What sort of criticism of Obama is considered acceptable?
None.
Good old Andrew Sullivan is on the case of those who saw this official White House photo of Obama as condescending and arrogant:
Obama’s supporters see the pose as James Bondish—although I can’t see how that would eliminate arrogance; after all, wasn’t James Bond condescending and arrogant, albeit in a charming and attractive way?
But Sullivan isn’t having any of it:
I tried to puzzle this one out and can just about see how an elusive photo of a tired Obama reacting to something unknowable might make him look tired or arrogant or something.
And then I realized why this photo immediately strikes some people are damning. Obama is a black man who looks as if he is condescending to a white man. That’s political gold.
So, anyone who sees this as condescending is ipso facto racist. As for me, the moment I first looked at the photo, what came to my mind was something quite different: Mafia don. But I suppose that’s racist as well—towards Italians, or Sicilians, or Mafiosi, or whatever. Although some of my best friends are…
So Obama can’t be called condescending, especially if he’s looking at a white man, without the caller being called racist.
But what if Obama were to look condescendingly at a black man? Could we call him condescending then? No; if we did, we’d be guilty of saying Obama’s an Uncle Tom, looking down on his own race. And that would be, um, racist of us.
What if we said some things Obama does are stupid? You know, like what Democrats said about the stoooopid Bush, his predecessor? Clearly, that would be racist, because we’d be saying black people are less intelligent than white people (except, of course, for Bush, the stupidest white person of them all and perhaps the stupidest person on earth).
What if we said Obama’s a leftist? That would be McCarthy-esque, as well as racist, because everyone knows that “leftist” or “socialist” is a code word for black. Lest you think I’m making that up, please revisit this.
And then there’s “liar.” When Joe Wilson tried it, Maureen Dowd heard it as, “You lie, boy!” Racism is in the ear of the listener.
Call Obama inexperienced, and it’s the same thing: young, as in “boy,” as in—well, you get the drift.
There was a lot of this going around during the campaign and in the early days of Obama’s presidency. But it appeared to have died down in recent months, mostly because there were clearly so many bona fide reasons to criticize Obama, and also because the “racist” charge got very old and tired and ineffective.
But here it is again; what could that mean? Perhaps Obama’s supporters are feeling old and tired and ineffective—as tired as he looks in the photo?
about the same that mao, stalin, hitler, and others enjoyed in their leadership roles.
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I find that picture fascinating because it’s so easy to project various images of Obama’s mood and personality. Try seeing him as tired in that photo and bingo, he certainly does look tired. Try seeing him as arrogant and condescending and bingo, he looks that way, too. I suppose I can see the debonair and self-assured James Bond in the photograph too — though it seems to me that the various actors who played him have all projected a certain ease and geniality that is entirely missing from this photograph. Finally, those at the White House who chose this photograph to publicize must have projected onto it their own belief that it presented him in a flattering and attractive light — though that’s one projection that, try as I may, I can’t see.
Mrs Whatsit: think “cool” and “sharp.”
Sorry, this made me think of Pee-Wee Herman, so I can’t be racist at all.
“I know you are, but what am I?”
That every day Obama is making Bush look better and better.
I’ve too noticed Obama’s chin-up mode when ‘on’.
I think it’s simply a learned behavior on Obama’s part to project confidence. Its opposite, looking down, appears indecisive and evasive.
A lot of Obama’s supporters evidently see their guy as so manifestly perfect as to preclude the possibility of any criticism of him that is not utterly in bad faith. And the most convenient explanation for such bad-faith criticism is racism.
Because these Obama supporters categorically define any criticism of the president as racist, it is of course useless to wonder what specific criticisms can be directed at Obama that will not be dismissed as racist. Simply put, there aren’t any. If you’re anti-Obama, you’re anti-black, period. No reasonable, non-racist person could possibly find any fault with him.
I remember thinking about this during the height of the tea party demonstrations last summer. A number of prominent people seemed convinced, lack of evidence notwithstanding, that the driving force behind the movement was racism. Supposedly, the tea partiers were essentially contented with the substance of the Democrats’ policies but couldn’t stand the idea that a black man was in charge at the WH. It’s truly difficult to grasp how stupid this notion was (is). For one thing, it required a belief that hundreds of thousands of Americans could literally take to the streets in protest, yet none of them actually declare what it was that was really bothering them.
In fairness, I should note an alternative explanation given for all the tea party demonstrators: they were paid to be there by the big insurance companies. I’m sure those same companies are very busy right now sending out 1099s for all of those protestors they hired last year.
I see The Won as looking bored in this photo.
