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CANDIDATE IS AMUSED
Delighting crowds with his easy down-home manner, Barack Obama’s charming and genial speech forever dismisses from the public consciousness any idea that he may be something of a snob:
“I am amused about this notion of elitist.”
UPDATE. CJR’s Zachary Roth reports:
Since BitterGate got going last week, we’ve had a spate of unintentionally hilarious attempts by Washington- and New York-based pundits to paint themselves as salt-of-the earth types ...
Among them, the NYT’s Maureen Dowd:
My bowling trophy was one of my most cherished possessions.
UPDATE II. Pro bowlers earn some impressive coin these days, which might come in handy for Dowd and other NYT staffers:
Because not enough journalists took up its buyout offer, The New York Times is warning it likely will lay off a “limited number” of newsroom employees ... This would be the first involuntary layoffs at the Times, [Assistant Managing Editor Bill] Schmidt said, “and we approach it with a heavy heart."
It’s a target-rich environment:
At the time of the announcement, there were 1,332 newsroom staffers at the New York Times, the most in its history.
Any redundant staff will be leaving the NYT’s nice new building, opened in November:
Internal staircases link the various newsroom floors to encourage interaction. The work cubicles are flanked by rows of glass-enclosed offices, many of which are unassigned so that they can be used for private phone conversations or spontaneous meetings. Informal groupings of tables and chairs are also scattered about, creating a variety of social spaces.
The paper’s architecture writer, Nicolai Ouroussoff, noted early complaints:
Many of my colleagues complained about the building at first. There’s too much empty space in the newsroom, some groused; they missed the intimacy of the old one. The glass offices look sterile, and no one will use them, some said.
I suspect they’ll all adjust.
UPDATE III. Lyle gets with the salt-of-the-earth program.
Why one of my fondest recollections of my Hahvahd days was chancing upon a “diner”, quite garishly decorated but otherwise intriguing, in which I had the most delightful entree of “ham-n-eggs”. It was then I new that my ability to connect with the proud masses would keep me in good stead.
Posted by Dave in Chicago on 2008 04 16 at 01:10 PM • permalinkWe lived for the first 13 years in our marriage, up until three years ago, in a one-bedroom condo without a garage which means, if you live in Chicago, you are scraping ice from your windshield.
I could tell this wimpified metrosexual stories from my first 13 years of marriage that would turn his hair blond. Pussy.
#2. Darn right he’s elitist!
-Harvard graduate
-Skull and Bones member
-Former oil company CEO
-Father was a US Pres...oh,wait
Posted by AlexanderH on 2008 04 16 at 01:40 PM • permalinkWe lived for the first 13 years in our marriage, up until three years ago, in a one-bedroom condo without a garage which means, if you live in Chicago, you are scraping ice from your windshield. Or, to be precise, you have to lure some street person away from the steam grate to do it for you, and those people have no idea just what delicate instruments the windshield wipers on a BMW are. And then, if they’re not happy with the fifty cents you give them, they’re as likely as not to steal your hubcaps, or maybe even break into the car and rip out your CD-player, or make off with the Armani suit that you forgot to drop off at the drycleaners. One time, this homeless man – a white guy, probably drifted in from Pennsylvania or someplace like that, very bitter, you know – actually urinated on Michelle’s Mercedes, and she was without a car for a whole week while it was in the shop getting six coats of new paint (after which we sold it, of course; I mean, the car looked like it was fresh off the lot, but we…well…we knew what had happened, you know what I mean?) (Glances at Rolex). I’m sorry, I have to cut my appearance a little short; I’m meeting with Reverend Wright and a few of the deacons at my church for a condemnation breakfast. Thanks, and remember: Vote for Change! (Thinks to self: That’s right, you keep the change, suckas; I’ll keep the foldin’ money!)
lyle, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: You are marvellous.
As for elitism...our former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney was, according to those who worked with him, an incorrigible name-dropper. Legend has it that one of his aides suggested to him that this tendency was causing a certain amount of friction in his relations, and he said, “Do you know, the Queen Mother was telling me that just the other day.”
Posted by Mambo Bananapatch on 2008 04 16 at 02:06 PM • permalink“I am amused about this notion of elitist.”
It is to laugh. Ha Ha.
Posted by tim maguire on 2008 04 16 at 02:49 PM • permalink#6 - Alexander, dear boy, you seem to have confused “socially fortunate” and “accomplished” with “elitist.”
The first is an accident of birth.
The second is the result of work, with (in this case) help from #1.
The third is snobbery.
#3 does not follow naturally from #1 & #2, if you have proper breeding. I can tell you from living in Maine that Papa Bush and Bar are courteous, down-to-earth people (Barbara shops at our local Wal-Mart, so I doubt she’ll be bumping into Michelle Obama in the arugula aisle at Whole Foods.) The fact that GW has suffered the greatest personal insults and shamefully hyperbolic opprobrium of any President in history, and has not once fired back, complained, or wagged his finger, shows the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Now look at Obama’s closest associates - his loathsome pastor and his wealthy-yet-perpetually-aggrieved wife - and reflect on what is in Obama’s soul that he would gravitate to such creatures.
#14.
Nah. She’s the pissed-off snob behind the makeup counter at Bloomingdale’s demanding that starring Broadway role she knows she deserves, if it weren’t for all those vicious People of No Appearance.Posted by Gary from Jersey on 2008 04 16 at 03:29 PM • permalink“I am amused about this notion of elitist.”
