Merged Obama on Leno

[funk de fino]

Hmm......

Some interesting replies, unfortunately most of them being insults and bickering.

As a non american, non republican, non democrat I would find it interesting to see what would have happened had it been Bush jr? I think the tone of the thread may have been slightly different somewhat?

 

[Dr Adequate]

I'm not a big fan of the office, or the current office holder, but somewhere I was indoctrinated with this idea that the president should be this commanding figure who is above doing talk shows, commenting on popular culture.

Well, get less indoctrinated

The President is, in the end, a guy doing a job, he's not the Celestial Emperor.

This is one of the things that I find unnerving about Americans. We Brits manage to split it: the Queen is the Head of State, whom it would be tasteless to say anything bad about, but who has no actual power, whereas the Prime Minister, who actually runs the country, is the Head of Government, whom we hired and can fire.

Americans have combined the two roles, and the result is distinctly odd. Are you guys sure you wouldn't like Queen Elizabeth II to be your constitutional monarch ... no? Well, no harm in asking.

 

[FreshHat]

Sounded like the sort of thing a Canadian would say.

Funny you should say that.

I thought Obama's remark sounded like something Jean Chretien would say.

(For the non-Canucks here, Jean Chretien was the Prime Minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003. He was somewhat less than fluent in either of our two official languages, and was prone to making some rather head scratching/hair pulling verbal gaffes.)

 

[Sword_Of_Truth]

LAUER: You got replaced by Jessica Simpson.

OBAMA: Yeah, who’s losing a weight battle apparently.

I don't care. I still love her.

You'd think America's first half-black president would understand "Baby got back".

 

[leftysergeant]

I doubt that Adolf Eichmann could have written a bill less constitutionally sound than the punitive AIG executive bonus tax bill.

And no executive with greater integrity than Al Capone would have even accepted the bonuses in the first place. In my mind, it constitutes fraud. If the company needed bailing out, there was never money there to pay a bonus to begin with, nor is there now.

Obama stuck his foot in his mouth. whoop.

He didn't stick his middle finger in the faces of those of us who recognize the need of humans to provide for the needs of the disabled.

The Limbaugh Party seems to have that process patented.

 

[Cain]

Well, get less indoctrinated

The President is, in the end, a guy doing a job, he's not the Celestial Emperor.

Oh, only the Celestial Emperor has too much self-respect to do talk shows.

The president should be doing presidential things, and that probably does not include trying to be funny on Leno, or commenting on the weight gains of talentless, know-nothing has-beens.

If anything, the problem is that not enough Americans share my view. Maybe Obama himself finds the whole thing undignified and a complete waste of time, but he does it because he's a politician first.

I have nothing kind to say for ceremonial monarchies, or the countries that tolerate them.

 

[leftysergeant]

Obama is head of state, problem-solver-in-chief, and a cultural role model. (That last bit is not included in the Constitution, but bear in mind that we are facing a cultural crisis as well as a financial headlong dash into a brick wall.) He's one of us and he has an interest in changing the kind of culture that got us into the mess we are in.

Those bean counters at the Fed and on Wall Street are not us, generally speaking. But they have set the tone for how America, over-all, has thought for the last 29 years.

How's that working for you?

In 2000, the pundits of the loony right were building the Shrub up as the kind of person you would want to go have a beer with. A man of the people and all that rot.

In a pig's eye!

Cultural guru? Not something a doofus like the Shrub could ever handle.

Obama is out there talking directly to the American people. He is one of us and he shares more of our values than the Limbots ever could. I'm cool with his rock star manner. He has to get his message out. Leno has a venue that allows him to do so.

I'm cool with anything he does to get face time with an audience as long as it does not involve naked ladies .

 

[Sword_Of_Truth]

Obama is head of state, problem-solver-in-chief, and a cultural role model. (That last bit is not included in the Constitution, but bear in mind that we are facing a cultural crisis as well as a financial headlong dash into a brick wall.) He's one of us and he has an interest in changing the kind of culture that got us into the mess we are in.

Those bean counters at the Fed and on Wall Street are not us, generally speaking. But they have set the tone for how America, over-all, has thought for the last 29 years.

How's that working for you?

In 2000, the pundits of the loony right were building the Shrub up as the kind of person you would want to go have a beer with. A man of the people and all that rot.

