Cheap shots

I relish the fact that Obama is the president almost daily. After eight years of W, I think I have the right to enjoy the fact that most of the people in power these days have a good command of the language. But every now and then Obama and his crew say stupid things. When mistakes are made, the conservatives blow them so far out of proportion it’s comical. And the hardcore liberals immediately switch into group think and say things like (and this is a direct quote from a friend of mine so drunk on Obama he’s lost all focus), “Could you do better? If not you should shut up.”

I have no idea if I could do better. What I do know is that I haven’t been elected to public office. I haven’t been appointed to a position of power. But, I do have the password to this here blog, so I’ll say whatever the hell I want until someone takes the keys away and revokes my license.

Once upon a time W referred to “the Internets.” The world gasped at how out of touch the president really was. The term caught on and became a wonderful – I think – little bit of code speak. A few weeks ago Obama was giving a speech and he used the term “Twitters.” I have no idea if he was trying to make fun of W or if he honestly thinks the twits are plural or what, and I really don’t care. What I do care about is the White House’s response: it was the speechwriter’s fault. Seriously, the speechwriter? This guy may be our first social media president, but when it comes to covering his ass he has no problem playing the oldest trick in the book. If something goes wrong, blame the writer. Writers are almost never seen. They’re behind the scenes, generally, a ghost behind the voice and the face, and a really, really easy target when something goes wrong. And if his people are going to resort to that sort of crap, you’d think they’d do it over something that matters a bit more than Twitter. It was a cheap shot, I thought.

Speaking of cheap shots, crammed in among all the basketball nonsense last week, Rahm Emanuel, one of Obama’s most dubious appointees, I think, went on The PBS NewsHour for a chat with Jim Lehrer. A while back, the Obama messaging crew decided that saying “the president has been briefed” on something was better than saying “the president has ordered” something when the time came to muddy the waters of accountability – their word, not mine. Jim Lehrer, as we all might imagine, was having none of it. The Russian spies are being sent back to Russia. Now, Jim Lehrer said, did the president order that? He’s been briefed, Rahm smirked snidely. Jim Lehrer kept on, and on, and on. In spite of the fact that, according to him, he’s one of the most savvy people in Washington, he apparently forgot that Jim Lehrer is not in the entertainment business. As I’ve said, he said. Let me try to explain, he said. To which Jim Lehrer replied, whatever you say.

I lost track of the topics, but each one that came up – and there were many – were received by Jim Lehrer in the same spirit: Did the president approve that? Did the president order that? At one point, Rahm said something along the lines of: finally, after five questions, we’re making progress. This reminds me of conversations I have with my kids! That comment reminded me of two points I’d like to make. First, this is one of the most insidious moves employed by the hot-shit crowd. They derail a conversation, or a project, and then turn around and say – in tone, not words, for they convey precious little substance when you get right down to it – your deficiency is the reason this has required five questions. I’ve seen PR careers built on that strategy, so I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise to see that it works in Washington. But the second, more important point I’d like to make is that if his pathetic attempt to not answer really simple questions reminded Rahm of conversations with his kids, he must not be a very good parent.

It got worse. Apparently even Rahm realized his non answers were getting him nowhere. So, after warming up with some gibberish about not meaning any disrespect, he told Jim Lehrer that his questions were outdated. A journalist asking for a straight answer to a very simple question is outdated? Jim Lehrer, whose understanding of Washington certainly eclipses that of everyone at the White House combined and then multiplied a few times, outdated? What a punk. Anyhow, I took that one to heart and did something quite outdated myself. I wrote to the White House, which I had never done before, and said I thought they should avoid making “ageist” comments. The population is aging, I wrote, and it would be a shame to exclude the old folks from the era of hope and change with careless comments made in a lame attempt to save a little face. I haven’t heard back.