Orf wiv ‘is ‘ead!
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2008 04 16 at 03:33 PM • permalinkObama reminds me of a French nobleman just before the French Revolution.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2008 04 16 at 04:30 PM • permalinkRoom 237
I heard you stole that noodle recipe.Cheers
Posted by J.M. Heinrichs on 2008 04 16 at 05:37 PM • permalinkWhat the fuck is arugula?
Checks google.
Rocket salad. WTF didn’t he say that? Or better still lettuce?
This guy needs a rocket up his arse.
I can see in a few years time, Rudd saying:
“I was speaking to Cate the other day, after getting off the phone with Hillary, and the damndest coincidence, but I had Russell call at the same time. Laugh. So I tried to have a 3 way phone call with them, but of course you know what happened. Therese walked in and said something about our policy on solar fuel cells needed fixing and handed over a 200 page policy. God, who bothers to read these things. I just flicked it to Julia and said throw that to Jenny love.
Anyway, back to Cate. OMG little Ignatius is such a dear guy. He is already playing dress ups with the potato sacks she stores. Laugh. Jackie said he’d have him in his next HK film. Oh well got to go - apparently I’m supposed to present a speech on the first 100 days of action after the summit. Seriously, it has taken me 100 days just to figure out what the arts people want. I haven’t had time to look at anything else. I’ll just read what Jeremy wrote for me. He’s a good guy that one.”
Of course, the truth is that all the candidates - Clinton, Obama and McCain - are elitist.
Three people running for president of a wealthy country of 300 million and spending millions to do it.
You bet they’re elitist.
What else could they be? Just plain folks?
Posted by JJM Ballantyne on 2008 04 16 at 06:57 PM • permalinkWith apologies to lyle for my crass limerick style..
There once was a chap named Obama
Whose speeches inspired much drama
One day he misspoke,
Then tried to revoke,
And said, “Me? elitist?.. Yo’ Mama!”Posted by Infidel Librarian on 2008 04 16 at 07:11 PM • permalinkI don’t think I’ve ever lived anywhere that had a garage. No wait—oh, but my ex-boyfriend and his father turned it into a workroom/office when I lived there, so that doesn’t count. Growing up we had a carport, which is just a roofed-over driveway. And in Florida, you know what that means—in hurricane season you will be removing branches and roof shingles from your car.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2008 04 16 at 07:27 PM • permalinkDay-o, day-ay-ay-o
Stack Obama till thee morning come
Come, Mr. Tally Mon, tally me Obama
A beautiful bunch a’ripe ObamaPosted by stackja1945 on 2008 04 16 at 08:06 PM • permalinkThanks, Peter.
I’d never tread on Lyle’s turf, although I can definitely be as pithy as the next person...especially after work!Posted by Infidel Librarian on 2008 04 16 at 09:08 PM • permalinkMichelle Obama does seem like a piece of work. Princeton, Harvard Law, six figure income, a Lloyd Dobler dream job [1], and she’s still thinking of herself as a victim.
[1] “I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that. “
Posted by Ernst Blofeld on 2008 04 16 at 09:37 PM • permalinkErnst, you should know by now that in modern-day America, among certain minorities, the higher the income, the greater the sense of victim-hood. Go figure.
Posted by David Crawford on 2008 04 16 at 09:47 PM • permalinkDo you think Ignatius is going to have to drink his own wee as well?
Posted by mr creosote on 2008 04 16 at 10:00 PM • permalink#42 - if Krudd was as smarmy as a wee tacker as he is now, I am sure he spent weeks with his head stuffed down the bowl.
He probably gave Iggy a bottle of shampoo, with a card reading, “Great for getting bits of poo out of your hair after it’s been down the school bogger”.
Posted by mr creosote on 2008 04 16 at 10:59 PM • permalinkZachary Roth wrote:
Since BitterGate got going last week,
Am I the only person who wants to strangle Mr. Roth for using the GDF -gate suffix to refer to a political mistake? The original happened 36 years ago; I for one am sick and tired of everything compared through a filter of events that happened between the assassination of John Kennedy and the resignation of Richard Nixon?
Will somebody please pension off these goddam self-absorbed baby boomers?
Posted by Ted Schuerzinger on 2008 04 16 at 11:19 PM • permalink#49
Will somebody please pension off these goddam self-absorbed baby boomers?
They are making a living in the NYT building. Outside they would not survive.
The -gate suffix saves thinking.Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 04 16 at 11:34 PM • permalink#49, Ted, users of that suffix should be birched.
Posted by mr creosote on 2008 04 16 at 11:34 PM • permalinkWill somebody please pension off these goddam self-absorbed baby boomers?
You mean that this is the start of......boomergate?
;-p
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2008 04 17 at 12:12 AM • permalinkCan we make Lyle a Poet Laureate or something? How about honorary Australian of the Year?
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2008 04 17 at 08:37 AM • permalinkWe lived for the first 13 years in our marriage, up until three years ago, in a one-bedroom condo without a garage which means,
Eeh, luxory, we lived in’t cardboard box up t’ road.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2008 04 17 at 08:39 AM • permalinkNice soundtrack, Pogria!!! An instant hit, I’m sure.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2008 04 17 at 03:13 PM • permalink#28 Rod C
What a day for a mow!
And, of course, yay lyle!
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2008 04 17 at 05:48 PM • permalink
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Keep smirking, Slick. See what that gets ya.