To paraphrase Winston Churchill, yes, Ann, the president is tired, but tomorrow he will be rested, and you will probably still be drunk. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Glenn Reynolds gets in on the act too.
In a world where conservative Senate leaders diagnose brain dead women via video, it is hardly surprising that conservative bloggers make foreign policy judgements via Flickr.
Update. Tbogg has some good pictures too.
dmsilev
Has Ann Althouse *ever* written anything of value, or is she just a predictor of what Megan McArdle will be like in 20 years?
Edit: You really need to quote the True Stupid in her post. She thinks that Obama won’t run for reelection in 2012 because he’s tired and him running would generate partisan rancor. The speech she thinks he should give:
To quote Atrios, “The stupid, it BURNS”.
-dms
Mike Kay
I understand their concern, it’s not like Obama is healthy specimen like Cheney or the septuagenarian St. Ronnie.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Obama looks like he’s leaning up against the wall with his eyes closed. Then again, these people have not realized that Moby Dick is a story about a group of people willing to destroy everything in order to hunt down the elusive black whale, so I wouldn’t trust their interpretation of anything.
demkat620
Um, anybody with a brain would be tired having to clean up the mess the bedwetters left.
God, they are stupid.
calling all toasters
Hell hath no stupidity like a right-wing law professor. Except for two right-wing law professors.
Mike Kay
Look at him! He’s a complete mess!
cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0dGpdya8xe0wE/610x.jpg
cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0fGn4yNcztfwF/610x.jpg
Col. Klink
That’s the picture causing a freak out? Obama in a white shirt?
What is it with conservatives confusing style with substance and false piety for religious commitment. Content never really matters to these guys.
And aren’t these are the same jerks who thought W. wearing a cowboy hat and boots on his ersatz ranch made him look like a kool real ‘merkin.
The Grand Panjandrum
@dmsilev: I’ve always thought of Althouse as Ron Wood in drag. But, maybe she could quote some Dickens, Shelley, or Keats.
DougJ
But, maybe she could quote some Dickens, Shelley, or Keats.
It’s all been said before.
Rhoda
She forgot how thin he’s become, My God so thin!
LOL.
These people are so freakin’ desperate for him not to run again in ’12.
But this still doesn’t top my fav wingnut projection from Rove:
So awesome.
I think the best part of having a democrat in the White House is watching the wingnuts lose their shit; unfortunately the MSM has a tendency to join the freak out (see Cokie Roberts’ the 50th state in the union is ‘foreign’) but journalism is dying anyway.
MikeJ
And if there was a picture in which Obama did not look tired while America’s sons and daughters were fighting in far away lands? What would the wingnuts say to that picture?
donovong
Like most assholes, everything that these folks spew tends to be typical of waste products -rancid and stinks to high heaven.
smiley
Reynolds must interpret the photo in his post as Obama “throwing up his hands” in frustration, confusion or bewilderment. He’s not really that stupid, is he? Or does he just think his readers are?
Comrade Jake
How quickly you guys forget: W required, *required* that everyone in the oval office wear a blazer. Don’t you get it? It’s not competence that matters to people like Althouse and Reynolds. What matters is the dignity of the office, and an appreciation for Brooks Brothers.
Comrade Jake
@smiley:
I think the bulk of the evidence would suggest that yes, Reynolds is really that stupid.
DougJ
I think the bulk of the evidence would suggest that yes, Reynolds is really that stupid.
On balance, it seems unfair to dismiss him as a witless greedhead, despite all the evidence.
MikeJ
Wasn’t there a bit in Dr. Who in which he destroyed the political career of a PM by saying she looked tired?
freelancer (itouch)
DougJ,
you should make a new tag for this post, given the stretch of prof. Winebox’s prognostcating.
Might I suggest “Black Mr. Ladybird B. Johnson”?
arguingwithsignposts
@Comrade Jake:
And yet he teaches law at U of Tennessee. sigh.
ETA: and Althouse teaches law too. sigh X 2.
Mike
No.
dmsilev
@Rhoda: I remember that one and thinking “Rove thinks Obama is James Bond? And this is a bad thing?”
-dms
WereBear
Actually, I’m a lurker/fan at BAGnewsNotes, which is devoted to photo commentary.
But it’s not stupid.
The right wing cannot be intelligent or fair, because that would ruin everything.
KG
I’m really struck by how differently the sides see things, and the conclusions that are drawn from it… especially with no context.
I read through the comments a bit on Althouse’s post and almost every post is about how arrogant Obama looks. And mocking those who think he looks cool.
