Obama's "lipstick on a pig" blunder is a reminder that he needs to hire a jokewriter so he can poke some much-needed fun at himself. Over the last dozen days, the whole race has wandered off into old-fashioned American comedy (what could Frank Capra have done with a Sarah Palin character?), leaving the new-fangled Obama rattled.
Jeez, when somebody makes a joke about the the stupid job you had when you were in your 20s, you make a joke back. You don't get all hurt, peeved, and self-righteous like Obama did about Palin's little "community organizer" witticism. Maybe his "lipstick" line wasn't aimed at Palin, but he ought to have expected that everybody would take it that way by now.
Obama's Achilles heel has always been that his gimlet-eyed appraisal of human beings doesn't extend to himself -- he can't keep from feeling sorry for himself. It seems like a hundred years ago that I called Obama "a close student of other people’s weaknesses, a literary artist of considerable power in plumbing his deep reservoirs of self-pity and resentment, an unfunny Evelyn Waugh..." (Waugh could never stop feeling sorry for himself that he was born into a merely affluent, respectable family rather than a rich, aristocratic one. Obama's sad "story of race and inheritance" is more complicated, but still rather similar.)
That's why Dreams from My Father reads like the Brideshead Revisited of law school application essays.
The GOP brain trust (if such an oxymoronic body exists) will sooner or later figure that out and try to spend the rest of the campaign poking and prodding Obama's delicate self-image to see what happens.
In one of his half-brilliant, half-wrongheaded insights, Spengler suggests:
"Combine a child's response to serial abandonment with the perspective of an outsider, and Obama became an alien species against which American politics had no natural defenses. He is a Third World anthropologist profiling Americans, in but not of the American system."
Sometimes, Obama reminds me of the persona Christian Lander invented for the narrator of Stuff White People Like: the mild-mannered but cold-blooded interloping observer/exploiter of upper-middle class Americans' self-delusions and status anxieties. (Perhaps Lander had Obama in mind?) Those traits can take you a long way, but Obama may have to show a little more to go all the way.
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I've always thought that Obama was the ultimate "whiter person." The fact that he was "black" gave him the ultimate trump card in status battles among whiter people.
"Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also, it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage." -- Saul Alinsky
I think the McCain campaign used Obama's own tactics against him. Palin's convention speech got under his skin. A "lipstick war" with the opposition's vice presidential candidate makes him look weak.
"When somebody makes a joke about the stupid job you held in your twenties, you make a joke back. You don't get all hurt, peeved, and self-righteous the way Obama did..."
You nailed it. A large part of charm is the ability to roll with the punches. If you can do that successfully, you take all the sting out of your oppoment's insults by showing they don't affect you. By getting peevish, you basically admit that not only is the insult true, but you are a brittle personality to boot. (In fact the way to make yourself truly invulnerable is to agree with any insult and even take it a step further.)
Obviously if you're a Presidential candidate it won't behoove you to denigrate your own record, but if Obama could just laugh, he would gain votes rather than lose them. (People do vote, to a certain extent, on the basis of personality.)
The biggest question mark personality-wise remains Sarah Palin. Thus far she's demonstrated charm with her humorous laceration of the Democrats, but her ability to roll with the punches has yet to be determined.
That brings me to another subject: the role of humor. All those pundits who declared that a new star was born the night Palin gave her acceptance speech said so for one main reason: she couched her criticisms of the Democrats in a way that made us laugh. (Yes, her delivery was good, but that same voice reciting a dull litany of position differences would have gotten a lukewarm response.) I can't count the number of people who told me that Reagan won the '84election the moment he said, when asked about his age, that he didn't "plan to make my opponent's youth or inexperience a campaign issue." It's humor that charms us and makes someone seem "charismatic", which is the key to electability.
Somebody made the obvious point that everyone else has overlooked: McCain is the old fish as in the old fish in the wrapper that still stinks. At this level of politics, it is shocking to me that Obama took the huge risk to insult them, insults that it appears he thought through (one for Palin and one for McCain right next to each other) and for what? I can't recall such a gamble for so little at this level.