Can’t say as I blame him considering Biden looks to be seriously well inside of what most people consider their personal space.
Either that, or he’s slightly pi$$ed that Biden had just told him to bring the limo around front…..
😀
We could try taking a page from women down here in the south when critisizing Obama. Where a compliment preceding the insult amazingly provides effective cover. Something like “Bless his little heart, the bastard couldn’t get his nose out of the air if a turd was duct taped to his forehead”:)
It’s hard to call Obama’s facial expression — tired, bored, arrogant, condescending — I can sorta see all of them. One would need a film clip and some context to make a determination.
It’s not hard to see the Connery Bond in Obama’s tuxedoed posture with crossed arms and crossed legs. Clearly that’s the persona the White House flacks were hoping to evoke.
Side note on “the sort of defense of Obama considered acceptable”:
We’re not hearing much about Obama’s vaunted ability to play three-dimensional chess anymore.
Funny. I was essentially raised color-blind (the Martin Luther King Ideal). Until my Air Force family retired to the south, I didn’t know bigotry existed. Now here I am 40 years later, and because I see Obama as arrogant and condescending and a liar (which he is), suddenly I’m a racist. What on earth does the color of his skin have to any of those characteristics? I’m not making an issue of the color of his skin. Sullivan and his ilk are the ones who keep bringing up pigmentation. Sounds like their the ones with the problem. Methinks Sullivan and Dowd are closet racists.
Bullseye, Neo
We’ve wandered into the thickets of an Ionesco play.
Absurdity, anyone?
The only thing I’ve found that counters baseless charges of racism is a direct attack on the Leftist’s premises. Don’t bother trying to defend yourself, go on the attack.
And don’t expect to get through to him. Maybe someone within earshot may think it over.
We need to push back on the racism charges, otherwise the Reds will continue their ratchet and pawl tactics to constrain us more and more tightly in our words, and ulimtately our thoughts. We cannot continually defend ourselves against the charges by being more and more circumspect; we have to release the pawl from time to time, or else lose.
In that spirit, I will say that this photo makes me think of a busboy who suspects the maitre’d has been shorting him on his share of the tips.
If that makes some liberals’ heads explode, I call it a good day’s work.
Sorry, that should read maitre d’.
To me, Obama looks defensive and insecure in this photo, as if he’s being challenged on something and can’t come up with an answer for it. For the life of me, I can’t see how this photo could be construed as debonair or suave.
In any case, tired, arrogant, defensive…none of these are good qualities for a U.S. President to project.
1) Without documenting it, I recall a lot of libs informing us last year how BRIGHT ∅bama was, the brightest person to ascend to the POTUS in many a decade, if not century. It would not be surprising that such an exceedingly person would condescend to ordinary mortals.
2) This is just more of the same from the libs, as many have already pointed out. Any criticism of the POTUS will be construed as racist. Recall the Tea Party sign that approximately said, “You will consider this sign racist.”
3)SteveH has a good suggestion to include praise. That way one cannot be painted into the corner of always trying to bring down, etc. Such as, ” I liked what he said in his Nobel Prize speech, but….” Which is rather the way the French approach their statements about Amis. (I am leaving out what Sarkozy has said, as I agree with him- a rarity for me and someone from La Belle France.)
4) Occam’s Beard, I so rarely eat at a restaurant that has a maturDee that I didn’t even notice the misteak.
Correct to:
“It would not be surprising that such an exceedingly bright person would condescend to ordinary mortals.”
One more misteak.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorschach_inkblot_test
I try to picture times when I have leaned slightly against a wall like that (with my arms crossed) when talking to somebody else that had hands in their pocket.
I can’t because 99.99% of the time I don’t have my arms crossed. Usually it’d be because I’m cold.
∅bama does look preoccupied for sure.
Arrogant? Absolutely. That was my first impression.
Bored? Maybe, but that’s not what I see.
James Bond? No way. Bond would be aggressively pursuing and killing our nation’s enemies.
He looks like he’s sleeping. I would too if I had to listen to Joe Biden.
Ok…
i have time to make a better comment..
on:
Mafia don. But I suppose that’s racist as well–towards Italians, or Sicilians, or Mafiosi, or whatever.
the man who did the work to make us think that, who started the whole racist thing for italians was a Don of a NY crime syndicate. that racket earned him and the boys a huge amount. He was so effective that his group got them to omit mafia and cosa nostra from the godfather.