Funny, I don’t see either of those. I see a guy engaged in what appears to be a boring conversation. Just a normal guy who is waiting for the next part of his evening to get on with itself.
And at least she gets it partly right before saying Obama won’t run for reelection (which is 200 proof grade A stupidity):
Though I do wonder how many people really think the president is cool? Sure, he’s cool as far as president’s go, but that’s a very small sample size.
smiley
Althouse and her commenters must not know what the “snap” in snapshot means. That was probably 1/60th of a second of time. I happen to know that in the very next 1/60th of a second Obama was fully rested and smiling at Biden’s joke.
cleek
he looks “cool” ?
how Rovian of you, Ann.
Cain
Happy New Years guys. Sorry for OT. I didn’t get in on the new years thread since I was busy enjoying it.
I see the new year has not changed our conservative friend’s worldview in anyway (not that I expected as much) I hope that they will be more stupid and funnier this year!
cain
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@MikeJ: Yep. The first David Tennant episode. The Doctor had defeated the leader of the alien race that was trying to take over the earth, and as the spaceship was leaving earth, the PM, Harriet Jones, ordered the ship blown up with a laser the government had. He doesn’t agree with her decision, and starts the whisper.
Comrade Jake
Do you guys remember this gem the WSJ ran during the campaigns? Where they suggested Obama was “too fit” to run for POTUS?
The thing that always made me laugh in that article was just how transparent it was. Take a look at the picture they have comparing W, McCain, Obama, and Clinton. They have W and McCain in suits, while Clinton’s in his sweats and Obama’s holding a fucking basketball.
monkey.dave
Actually, if you look really closely at Obama’s eyes, you can see that he’s checking out the ass of the Brazilian delegate just out of frame.
WereBear
They’re saying no one wants a “cool President”? WTF.
They tried to sell W as a “cool guy.” Remember? Only that dog would never hunt.
gwangung
Short term, quarterly balance sheet results. Trying to win the daily news cycle.
Same type of thinking.
JenJen
Love how Reynolds says “And no, I don’t think it’s just a fluke of when the shutter went off.” Because, you know, Reynolds just knows this kind of stuff.
As an aside, the Instapundit website looks like some GeoCities shit from the late 90’s.
ETA: Althouse’s commenters are hilarious! I mean, it’s so bad, they’re defending LBJ up in there. It has also not escaped me how racist more than a few of them are.
licensed to kill time
Take a series of photos of any one of us and I guarantee one of them would come out making you look like a doofus, mad scientist, angry, stoned, drunk or stupid. It’s all in the selection (and interpretation). Which is why 99% of pictures of me never see the light of day and the ones that do all make me look abfab, natch. Guess who does the selecting?
What Althouse and Reynolds wrote is just mindnumbingdumb.
Citizen_X
Good god, I think millions of my brain cells just committed seppuku upon being exposed to that Althouse post. Damn you, Cole!
arguingwithsignposts
Here’s some smudge. She doesn’t look tired.
Jilli
Aw, c’mon, cut the wingnuts some slack.
Obama hasn’t once balled his fists and thumped his chest and screamed “Bring it on!” – that scares the brain-dead minions. He’s not doing anything!!!! Doesn’t he know we’re in a war!!
Optics are more important than actions, in their alternate reality.
WereBear
@arguingwithsignposts: Aw, I love Smudge’s tiny, pointy, paws.
RedKitten
But THIS — now this is a proper facial expression for an American President.
JenJen
Oh and DougJ, thanks for digging up that classic Althouse post about box wine. I laughed, I cried!
She sure does have a following of fellow wine connoisseurs. For example, this comment from the Obama is a Snob and he’s Arrogant and he’s a One-Termer by Choice and besides he Sucks post:
LMAO. The… ice?
@RedKitten: Exactly. And this is the photo of Bush I enjoy passing around at moments like this.
RedKitten
As is this.
And this…yes, this is definitely a proper, dignified, presidential facial expression.
shortstop
Well, no, not objectively speaking, but Althouse consistently strikes me as way past due for an intervention.
Comrade Mary
@arguingwithsignposts: Squeee! Thanks for the daily dose of Smudge.
MikeJ
@RedKitten: Don’t forget this.
Max
@arguingwithsignposts: Make sure to keep her inside and out of other people’s yards.
I just had to yell at Max the Wheaten to “drop the kitty” that was in our yard. He’s very upset, with his tail tucked and pouting in the corner. I feel bad that I screamed at him, but I didn’t want him to kill the cat.