All along I thought it was identity politics and irrationality that kept a good sized portion of Hillary supporters from backing Obama in the general (PUMAs), even though that explanation wasn't entirely satisfactory. I kept hearing anecdotes about his insults, especially the she's likable enough comment at a debate, but thought it was them being too sensitive and frankly, I didn't watch the Dem campaigns (news, debates, etc.). Now I understand why they were upset. Obama was passive-aggressive and got away with it while they looked the worse for it.
Obama's "lipstick on a pig" blunder...You don't get all hurt, peeved, and self-righteous like Obama
Oh, so not only are we redefining standard proverbs as "blunders," but they are also of the freudian variety that divine one's true emotional state of mind. So I guess we should also agree with fringe lefties and conclude McCain's use of "tar baby" was not a figure of speech but actually a revelation of the unconscious racism entrenched in his psyche? This is really sad Steve, I never thought I'd see you stoop to psychoanalysis. Get back to the legitimate criticisms.
Not Frank Capra, Preston Sturges.
iSteve:
That's why Dreams from My Father reads like the Brideshead Revisited of law school application essays.
That is a great line! You are beautiful man!
p.s. no more track & field coverage until 2009. That's fair isn't it?
Brilliant stuff, Steve, as ever.
Steve, who is the next clander among your commenters? I have been working on a children's book dealing with the human genome and eugenics....wish me luck.
Obama is a stiff, humorless and senatorial patrician in the mold of John Kerry.
When I close my eyes listening to Obama, I image it's 2004 with Teresa at his side.
Both are moral and intellectual narcissist which makes humor a lost concept for them.
1. If he didn’t want to make the lipstick association it he is dumber than his audience, which immediately made the reference.
2. The Democratcs are making these ineffective attacks because they live in a bubble. They believe the myth that Kerry lost the 2004 election because of lying swift boat attacks. They therefore think ANY harsh attack will work, the harsher the better.
The problem is that the Swift-boat thing worked because it had a large element of truth to it. Kerry ran as a war hero, but was shown in videos to have trashed the troops, and had grossly exaggerated his heroism, and was not telling the truth about for example Cambodia.
But the true formula is not Harsh=Effective. The public is not that stupid. The formula is more like:
Impact = [Claim – “What Voters accept”] X [Harshness].
The impact of attacks that go beyond what public accept (“Palin is a pork-gobbling pig”) are negative, and backfire proportional to the harshness of the tone.
The liberal anger bubble has served them well in terms of mobilizing the base, but not in terms of understanding the world and pursuing good strategies.
her ability to roll with the punches has yet to be determined.
Given her background, I'm gonna go waaay out on a limb and predict it's a multiple of Obama's.
Obama has never been punched (except maybe by darker blacks, over blackness), so every punch is a learning experience.
Palin is blue collar or at least blue collar-ish; they're way more rough-and-tumble than anything the Messiah's used to.
It just goes to show that Obama is really not all the bright, despite all his eloquence". Have you come up with a number yet, Steve? My guess, 115-ish, max. He's certainly not in Hillary & Bill's gifted territory.
As a woman I definitely think his lipstick pig and stinky fish remarks were passive aggressive sexist remarks aimed towards Palin.
The word lipstick has been so highly associated with Palin it is hard to believe he meant it other than as a sly dig against her. And frankly, mentioning stinky fish right after he put Palin in people's minds was just adding insult to injury. It was a bonus that a dead fish could also refer to McCain croaking in office.
If he was into folksy analogies he could have chosen the one about making a silk purse out of a sow's ear but he knew what he was doing. Good for the GOP to crucify him on it.
This election is turning out to be so much fun!
I've always thought that Obama was the ultimate "whiter person." The fact that he was "black" gave him the ultimate trump card in status battles among whiter people.
That's Obama. To a tee.
--Senor Doug
Steve Sailer: Obama's "lipstick on a pig" blunder is a reminder that he needs to hire a jokewriter so he can poke some much-needed fun at himself.
FYI, he DID have a joke writer - the whole thing was plagiarized and pre-scripted.
