Overdosing On Obama

[mallorys_camera]

I went into Obama overload pretty early in the inauguration process – like a week before.

Part of this was toxic immersion in the 24-hour news cycle. So, turn it off! you say. Easier said than done in this household – Ben is a news junkie, spends hours every day cruising the news sites, hunched over his computer like a Roman presdigitator poring over chicken guts. MSNBC goes on at dawn. And MSNBC was really the worst offender in turning what truly was an historic moment into the kind of hagiography that gives us black velvet portraits of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. exchanging fist thumps.

It was the language more than anything else that drove me crazy. “This thing is ordained,” trumpets a headline on the Huffington Post. Spike Lee takes it one step further, maintaining on MSNBC’s Morning Joe that God made the economy crash and burn so that Obama would win. “I’m a better person because he’s been elected,” declares Oprah.

And I’m thinking, this is the language of coronation, the divine right of kings.

None of this is Obama’s fault, of course, and I’m very pleased he’s moving so swiftly on Guantanamo. Nor do I fault his media guys: bread and circuses is the tried and true formula for mob control, and since all the bread is going to the banks and financial institutions, there ain’t nothing left for the rest of us right now but spectacle.

And part of it, of course, is just me. Little Miss Stormcloud. Mary, Mary, quite contrary. Person voted Most Likely To Be Perpetual Stranger At the Party in high school.

Personality cults scare me. I don’t care who the personality is. Koolaid is Koolaid.

This morning we find out that while Obama’s ratings were higher than any president’s since Reagan, they still didn’t beat American Idol’s, and the stock market slipped another 4%. This evidence of the torturer’s horse scratching its innocent behind comforts me strangely.

Comments

[alumiere.livejournal.com]

you know - i'm also terribly pleased that we have president obama

but i'm hoping that now that the inaugural craziness is over people calm the fuck down and maybe help everyone who's struggling in this country get back to a safe place (after all, that was one of the things he asked for in his speech yesterday)

and yeah - much of the US the media has totally lost it this week and even bbc and other less americentric media has gone overboard - the man's not going to be able to heal the world just by sitting down in the white house

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

My issue with the media is that they're turning it into a cult of personality. Obama has plenty of talents and skills, and that's why he's going to be a good president.

[nokomisjeff.livejournal.com]

Here's a good article from Juan Williams(a black liberal I respect) on Obama.

Very true.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123249791178500439.html

Jeff

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah -- Juan Williams used to do NPR's afternoon call in show.

Read the piece. Pretty much agree with it except that I do think Obama's Race Speech was extraordinary. It's pretty much the reason i decided to support him over Hillary Clinton.

[nokomisjeff.livejournal.com]

I've been talking to my friends who are Obama supporters. They are very unrealistic in their expectations of what he will accomplish. I've learned to just keep my mouth shut.

Jeff

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

I don't know what Obama can do about the economy, frankly. This "correction" is so global and of such a magnitude that no one individual can fix it. It wasn't FDR's social legislation that ended the Great Depression, it was WW II. And I wouldn't wish WW III on anybody.

I am gratified that Obama moved so quickly on reaffirming the US's opposition to torture.

[nokomisjeff.livejournal.com]

If there was a "Ticking Bomb" syndrome and the torture of one person would save 5 million, would you condone it?

Don't get me started on FDR. He made, what would have been a severe, sharp recession into a depression. In fact, in 1937, there was a "depression within a depression" because of his government programs. You're right thatWorld War 2 did bail out the economy, not FDR's failed policies.


This correction is nothing compared to the one in 1873 or 1907. However, if the government keeps getting involved in trying to bail out businesses and sectors, we'll see a lot worse. I was thinking of a great way to help the average American. Guarantee every bank deposit in the country by individuals and don't do any bailouts. Bailouts just reward and reinforce bad behavior. Bailouts don't work, never have, never will. By the way, did you know that Cuba is lining up trying to get some bailout money through different channels.

Jeff

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Cuba? That's just bizarre.

I kind of drank the Koolaid on the corporate bailout issue. I was against them at the start, and then I bought into it because it was supposed to save the economy -- and, of course, it hasn't saved the economy. And now I'm pissed at myself for letting my mind be changed on that one. Though, of course, it doesn't matter what I think -- I'm aboiut as obscure as they come.

Your "Ticking Bomb" scenario seems to be the premise of the popular TV show "24." I don't know the answer to your question. Pragmatic advantage trumps ethical abstraction most of the time in my book -- but, of course, how would you know the torture of that one person is the only thing that would save 5 million people? Divine revelation? The Little Green Man who lives in your medulla said so? Certain things -- torture -- are immoral, but life consists of compromises. It's always a slippery slope.

[nokomisjeff.livejournal.com]

A lot of people drank the koolaid regarding the bailouts so don't feel alone. Look at where the economy was when bailouts were first brought up, and look where it is today. I will give some blame of this economy to the media which had it's own agenda. Case in point.....the sub-prime which started this chain reaction was small potatoes, only a couple percentage of all mortgages outstanding. The media reported it, analyzed it. amplified it, distorted it, and ended up scaring the hell out of people.....just like they did when they created that nasty little recession to get Clinton elected. This economic panic is a result of relentless hammering by the media on how tough things are and how dire the circumstances are. But, assigning blame is a waste of time. It is what it is, and one must be sagacious, play a good defensive game, and ride this thing out like our parents and grandparents did.

Jeff

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

I will give some blame of this economy to the media

Oh, we're in total agreement on that one. The 24 hour news cycle is a very bad thing, because of course the people who run them -- who aggregate viewership and sell that number to their advertisers, since the news isn't really their product, we are -- have to figure out a way to get people to watch. They do this by manufacturing crises, and by making events out of non-events.

[fireflylive.livejournal.com]

"This morning we find out that while Obama’s ratings were higher than any president’s since Reagan, they still didn’t beat American Idol’s..."

What????

Oh FFS!

How can people not have watched that.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

I imagine they watched the actual swearing in (in the morning) and had had enough come evening.