Cat owners who let their cats roam the neighborhood are bad people. If I wanted cat poop in my yard, I’d get a cat. It’s not fair to my dog that he can’t protect his yard from interlopers without me yelling at him.
/end rant
JenJen
@RedKitten: Every picture tells a story, indeed!
Ash Can
Althouse teaches law? Why? Weren’t any of these guys available for the post?
Starfish
Aren’t extreme closeups unflattering and a slap in the face to our honorable political leaders like Sarah Palin?
arguingwithsignposts
@Max:
No worries here. I live in an apt. filled area, so there’s no way in hell she’s going outside.
For the last little while, she’s been entertaining herself by chasing the sun beams as they shown through the windows.
Ed in NJ
I think you are all missing the point. The wingnut freakout is not so much about what the picture conveys. The issue to them is that someone at the White House approved posting that picture for public consumption. Since it so obviously (for them) portrays his arrogant demeanor and his disdain for Biden, posting it means that the White House is incompetent, unable to handle something as simple as a Flickr account.
Ailuridae
@Comrade Jake:
Is that photo in question even in the Oval Office. If I had to guess I would say its somewhere far more furrin like Hawaii.
Scott
Oh shit, now Althouse is going to show up here to whine that we’re being mean and sexist and racist and she’s not a Republican and oh my goooooood, you can see that girl’s boobies and everything.
aimai
I’m really happy that the best they can do right now is fantasize that Obama is really the saintly, selfless, supreme daddy of all time *that they made fun of us for thinking he was when we voted for him* and that he will, therefore, relinquish the presidency in a jesus like moment of self sacrifice. They can run that bit of political porn back to back with the other story they like to tell in which secretly satan Obama is forced to lose the 2012 election by his evil sins, another thing that they warned us about during the previous election cycle. Satisfaction either way!
aimai
Pasquinade
@Rhoda
Surely Rove wasn’t referring to Limbaugh’s all white country club, right?
cat48
Obama looks tired in the morning sometimes. He seems to have the same malady I often have–swollen eyes in the a.m. occasionally–without even crying all night. Probably allergies combined w/lack of sleep. This usually disappears by early afternoon. (Yes, I watch way too much cable news.) I don’t mind having a “cool president” although I don’t think about him that way only. Higher on my list would be intelligent, articulate, even-tempered, etc.
My fav part of the WSJ editorial was Dr. exam, “no excess body fat”. That is enough to intimidate those of us who do. He does exercise a lot, but Gibbs said he is grouchy if he doesn’t get to work out everyday. He does it to feel better mentally as well as stay fit. Probably just worried he won’t be “cool” if he gets fat. After all, GQ calls him “best dressed pres. since JFK.”
KCinDC
Althouse admits that people are going to read into photos of Obama whatever they want, but she still imagines that somehow the White House could have selected a photo that the wingnuts would have approved of, so she attaches great significance to the choice of this one.
J Price Vincenz
Not to be off-topic, but, DougJ, did you notice that one of your bete noirs has died?
See:
gawker.com/5438802/deborah-howell-68-editor
valdivia
@arguingwithsignposts:
she is so adorable.
J Price Vincenz
I tried to post this a few minutes ago, but it didn’t take. Sorry if I double-post.
DougJ, did you see the following story?
gawker.com/5438802/deborah-howell-68-editor
JPrice Vincenz
kay
@KCinDC:
I love pundits. I love that feigned certainty they have, that they have their finger on the pulse of a nation.
“Many, many people will see this differently”
Coming from a law professor, it’s particularly ludicrous. Her daily work and interaction is the definition of “narrow”. There’s nothing really wrong with that, but why does she persist in deluding herself that she’s some kind of political “everyman”?
She’s about as plugged in to the general population as Maureen Dowd.
smiley
I just read the whole comment thread at Althouse’s site. There seems to be a general consensus that Obama won’t run for a second term. Where the hell is that coming from? Is there a right-wing meme going around to that effect?
Ash
I’m really REALLY fucking confused. What are we supposed to be seeing in that picture? A black man in a tuxedo. Ok, AND? Jesus, do I have to liquify my own brain first to get it?
Joy
OK, he’s tired after working to fix Bush/Cheney’s screw ups but she’s drunk and delusional as usual. They are really stretching it trying to cast anything negative on him. Idiots.
JenJen
@smiley:
Yes. I think they refer to it as a “prayer chain.” :-)
Notorious P.A.T.