In a pig's eye!

Cultural guru? Not something a doofus like the Shrub could ever handle.

Obama is out there talking directly to the American people. He is one of us and he shares more of our values than the Limbots ever could. I'm cool with his rock star manner. He has to get his message out. Leno has a venue that allows him to do so.

I'm cool with anything he does to get face time with an audience as long as it does not involve naked ladies .

Wow... so now you're saying that a political leader should be dictating our culture?

 

[Cobalt]

Obama is head of state, problem-solver-in-chief, and a cultural role model. (That last bit is not included in the Constitution, but bear in mind that we are facing a cultural crisis as well as a financial headlong dash into a brick wall.) He's one of us and he has an interest in changing the kind of culture that got us into the mess we are in.

Those bean counters at the Fed and on Wall Street are not us, generally speaking. But they have set the tone for how America, over-all, has thought for the last 29 years.

How's that working for you?

In 2000, the pundits of the loony right were building the Shrub up as the kind of person you would want to go have a beer with. A man of the people and all that rot.

In a pig's eye!

Cultural guru? Not something a doofus like the Shrub could ever handle.

Obama is out there talking directly to the American people. He is one of us and he shares more of our values than the Limbots ever could. I'm cool with his rock star manner. He has to get his message out. Leno has a venue that allows him to do so.

I'm cool with anything he does to get face time with an audience as long as it does not involve naked ladies .

Ladies and gentlemen, a class warfare mindset at its finest. Pathetic.

 

[leftysergeant]

Ladies and gentlemen, a class warfare mindset at its finest. Pathetic.

And just what do you think has been going on since the leaky-brained old coot took over the Oval Ofiice in 1981?

The Middle Class has just now realized that they have been tricked into fighting for the enemy.

 

[DC]

I'm cool with anything he does to get face time with an audience as long as it does not involve naked ladies .

why not??? that sounds interesting.

 

[JihadJane]

There are, of course, conspiracies in politics. However, if you wish to agree with Sword_Of_Truth that "Obama is wrecking the economy, cutting off Americas energy supplies, shredding the constitution, abandoning eastern europe to the "New" Soviet Empire, empowering terrorists and throwing national security out the window" then this is probably the wrong thread.

Goalpost shift detected.

False dichotomy.

Failure to sign on to your flatulent fantasies regarding 9/11 does not mean we don't think there is hinky stuff of any kind going on behind closed doors.

What has 911 got do do with Obama "wrecking the economy, cutting off Americas energy supplies, shredding the constitution, abandoning eastern europe to the "New" Soviet Empire, empowering terrorists and throwing national security out the window"?

And just what do you think has been going on since the leaky-brained old coot took over the Oval Ofiice in 1981?

The Middle Class has just now realized that they have been tricked into fighting for the enemy.

The Middle Class may soon realize that it is being abolished.

 

[Dr Adequate]

Goalpost shift detected.

What a strange lie. Whom do you hope to deceive by it?

What has 911 got do do with Obama "wrecking the economy, cutting off Americas energy supplies, shredding the constitution, abandoning eastern europe to the "New" Soviet Empire, empowering terrorists and throwing national security out the window"?

Nothing whatsoever. So why are you talking about it?

 

[Piggy]

Tonight... a very special episode of the US Presidency.

<cue violins>

 

[Dymanic]

Wow... so now you're saying that a political leader should be dictating our culture?

There is a distinction between "dictating" and "leading". I see our current president as being much less interested in dictating than was his predecessor, George "I am the decider" Bush, and much more interested in actually leading. A central part of his message has consistently been that we need to accept more personal responsibility, and I agree with that most wholeheartedly.

We have become a culture of entitlement. We don't see our high standard of living as a reward for virtue and diligence, but as a birthright. We want what we want, and we want it now, and we want it cheap. When we don't get that, it's somebody's fault, and that somebody is never us.

We prefer to see the problems as simple, because that approach saves us effort, and time, and we don't have a lot of extra time, because we've got reality shows to watch and celebrity antics to keep track of. We have little patience for politicoeconomic bafflespeak. We know that a little folksy common sense in Washington is all that's needed to get the rides in the continent-wide Disneyland we've built running smoothly once again.

