Barry Obama appears on "Between Two Ferns", continues to be the best
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  Barry Obama appears on "Between Two Ferns", continues to be the best
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Author Topic: Barry Obama appears on "Between Two Ferns", continues to be the best  (Read 3308 times)
True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
Ernest
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« Reply #25 on: March 17, 2014, 02:30:07 PM »

Worth considering:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiMs165tVdw

As Peggy Noonan wrote, it isn’t just that she didn’t jump, it’s that she used the word “puerile” and either assumed it would be understood or, even better, didn’t care if you knew it and assumed if you were interested you’d haul yourself to a dictionary, to your betterment. This is how leaders used to talk. They didn’t use baby words. They said mothers and fathers, not moms and dads. A funny thing modern politicians, all of whom are mobbed up with media consultants, don’t understand: If they spoke like adults people would respect them more. And they’d stand out more from the pack. And if the adult language they were speaking were completely natural to them, obviously organic to them, people would be more than impressed, they’d be grateful. Anyway, this is how the grown-ups used to do it.

(However I will admit I found it a little amusing.)

The party of Dubya doesn't get to make that sort of comment without causing people to collapse from hysterical laughter.
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King
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« Reply #26 on: March 17, 2014, 07:27:57 PM »

...blah blah superior conservative discourse...

Obama wasn't the one brought politics to this level. It was the GOP PR machine led by Newt Gingrich in 1994 and continued by Karl Rove and Frank Luntz which started the drive down to lowest common denominator buzzwords. The Clinton machine on the other side competed strongly in the race to the bottom. Remember, the first attacks against Obama were that he was too uppity and too intellectual for the American people.

The current Republican party definitely has no high ground on the level of political discourse. Look at this clip of a debate between Reagan and Bush in 1980:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edchtf9MS7g

The 3/4ths of the 2012 field would've been laughed off the stage if they had a chance of participating in these debates.  The ones who would have been respectable--Romney, Huntsman, and Gingrich--probably would've all finished third against Reagan and Bush.
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Simfan34
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« Reply #27 on: March 18, 2014, 11:27:37 AM »

You're absolutely right, King-- absolutely right. That debate is a sign of how low things have gone since then. The Republicans, in pandering to the ignoramuses (who was it that had a very good post on the trends that have led the GOP to start appealing to voters with Ted Nugent and the Duck People?) have driven the trend. But it doesn't mean Obama can't be held responsible for following that debasing anti-intellectual low-brow trend.

Nor is the UK some sort of idyllic paragon of erudition and tradition- it happens there too. Whether it be David Cameron's shameful populist dithering on whether or not he would wear morning dress to Prince William's wedding (a baffling episode, considering the invitation quite clearly stipulated that that was the required attire), or right to the very top with the Queen's frankly undignified stunt with Daniel Craig at the Olympics. The regrettable desire to be seen as "popular", "cool", "branché", etc, is pervasive in society and has had a rather extirpative effect upon politics, as we see here.

This, of course, is why I have always said there must be a greater degree of separation between the electorate and the electoral process. In other words, it is better to be "out of touch" with the voters and "in tune" with the issues of the day, for as long as the two are not synonymous.
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Fmr President & Senator Polnut
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« Reply #28 on: March 18, 2014, 08:10:16 PM »

You're absolutely right, King-- absolutely right. That debate is a sign of how low things have gone since then. The Republicans, in pandering to the ignoramuses (who was it that had a very good post on the trends that have led the GOP to start appealing to voters with Ted Nugent and the Duck People?) have driven the trend. But it doesn't mean Obama can't be held responsible for following that debasing anti-intellectual low-brow trend.

Nor is the UK some sort of idyllic paragon of erudition and tradition- it happens there too. Whether it be David Cameron's shameful populist dithering on whether or not he would wear morning dress to Prince William's wedding (a baffling episode, considering the invitation quite clearly stipulated that that was the required attire), or right to the very top with the Queen's frankly undignified stunt with Daniel Craig at the Olympics. The regrettable desire to be seen as "popular", "cool", "branché", etc, is pervasive in society and has had a rather extirpative effect upon politics, as we see here.

This, of course, is why I have always said there must be a greater degree of separation between the electorate and the electoral process. In other words, it is better to be "out of touch" with the voters and "in tune" with the issues of the day, for as long as the two are not synonymous.

Don't be such a priss... if anyone is in a place to judge what is dignified and proper for a Queen to do... it's the Queen.
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Simfan34
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« Reply #29 on: March 18, 2014, 09:16:03 PM »

Well I'm sure the impetus was from the advisors and such
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