Wow, she’s an idiot. But to be fair, I base that upon her lifetime’s work, not just this one post.
licensed to kill time
One of the comments at Althouse:
Uh – yeah, remarkable resemblance. Worked in the Kenya bit, too.
Why do you make me read this stuff? Ima gonna open that box of wine now, pour it over some ice and seven-up. That’s the ticket.
GregB
In the wingnut mind posting it is just another dis to the white man.
-G
Shell
Gosh, being the president and leader of the free world is tiring? Who knew???
For the wingnuts, Obama has become their ultimate Rorschach test.
Colonel Danite
I think that the real comedy is not in Althouse’s blog post but rather in the comments from her readers. Why don’t these right wing d-bags just stop with the whole “arrogant” meme and just come out and call him an uppity n****r? Who do they think they’re fooling?
Xboxershorts
With all due respect, and acknowledgment that I thoroughly enjoy the give and take at this site….I am sick and tired of liberals gloating over minor victories over the obvious republican hypocrisy, using this poor and likely murdered woman’s memory (murdered by an abusive husband no less)
“Senate leaders diagnose brain dead women via video”
Terry Schiavo deserves better treatment than your gloating
Mike in NC
Ann Shithouse:
Exactly right. Many people would prefer a dumb-as-a-rock, out of touch, vindictive, dry drunk frat boy as President. Oh wait…
SiubhanDuinne
@Xboxershorts
Ho hum. New year, new troll.
joe from Lowell
So, it reads as cool to people who want a cool president, but it doesn’t read as cool to people who don’t want a cool president.
Um….cool!
Emma
I had to expose myself to Althouse just to see a picture of the president in a tuxedo leaning against a wall???? Do you know how many brain cells died in those few minutes???? Uh? Uh? Do you, punk?
Oops. Sorry.
Arguingwithsignposts: Muuuuch better. Thank you.
JGabriel
Xboxershorts:
Terry Schiavo died of a heart attack induced by a potassium imbalance, most likely brought on by bulimia.
Michael Schiavo — who had to make the devastating decision to recognize that a loved one, his wife, expressed wishes not to have her body maintained by medical technology in the face of extreme brain damage, and respect those wishes — deserved more respect from the family that sued over his decision, and does not deserve murder accusations from uninformed morons, strangers too lazy to research the facts, and/or people too close-minded to recognize that just because someone makes a decision with which they disagree, that does not make them a murderer or spouse-abuser.
By that logic, XBoxerShorts, it would be perfectly valid for me, since I disagree with you, to ask if you’ve stopped beating your spouse or significant other yet. Doesn’t seem particularly fair, does it?
.
Kerry Reid
Well, at least she didn’t say anything about pawing at crotches.
gwangung
@Xboxershorts: This is very insulting to BJers.
We’re worth more than a cursory effort. Try harder.
Kobie
What the fucking fuck is wrong with these people?
Chuck Butcher
Thanks to a couple of you asswipes I’ve now read a couple Althouse comments and … well goddam. My levity is seriously compromised by the thought that these idjits exist. That conflict in my mind is pretty damn uncomfortable.
JGabriel
Kobie:
Inbreeding.
.
Xboxershorts
@JGabriel:
That’s actually and patently false, hospital documents do not support that at all.
See, you really don’t know.
Darryl
Col. Klink, nice use of ‘ersatz’. Kudos.
Unfortunately, you can’t be that literate around here, so I sentence you to having to use the moronic term ‘concern troll’ 4 times.
geoff
well in that pic he does look tired but it’s just a moment in time. not sure why it’s a big deal really. now excuse me while i go back and be a fake cowboy. ahoy!
Ripley
@Xboxershorts: Here in the strange world we like to call ‘reality,’ such claims are accompanied by links to data, facts, etc. Give this interesting world a try – the only membership requirement is a cerebral cortex.
Ellid
XBoxershorts –
From the autopsy report on Terri Schiavo:
“No trauma was noted on any of the numerous physical exams or radiographs performed on Mrs. Schiavo on the day of, in the days after, or in the months after her initial collapse. Indeed, within an hour of her initial hospital admission, radiographic examination of her cervical spine was negative. Specifically, external signs of strangulation including cutaneous or deep neck injury, facial/conjunctival petechiae, and other blunt trauma were not observed or recorded during her initial hospital admission.”
Please explain how this blunt statement that there was no physical trauma and no sign of strangulation when Terri Schiavo was admitted to the hospital of her cardiac arrest translates to her being beaten or strangled by her husband. Perhaps he used a rare poison? Kung fu heart punches? Malicious animal magnetism? Or perhaps her parents, in a last ditch attempt to keep her shell alive, decided to smear her husband when he refused to go along with their wishes?