You don't dictate to a cultural mentality like that. Whether or not it can be led remains to be seen, but if you're going to succeed at that, you've got to know where the eyeballs are.

 

[DC]

We have become a culture of entitlement. We don't see our high standard of living as a reward for virtue and diligence, but as a birthright. We want what we want, and we want it now, and we want it cheap. When we don't get that, it's somebody's fault, and that somebody is never us.

very nicely said.

 

[GreyICE]

Hmm......

Some interesting replies, unfortunately most of them being insults and bickering.

As a non american, non republican, non democrat I would find it interesting to see what would have happened had it been Bush jr? I think the tone of the thread may have been slightly different somewhat?

Why? When Bush made his comment about tirelessly working to destroy America, we may have joked about it a bit, but no one was suggesting that this reflected some fundamental unfitness for president (the reasons he was fundamentally unfit to be president were much less shallow than that).

Now we have people moaning on that Obama isn't Presidential enough because he takes few hours of time off to go on Leno. And honestly, who can blame them? I mean whatever else you wanted to say about Bush, he was noted for his extreme dedication to the Presidency, never taking time off for much of anything.

 

[Piggy]

There is a distinction between "dictating" and "leading". I see our current president as being much less interested in dictating than was his predecessor, George "I am the decider" Bush, and much more interested in actually leading. A central part of his message has consistently been that we need to accept more personal responsibility, and I agree with that most wholeheartedly.

We have become a culture of entitlement. We don't see our high standard of living as a reward for virtue and diligence, but as a birthright. We want what we want, and we want it now, and we want it cheap. When we don't get that, it's somebody's fault, and that somebody is never us.

We prefer to see the problems as simple, because that approach saves us effort, and time, and we don't have a lot of extra time, because we've got reality shows to watch and celebrity antics to keep track of. We have little patience for politicoeconomic bafflespeak. We know that a little folksy common sense in Washington is all that's needed to get the rides in the continent-wide Disneyland we've built running smoothly once again.

You don't dictate to a cultural mentality like that. Whether or not it can be led remains to be seen, but if you're going to succeed at that, you've got to know where the eyeballs are.

Nominated.

I have the feeling that the current crisis will help bring folks back down to earth.

In my lifetime, "middle class" went from a little 3 bedroom house, a modest sedan and a pick-up, a clothesline out back, and a small vegetable garden to a 2-story house with a basement and a bonus room and home theater, an SUV and a Hummer, and private lessons for the kids.

We went to work at 14, bought our own cars, paid for our own gas and insurance.

Well, I'm still here in the little 3/2 out in the county with my Toyota and my woodpile. (It was actually cheaper, by a long shot, to buy a house out here on an acre of land, surrounded by farms and woods, than to buy a smaller house in the suburbs with literally ten feet between you and the neighbor -- in fact, my mortgage is cheaper than what people pay for rent in town.)

My brother thought it was rather low-class to live in a place where folks have chain link fences and the guy next to me keeps his semi parked out back. But I love it here.

We had some foreclosures, but now folks are moving back in.

I don't have cable TV. I get about 15 channels (depending on the weather) from my aerial. I don't have a microwave. I cook with cast iron pans and copper-bottom pots.

My mom canned vegetables from the garden every year, and now I have a friend who makes apple and pear butters from what she gets off the trees in her yard.

There's nothing wrong with living like this.

In fact, it's a great life. I have clean hot water on demand, cold storage for my food, any sort of music I want at the click of a button, electric lights, and a telephone I can use to talk to everybody I know.

Even Solomon didn't have that.

If anything good comes out of all this, I hope it will be a general embarrassment and distaste for excess.

 

[Piggy]

I mean whatever else you wanted to say about Bush, he was noted for his extreme dedication to the Presidency, never taking time off for much of anything.

Non-USers may not know that this is a joke, btw. Bush is famous (or infamous) for taking more vacation time than any president in history.

 

[gdnp]

Ladies and gentlemen, a class warfare mindset at its finest. Pathetic.

One of the the digs against Obama during the campaign was that he was a Harvard and Columbia-trained elitist, out of touch with the American people. Part of the challenge he faces as president is convincing the American people that he is "one of them", and that his agenda is in fact their agenda.

As for American presidents on "comedy shows:" Didn't Clinton, as a presidential candidate, play the saxaphone on Letterman? And who can forget this gem: