ASS to kick. What’s next? Will he replace “Hail to the Chief” with the “Theme from Shaft”?

    Honest to Pete, can these people get over themselves? Our political discourse does not even rise to “joke” level anymore. It is simply all AS(S)ininity all the time.

  99. 99.

    Sly

    June 9, 2010 at 12:33 am

    Becky Quick, who co-hosts Squawk Box with lead anchor Joe Kernen and co-host Carl Quintanilla, slapped Obama for using unpresidential language in an interview he knew would be aired as children prepared for school.

    Who gives a fuck what Becky Quick thinks?

    It’s Squawk Box.

    Seriously.

  100. 100.

    Karen

    June 9, 2010 at 1:25 am

    @TuiMel:

    Will he replace “Hail to the Chief” with the “Theme from Shaft”?

    ROFL!!!

    Sorry, I knew you were being facetious but it was funny!

  101. 101.

    asiangrrlMN

    June 9, 2010 at 1:40 am

    Goddamn muthafuckin’ lily-livered melodramatic pansies need to get the stick out of their asses and CTFO (chill the fuck out). You guys, on the other hand, keep up the hilarity. You’re cracking my shit up.

  102. 102.

    DaBomb

    June 9, 2010 at 1:49 am

    Who the hell is Becky Quick?

  103. 103.

    Waynski

    June 9, 2010 at 10:35 am

    I don’t have any kids, so I don’t know what they watch in the morning, but if I had time to look at the TV before school when I was a kid, it was Bugs Bunny. Also, I’m assuming they would put him on at the end of the show. Here in the east I believe the Today show runs until 9 or 10 am. Pretty sure most kids have arrived at school by then and will hear ass throughout the day. Not to mention that I doubt there’s many iinvestors watching CNBC who give a rat’s ass about the Presdident using the word ass. How can that possibly be construed as business news?

  104. 104.

    R-Jud

    June 9, 2010 at 11:09 am

    @TuiMel:

    What’s next? Will he replace “Hail to the Chief” with the “Theme from Shaft”?

    My vote is for “The Humpty Dance“.

  105. 105.

    Sheila

    June 9, 2010 at 12:37 pm

    Can you imagine any school kid in the US, no matter how young, not having heard or having used the phrase “kick ass”?

  106. 106.

    JosieJ

    June 9, 2010 at 3:56 pm

    @El Cid:

    I don’t particularly think the federal response has been one which a lot of ordinary people would see as being ‘enough’, but I can’t imagine any hypothetical President being seen as doing a good job while the oil volcano is still gushing and has been for 50 days or whatever it is now.

    Alright, who’s got the over/under on how many days it’s going to take for the media to push the “black Jimmy Carter” meme further by putting a counter on their oil spill coverage? Day 51, Day 52 and such.

    Also, I can’t believe nobody pointed out the biblical story of Samson slaying 1,000 men with the jawbone of an ass (Judges 15:15)! Now that brings a whole new meaning to “gonna get medieval on your ass”!

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