It used to drive the Republicans crazy that a guy who should have been working for them on the loading dock with his name embroidered on his shirt was prexy of the USA now he's become the employee to whom the old man left the business in his will and he's acting like he always belonged to the country club[and didn't get in by just one vote].He's certainly onto something there. The late Ann Richards, who had reason to know Republicans well, said that the GOP felt that the presidency was theirs as of right, and that any Democrat was an illegitimate interloper. It's a thread that would tie Clintonphobia together with Obamaphobia: both career outsiders who somehow made it into the inner circle.
But there are differences. Obama's method of negotiating his place in the establishment is to outcool the cool: the most elitist, most Harvardy, president in living memory. It doesn't seem to be working for him all that well at the moment. And it certainly is different from the Clinton model, which was unapologetic trailer trash. I think I've argued this before--a point easily misunderstood about Clinton is that the great unwashed loved him not in spite, but because, of his pure tackiness. I can forgive him some of that, although I admit that one of the things that I've always disliked about him is the fact that he's such a shameless and compulsive starbleeper. Still, I'd have to grant that starbleeping is part of his successful tackiness--so also the impulse to stage a vulgar, excessive, over-the-top wedding?
[BTW, did you notice--I read it in the New York Times--that the bride is a vegan? I have no idea how, if at all, this fact fits into this account.]
No comments:
Post a Comment