There's a massive thread about it at Free Republic, with far too much evidence to reproduce here:
SWINEGATE GENESIS & ANALYSIS: "Lipstick on a Pig" Template and Tom Toles Plagiarism [FINAL]
freerepublic.com
The really telling thing is how he botches not only the Tom Toles plagiarism, but also the "Lipstick on a Pig" template - he's strutting around with his left hand in his pocket, doing his best "I'm cooler than you" act, when he starts to blurt out:
You CAN'T put lipstick on a pig
But then he realizes that he bungled it, and the left hand comes out of the pocket and goes straight up to his temple, and he struggles furiously for a moment to try to remember what he's supposed to be saying, and finally he regroups with
You CAN put lipstick on a pig
All of it was 100% plagiarized and pre-scripted.
This election is a ton of fun....especially when you can sit back with a smug smile and say you knew Obama would implode all along. Now if I just had the balls to bet it or intrade it two months ago.
Svigor -- You're right, blue collar types are generally much more used to bantering than Ivy League elites, but keep in mind, women aren't as good at banter (in my experience, at least).
Part of the genius in picking Palin is that given modern sensibilities, she can be much freer about picking on Obama than a white man could be. Palin is truly the gift that keeps on giving.
I'm angry at Obama for stealing my line.
I have previously stated that:
Sarah Palin is not a pitbull with lipstick.
She is the lipstick on a pig.
And that pig's name is John McCain.
Of course, I was referring to Palin being used as window dressing to make conservatives feel better about John McCain (Palin changes nothing about who McCain is and what he wants to do), so Obama probably can't make the comment on the same issue I did (as he doesn't see Palin as a more attractive candidate than McCain).
But I want credit for saying it first, darn it!
Sarah Palin has unleashed something huge, something that had been dormant, supressed, stifled but always there. A tsunami has been building. Sarah has allowed this energy, which is civilization level in force and import and potentialy world historical. As we're in the midst of it, we may not fully be able to grasp what is happening but it is very, very big.
Somebody made the obvious point that everyone else has overlooked: McCain is the old fish as in the old fish in the wrapper that still stinks...
Wow, I hadn't thought of that but it makes perfect sense. These are indeed "insults that it appears he thought through (one for Palin and one for McCain right next to each other)". Thanks for the analysis; this is why I love the internet.
Carolyn: Have you come up with a number yet, Steve? My guess, 115-ish, max. He's certainly not in Hillary & Bill's gifted territory.
Within the last couple of weeks, I got absolutely pilloried for suggesting 115 [sorry, too lazy/tired to search for it].
Let's see if you have to face the same heat this time around.
SWINEGATE GENESIS & ANALYSIS: "Lipstick on a Pig" Template and Tom Toles Plagiarism [FINAL]
freerepublic.com
Huh - looks like that URL died.
This seems to be the new URL:
SWINEGATE GENESIS & ANALYSIS: "Lipstick on a Pig" Template and Tom Toles Plagiarism [FINAL]
freerepublic.com
"I got absolutely pilloried for suggesting 115"
Of course you did, because that's a plainly absurd suggestion. According to Gottfredsons's work on jobs and g, even the average attorney has an IQ of 120, and you have to be way, way, way better than the average attorney to get to be president of Harvard Law Review, affirmative action or not. I agree he should give out his SAT scores, but his credentials alone make an assumption of 115 ridiculous. It probably says more about the IQ of the person making the claim than Barrack's.
And as for gaffes as a metric of IQ, don't people learn anything from this site? Or is it all just picking and choosing facts to reinforce your own beliefs? If you just observe GW's ceaseless verbal blundering, he certainly does seem like an idiot, but as Steve showed from test scores, his IQ is in the 120-125 range. Test scores and credentials are a far better indicators of IQ than people own folk judgment of someone's IQ.
"her ability to roll with the punches has yet to be determined."
Rolling with the punches is necessary but not sufficient - after you do the roll, you've got to ju-jitsu your opponent. Reagan was great at that. FDR too.
The "pig-fish" remarks were obvious double entendres. Obama has been pulling this shit throughout the campaign against Hillary, to the obvious delight of his adoring crowds. The audience loved the pig-fish barbs - just watch them on Youtube.
