Seriously, people, it was funny. My wife is a Democrat, and she thought it was hilarious. So did the Obama campaign! And now the world has “Invisible Obama.” Leave Clint alone!
It was not super respectful, but it was not out of bounds. And believe you me, gentle readers, I am hypersensitive about that sort of thing. I get angry at the use of “this” instead of “the” to refer to the President. I was no fan of President George Bush the Younger, in fact I was the opposite of a fan, and I didn’t even like to call him “Bush” instead of “President Bush” or “George Bush” because that did not show the proper respect. You gotta respect the President, man, even if you wish he would leave office yesterday. I think Governor Jan Brewer owes the current President an apology, a grovelling apology, as does Bill O’Reilly. (You ... do ... not ... interrupt ... the President!) The Congressman who yelled during the State of the Union should be made to beg forgiveness. And oh Sweet Mary has President Obama had to put up with stuff that no person should have to put up with, let alone the President of the United States. I take this stuff serious, old pre-hipster Brooklyn serious. And my wife more so.
So when we say that Clint was fine, then Clint was fine. Leave the man alone!
Anyway, if you were wondering how it played in Farsi, go here.
I thought you used to operate under the theory that the Executive got too much deference here because it was fused with the Head Of State. Am I misremembering this? (Not playing gotcha. I don't mind mild mockery of Presidents too much myself, but I can certain see where yelling during the State Of The Union was over the top.)
Posted by: Bernard Guerrero | August 31, 2012 at 09:21 PM
You're not misremembering!
I did believe that there were problems with the fact that we combine the two positions.
That is entirely consistent with the fact that I show a lot of respect to the Head of State and consider that it would be a bad thing for active political actors to stop doing so. After all, if I thought it was okay to disrespect the Head of State, then I would have no problem with combining the position with the head of government!
(By "okay" I mean "socially acceptable and conducive to non-toxic politics," not that it should be illegal, of course. Just for any third parties reading this.)
Posted by: Noel Maurer | August 31, 2012 at 10:30 PM
I would tend to agree, with the caveat that "active political actors" should be construed pretty narrowly. People working with each other should not call each other names. It isn't conducive to getting business done. Me calling either of the last two Presidents "Bush" or "Obama", or even "Shrub" or "Obummer", doesn't strike me as much of a problem. OTOH, my worldview presupposes that their job description includes a degree of lying, so I suppose I'm not starting from a very high base.
But perhaps you _are_ construing it narrowly? Running for something? I'll vote for you! Despite the Che t-shirt and the fact that I'm not legally entitle to vote in your state of residence! I'm flexible that way.
Posted by: Bernard Guerrero | September 02, 2012 at 11:44 AM
(OTOH, the sight of Ted Rall makes me think I might be capable of murder, so I will admit to less-than-perfect consistency here.)
Posted by: Bernard Guerrero | September 02, 2012 at 12:04 PM