So there we have it. Our new president's favorite movie offers some interesting (if not very serious) comparisons to his own life circumstances. Maybe there's something to all of this, or maybe sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
When pressed during the interview to explain his choice further, Obama told Couric, "I mean there's this combination of old world gentility and ritual, with this savagery underneath. It's all about family. So it's a great movie."
Hmm... "old world gentility and ritual, with this savagery underneath." Sounds a little like politics, if you ask me.
The Nation Has a New Face - So Does TV
Ray Ellis
President Obama knows how to work a room, and well he should. Born in 1961, he’s the first President of the United States who cannot remember a time before television. I Love Lucy was already in syndication when he was born. NBC was experimenting with color TV, most notably via Bonanza. And on a related pop culture note, the so-called Marvel Age of comics was born when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby released the first issue of The Fantastic Four.
JFK may have been the first president to utilize the power of the then-new medium (notably in his televised debate with Nixon), but Obama is the first to be a child of it, fully immersed in it, and fully in control of it.
Let me rephrase that: no mere mortal is in control of what Harlan Ellison dubbed “the glass teat.” Television has always been ruled, in one way or another, by corporate bean counters. It exists, not to entertain, but to sell product. “Product” can be anything from hygiene accessories to political messages, and often, the two are so subtly intertwined, the guy sitting at home on the couch doesn’t realize he’s been had. The political climate of any given time sells those commercials.
Thus, in the past eight years or so, we’ve been barraged with commercials treating everything from household insecticides to baby wipes as articles of urban warfare. And the programming that accompanies them has had that same take-no-prisoners attitude. 24 is a glaring example, extolling as it did, the virtues of torture in the name of the greater good. Dexter, too, made serial killing acceptable, if it was done in the name of justice. Comedies, even game shows, fell under the us-or-them spell.
The winds of politics and culture are fickle, and a storm of change is in the air. We’re already seeing it. President Obama personifies cool, with his swagga and his almost Spock-like way of expressing his thoughts. His approval rating hovers around 60%, and Michelle’s is even higher. And it has as much to do with style as politics. What America craves now is a whisper from the darkness that things will get better.
Article comments
1 - Christopher Rose
A great collective feature to launch the new era at Blogcritics, well done everybody.
2 - Eric Olsen
thanks Chris! There's plenty more to come - our writers really rose to the occasion! Love to hear what more people think
3 - Aaman
Good feature, perhaps the chia should be the unofficial mascot of the new BC Magazine:)
4 - Eric Olsen
ch-ch-ch-chia!
5 - Arch Conservative
Obama is a joke.
An embarassment to this nation.
A completely worthless media creation.
The joke's on the American people, but not being a complete fucking idiot I knew this last fall.
6 - Arch Conservative
Everyone that voted for this teleprompted jerkoff should be forcibly sodomized with the pointy end of the "yes we can" sign they toted last Fall.
7 - Arch Conservative
And then Arlen Specter should be forced to lick all those sign posts.
8 - barbara barnett
NOOOOO! I hate the chiaObama!
9 - Jet
Archie you can't tell me that George Bush didn't use a teleprompter?
10 - Eric Olsen
this seems a bit of an overreaction against Obama. Anyway, this is not a political assessment, but a cultural one
11 - Bliffle
#5 - Arch Conservative
"... but not being a complete fucking idiot I knew this..."
You may want to get a second opinion on that Archie.
12 - El Bicho
Bliffle, his comments betray him. No second opinion needed
13 - Dave White
Haha love the $2008 bill
14 - Chris Olsen
I really like the new look!
15 - Eric Olsen
thanks Dave, and thanks Chris, really appreciate it!