What stupid Obama didn't count on was the ferocity of protective and loyal response that Hillary didn't evoke.
Obama wanted to be a basketball star (NY Times article on Obama at Harvard Law). He wasn't good enough, and the coach made Obama a bench warmer. Obama developed deep "anger issues" about this, and blamed "institutional" racism by his "white basketball" playing head coach -- and the in-your-face racial bigotry of other coaches at his high school (most of this is covered in Obama's memoir).
Obama has been angry about race ever since -- explaining Obama's attraction to a white-hating and America-hating pastor preaching an anti-white "black liberation theology".
All the rest of the Obama psychology is build upon this central narrative -- even the "absent father" stuff.
According to Gottfredsons's work on jobs and g, even the average attorney has an IQ of 120, and you have to be way, way, way better than the average attorney to get to be president of Harvard Law Review, affirmative action or not."
Oh I don't think so. There are doctors with IQs of 112--and even less. And I have been intrigued that nobody remembers him from Columbia and that his grades/general academic performance have never been looked at. If they were anything to crow about, they'd be out there.
The man seems downright dim to me, when not in front of pre-written speech. He seems to have no intellectual curiosity about anything except himself.
A lot of editor's work can be done by their staff. The title in and of itself means nothing much. Especially if it could have been affirmative action.
No wonder some black academics make their credentials and grades public, if they are truly any good. It's sad but necessary to get respect sometimes.
115 for Obama? If anything, that's generous.
But I would defer to Gottfredson herself, if she would weigh in on the subject.
Oh I don't think so. There are doctors with IQs of 112--and even less.
I'm amazed I have to even point this out, but the only way this would be a relevant analogy was if you could point to doctors graduating top of their class at Harvard with 112 IQs. Maybe it's time I start rethinking what the IQ distribution of iSteve's readership is, atleast during the election cycle.
Look, if there was really a credible case that Obama had earned his academics distinctions primarily through affirmative action and genuinely lacked the mental ability required them, don't you think Steve would have jumped on this angle a long, long time ago? Instead he's mainly focused on what he perceives as Obama's character flaws, overly introspective, self-pitying, a depressive personality, etc.
anonymous: Look, if there was really a credible case that Obama had earned his academics distinctions primarily through affirmative action and genuinely lacked the mental ability required them, don't you think Steve would have jumped on this angle a long, long time ago?
Steve [and Brimelow and Ron Paul and all the rest of them] has been so hopelessly neutered by political correctness and his desire to be invited to all the best cocktail parties with the cool kids that he doesn't have the gonads anymore to state the obvious: Obambi is a quota-admission moron, and Michelle LaVaughn is darned near illiterate.
[Speaking of the cool kids, did you see where Obambi told Judy Woodruff that he "wants to make government COOL again"?]
What all of this proves is that even "g" aficionados have no earthly idea how woefully inadequate the average quota admission really is, and how easy it is for the quota admission to hide behind grade inflation [and maybe even (implicit) threats of coercion] to skate through his curricula unscathed.
It's when the quota admission gets out in the real world that [to mix metaphors] the bloom comes off the rose and you realize that you have a budding disaster on your hands.
The other thing this proves is that the caucasian kid who finishes dead last in a 1950's engineering curriculum at Annapolis is VASTLY more intelligent than the quota admission moron who majors in a 1980's/1990's social sciences/humanities curriculum at an Ivy League institution.
PS: McCain cleaned Romney's clock in the GOP primary debates this year [which is why McCain is the nominee], and Romney completed a JD and an MBA at Harvard CONCURRENTLY.
You think Steve, at this point, is trying to get invited to cocktail parties? Romney is intellectually, morally, and personally far better suited to be President than a hot-tempered guy who barely made it through the Naval Academy. The reason McCaine is the nominee is the combination of anti-intellectualism and mistaken fancy that blustering oversensitivity plus bad luck in Vietnam translates to masculinity. Granted he seems to be good at politicking, but as GWB shows that is not the measure of how a man can govern.