JGabriel
Xboxershorts:
It is well-documented that when Terri Schiavo was found by paramedics, she was not breathing and had no pulse — she had died. It is also documented that she had low-potassium on admission (after resuscitation).
In fact, it was documented well-enough for the courts to award Michael Schiavo a million dollars damages in a suit against her obstetrician — for not recognizing the signs of, and not diagnosing, bulimia.
Finally, Terri Schiavo’s autopsy showed a brain that had shriveled to half the normal size, and was in a condition of severe, irreversible, brain-damage.
Whether or not you agree with these findings is, fortunately, irrelevant.
But I wonder what it is that you fucking think gives you the right to accuse someone of wife-abuse and murder in the face of such extensive court review to the contrary?
.
Beth in VA
Amazing how subjective we are. Some people see Obama being pensive, some see him as experiencing a tiredness so deep he won’t run for re-election (bizarre!), and some see him as an arrogant British despot in Kenya–as commented above, they think he looks uppity. Amazing.
I agree he looks cool. That man is just damned cool.
Ellid
Oh, one more thing…
I cannot believe that even a couple of wingnuts are defending boxed wine. I’m not a big drinker, but still!
Darryl
I live in the deep south, and in public, there are lots of ways racist southerners sugar-coat their racism. Sure, at the local hole-in-the-wall dive bar, they’ll say “I don’t like niggers marryin’ white women”, but the same people, in public, will switch to something like “Interracial marriages are bad because the half-black kids aren’t accepted by either blacks or whites.” Even here, there’s an understanding that you shouldn’t be explicitly super-racist in public. You have to speak in (thin) code.
Darryl
Moving from several college towns to BFE The South was a depressing experience. Although on one hand, it’s not bad. One good thing about rednecks is, they’ll often leave you alone. You can get drunk and go outside and shoot squirrels with a pellet gun, and they’ll largely turn a blind eye. Try that in San Francisco, and 8 different federal agencies will surround your house with their lights flashing.
asiangrrlMN
Wow. Just…wow. Really glad I am not getting a steady stream of this shit right now.
gwangung
@Xboxershorts:
TRY HARDER.
Idjit.
dmsilev
@JGabriel: re: our new pet troll:
Same thing that led Michelle Malkin to go stalking that kid back during the SCHIP debate. Someone’s personal story or situation dramatically puts the lie to a cherished right-wing belief. That person, therefore, must be destroyed. Facts are irrelevant.
-dms
debbie
@licensed to kill time:
Whoa. In what universe would a black man rule in Her Majesty’s crown colony of Kenya?
John Cole
I hope we all understand what the next phase for this will be- after obvious race-baiting for a few days, someone high- profile will call them on it, they will then protest and then accuse evil liberals of using the race card from the bottom of the deck.
And remember- they aren’t Republicans. Snort.
TenguPhule
We take what we can get.
DougJ
Terry Schiavo deserves better treatment than your gloating
I kind of know where you’re coming from, but what I said is an accurate description of what happened. And I wasn’t gloating, I am genuinely troubled by the way Schiavo was treated. She deserved better than to be paraded around on tv after he brain function ceased. I wouldn’t want to be treated that way and if people did treat me that way, I hope all of you would mock them for me, since I would be incapable of doing so myself.
cmorenc
WTF? exactly WHAT about the picture of Obama in white polo shirt seated with National Security staffer Denis McDonough in Hawaii does Glenn Reynolds imply is unflattering and shows weakness on national security? Reynolds never gets around to giving us the slightest explaination or basis for any connection whatever between this picture and his innuendo, and for sure there’s nothing WHATEVER apparent on the face of this picture supporting any innuendo or implication in that regard. It’s all pure wingnut projection – Obama could be wearing a suit in the Oval office and Reynolds would still read negative implications of weakness being projected out of the photos.
I agree completely with DougJ: where the hell was Glenn with those sorts of comments when Bush was putting on a ridiculous faux-cowboy and faux-warrior flight suits, making hollow, arrogant boasts and “bring it on” threats that dug enormous holes of weakness for this country?
Fax Paladin
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Althouse et al would do well to remember just how that whisper came back and bit the Doctor in the bum, given that the power vacuum he created was eventually filled by one Harold Saxon, aka The Master…
brantl
She deserved better from the Republicans than to be made into a vegetative sideshow, but she didn’t get it. We make fun of them, we were sorry for her (they weren’t).