Need a fresh take on the rhetoric of Obama? This one is refreshing.
"Obama and his followers are perfecting postmodern reflexivity. It's a campaign that's about itself. The point of the campaign is the campaign."
"He lives in an era when the public memory has shrunk to a length of days or weeks. Especially in American politics, policed by a posse of commentators and reporters who crave novelty above all, the past is a blank; every day is Groundhog Day, bringing shocking discoveries of things that have happened over and over again. No politician has benefited from this amnesia as much as Obama. He is credited with revelatory eloquence for using phrases that have been in circulation for years."
"...the elevator music of politics, soothing and inoffensive and unavoidable."
8 comments:
This one's for you Ryan...
HA! This post made my heart glow as bright as a warm Camel Light. Let the Baracklash begin!
Unfortunately, even I'm rooting for Obama to win PA at this point. Hillary's dunzo popular vote-wise, but she can't drop out while she's winning. Even spared a "Tonya Harding strategy" Obama couldn't beat McCain, but a Clinton-Webb ticket in 2012 might have a chance of delaying the End Times.
Oh please, I think Obama could definitely take a McCain-Whoever ticket. McCain is OLD.
The Obama pic in this post looks very Spitzeresque.
I wouldn't compare him to elevator music as much as I would to a great pop record. Taking familiar chord changes and song structure, delivering it in a way that feels like a revelation, but still being palpable to the masses. He's taking the old school grassroots campaign to the digital era. He's combated Rev Wright with the youtubization of his race speech, he's used The View to appeal to women voters, his
website draws people in and keeps them organized with a myspace type setup, and the man's bringing in about a cool mil a day from online donors. And the man is probably the finest orator we've had in modern day politics. Combine all that with the horseshoe that appears to be up his ass and you've got political gold.
I think McCain will put up a challenge, but I think he's dead to rights. No incumbent party has won an election while in the midst of a recession in over a hundred years. There's a 25 year age gap between McCain and Obama, this country that was 15% to the right in the 90's is now 5% center left, and we're stuck in a war with no apparent exit and McCain is promising us more wars.
I feel a seachange coming on. Obama plays so well in redstates that even in the places he doesn't win it'll still trickle down the ballot. Dems could pick up 2 or 3 more Governors seats, 30 or 40 seats in the house, and a handful of Senators. Now that's change we can believe in.
I cropped the hell outta that pic to get the "obama-elevator music" connection.
A Great Pop Record!!! Are you kidding me? What makes any of those things you prefaced in the first paragraph good? The View? Myspace? The Digital Era? I feel like i just ate a "burrito" at Chipotle.
Yea, I don't think McCain has a chance though...
Still I really give it Ferguson...he's thinkin' a lot of what i'm thinkin' when it comes to Obama rhetoric.
This is my point. He's taking all the familiar elements of campaigning. TV apperances, sit down interviews, grassroots organizing, marketing, speeches, retail politics, all of that and doing it in a new way that comes off as completely fresh. He doesn't just go on Meet the Press he also goes on SNL, The View, AC360, Hannity & Colmes, BloombergTV, Countdown with Keith Olberman, and several others. He holds a voter drive contest for high school kids where the winner gets to bring two friends to play a 3on3 game of half court. His website is cutting edge allowing users to organize their own meetings, watch live streams of speeches, read his blog, and it keeps them constantly motivated and donating cash. He has a youtube channel. He gives speeches on par with rock concerts. 20,000 packed to the rafters, U2's "City of Blinding Lights" blaring as his entrance music and Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" ushering him out. He knows the power of a good photo op. A picture of him speaking on the river walk in San Antonio with 15,000 people filling up the night sky, or 22,000 people packed in a courtyard at Penn State. He fronts the cover of Rolling Stone, has Arcade Fire, Bright Eyes, and Wilco playing concerts for him. Has Larry David stumping for him at ivy league schools, has Gerome Bettis going with him to steel plants, and has that hot broad from Greys Anatomy preaching his message at womens events. And on the marketing front the man has made himself a brand. The O with the center of it looking like the sun coming up over the red white and blue colored land. Then there's the rainbow colored one for gay people, and the green one with the clover leaf rising with the tag O'Bama. Uses the American Gothic type face which is the type face of GQ magazine because it's considered "elegant and patriotic". Special Red shirts for Obamacans. And there's an "Artists for Obama" section with limited edition prints done by famous artists.
So you factor all that I just previously mentioned in with his policy positions, borrowing from famous republicans and democrats while stating them in a new fashion that doesn't demonize opposing views, and you've got great pop music. I mean isn't what's great about pop music using what's already in the culture and repackaging it in a different way? The Beach Boys taking a Ronnettes tune and making "Dont Worry Baby", Spoon taking Motown chord changes and making "You Got yr Cherry Bomb", Garth Brooks taking the 'three chords and the truth' technique to make "Friends in Low Places".
And by the way,,,Chipotle is friggin awesome!
See...that's where we differ my friend, Chipotle is not awesome. All of those aforementioned things that Obama has goin' for him do not surprise, he HAS to have all those things, and that's the sad part of the campaign, is that he's not only playing by the rules, but perpetuating them
I see where your coming from, but I mean how else is it that you're supposed to get your message out? If you dont go on TV, if you dont use the internet, if you dont go around meeting voters and giving speeches and having debates then how do you get people to vote for you?
Post a Comment