Anonymous: You think Steve, at this point, is trying to get invited to cocktail parties?
What I think is that McCain has a helluva lot higher IQ than you people are giving him credit for.
I've been watching the guy intently for a while now, and he can take the heat - he doesn't have to get out of the kitchen.
And, quite frankly, the more I see of Sarah Palin [to include the uncut/unedited version of the Gibson interview], the more she impresses me, as well.
This chick is smart, she's tough, and she's got moxie.
Steve ... has been so hopelessly neutered by political correctness and his desire to be invited to all the best cocktail parties with the cool kids...
Wow, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Thanks, man. Whoops, Did I totally misunderstand the 115 IQ comment too, was this also meant as satire? My bad, you have the partisan zombie parody down to a tee.
What I think is that McCain has a helluva lot higher IQ than you people are giving him credit for.
I don't anyone here contested the score of 133 given in his medical records. That is pretty high relative to the general population, but I suspect, like Half Sigma, that it is not quite as high as Obama's. But this IQ score doesn't mean his extremely weak performance at the Naval Academy does not reflect personality flaws, such as impulsivity, low conscientiousness, and his famed hot temper. But now I am getting to carried away in treating the topic seriously again, I don't mean to step all over your partisan zombie shtick. After all, at times like these you need to take a break from serious thought and have a good laugh.
"If you just observe GW's ceaseless verbal blundering, he certainly does seem like an idiot, but as Steve showed from test scores, his IQ is in the 120-125 range. "
No, his IQ was in that range 35 years ago.
"A lot of editor's work can be done by their staff."
Apparently, his coursework was done by his staff also as he graduated at the top of his class.
" Especially if it could have been affirmative action..."
I guess Obama got to take the special 'black' bar exam as well.
"The other thing this proves is that the caucasian kid who finishes dead last in a 1950's engineering curriculum at Annapolis is VASTLY more intelligent than the quota admission moron who majors in a 1980's/1990's social sciences/humanities curriculum at an Ivy League institution."
You're way to hard on McCain, he didn't finish dead last, he finished 4th from last in a class of 897...WITH A FATHER AND GRANDFATHER WHO WERE ADMIRALS!
Of course he's has redemed himself since then with his obvious facility in Aeronautics (five destroyed airplanes), Soldiering (captured), Patriotism (quickly turned to a stool pigeon by the enemy), Professionalism (wet-starting a jet which caused the death of 135 sailors), Humor (bomb-bomb-bomb--bomb-bomb Iran), Marriage (leaving his first wife at her greatest time on need and marrying sugar momma), and of course Politics (what has he done exactly in 30 years? I think he authored a bill to get boxers insurance benefits once {failed}; heck, I like boxing.
Besides reconsidering your original point; ""The other thing this proves is that the caucasian kid who finishes dead last in a 1950's engineering curriculum at Annapolis is VASTLY more intelligent than the quota admission moron who majors in a 1980's/1990's social sciences/humanities curriculum at an Ivy League institution."
In what parallel universe is this proven? Maybe the intellect of your post went over my head, I don't know though, I did read it twice. But take heart America, when the legal briefs come with words McCain can't understand he can always turn to his running mate and her 5 1/2 year Journalism degree from a third-rate state school.
Quite honestly Lucius, try to raise the level of your game just a tad, crucifying you on a daily basis is becoming quite boring.
PS:
'Moxie' is more impressive for a hairdresser in Queens than the VPOTUS.
Obama graduated at the top of his Harvard law class. Affirmative action can get you in, but grades in college are merit based. I'm sorry Lucius Vorenus, but Obama is likely immensely more intelligent than you or John McCain. More especially after watching the interview with Sarah Palin and examining her academic record, I don't think she can match Barack Obama either. George W. Bush must surely is more incompetent than the man too. I don't expect you to acknowledge this.
It must strike you as ironic that a whitebread American girl like Palin's daughter managed to get herself knocked up by a local redneck punk at 17. Not even most black or Latina girls can do that. I imagine you also find it ironic, and enranging, that Michelle Obama's extended family has succeeded as much as it has and that her folk have outdone the Palins.
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