Onward… 🙂
What this looks like is Ilham Anas put in a cheap rental tuxedo bored to tears and looking down on Peter Boyle who wandered over to chat…
(if you dont like Ilham Anas then SQ Urkel)
His bow is crooked…
his shirt is horribly puckered
no hanky in the pocket folded right
a pin on a tux
shirt sleeves too short
i cant remember a president that could be caught like that at some gathering. in private in the office yes, but at some gathering where others look at him? no.
so no… James Bond that isnt..
the pose… oh… so many images for the pose..
Top Cat from the cartoons
a cowboy who is about to toss up some tobakey, and paper, and light it off the heel of his shoe held up already.
or maybe the safe schools czar has taught him how to stand on a corner and troll for company?
ok.. enough fun..
your points as to what can be said are delineating the lines of the rook, and the knight, and the pawns that surround the issue and have been crafted over 40 years to allow such BS.
hows that for chess?
imagine a room filled with bright minds who are told to work out a dialectical for argument that could create unassailable archtypes?
then you take that and you apply it to the different categories creating color racism, gender racism, sexual orientation racism…
we forget that the argument of others over hating other races was never about skin color!!!!! it was NEVER your dark, i hate you. or your light, so i hate you.
Real racists dont care about skin color, real racists care about the qualities they believe the person has that should be negated.
Validity of any points is irrelevent in the dialectic.
The point is to create a false argument to create a false taboo. (while claiming to be removing them)
So the racisms of the socialists are completely artificial and made to maneuver and empower certain archtypes by creating a taboo in a culture pretending to not have any anymore.
so what happens is that the social arrangement is a lot like chess (at one time a very favorite game of theirs. i like go more).
each social taboo or habit that is constantly reinforced trains people to respond a certain way.
women are trained to respond to defend feminists, races are trained to respond to defend anything as to race.
this is again a form of power. and why i made the argument to neo that it doesnt matter if the majority dont agree, they still defend it out of this pavlovian habit and they dont stop it. what do you think the asymetrical law in france that its illegal to yell at your wife is going to do? you dont see all those women that dont agree standing up like in india and stopping it, no? they are too busy chomping at the bit as to the power they will have, and so they support that.
the same game is played with race, and so each of these fringe groups who have no more power than anyone else, but have been trained to believe that they all would be kings if it werent for X and Y, are looking to get their share of power, and to get their share of power, they have to give their power/freedom to the ones who will grant it back.
if one studies world history on a grainy scale, one would see the same process happening like an infection… which is why india, and old satellite states are not allowing the same games (they helped plan them).
racism has nothing to do with color. it has to do with leaders disliking certain qualities that groups have that are not conducive to them, and their efforts to train a third party to through a false set of qualities attributed, to hate and put millstones on them.
so to understand it in our society, all one has to do is look at what qualities that the leadership does not like in the group that other will target. the target group is the group who gets labeled as the one who is being racist to the other!
hitler didnt say jews have big noses, so hate them. he told germans that they were being treated unfairly by another race (racism)… and so what they did to the jews, as they saw it, was preventing opresssors from oppressing them any more!!!
ANY group the leadership didnt like was dressed up to be some kind of theif or waste of resources.
so if the blacks were the actual target of racism, they would be fomenting the whites into thinking that the blacks are taking things from them and such, not the other way around.
in so doing these groups then become empowered to get revenge on the target and when they do the state looks the other way… (even calls it social justice. maybe even make asymetric laws too).
so the state convinced the germans that the jews were racists and were cheating the others and so they had stores, and businesses, etc…
this cooker gets hotter and hotter till people take it upon themselves to act out against these racists and cheaters who are not equal cause they are cheating and getting more than their fair share.
i dont know if i explained this well..
i hope i did.
by the way, the actual targets are always the same… the able, the smart, the resourceful, the skilled… that is, the group that has abilities that can oppose the power being formed in the state. this is why the more we go forward, the more there seems to be.
by the way.. they try not to report it in the news.
or rather the reason they report it asymetrically is so the oppressor group (the target) will seem to be the unprovoked attacker, and so foment more attacks against the target.
The Bamma looks to be saying..ZZZZZZZZZZZ…
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….ZZZ !
With Slow-Joe, who wouldn’t sleep ?
The conventional “people-reading” wisdom of crossed limbs is that the subject is closed off to others.
That certainly works for James Bond. For Obama too. Consider this remark by Richard Epstein, one of Obama’s colleagues when he was teaching law.
Obama has the world’s most perfect human disposition. He can sit in a room with you, he can listen to you, and he can talk to you, and you really get the sense of a man who is in complete self control.
But, that’s the very feature that makes him so hard to read. He is so much in self control, that if he doesn’t want you to know in a conversation what he is thinking, you can be there for 30 minutes and never be able to figure out what he believes. You can only have him question you about what you believe. He keeps all of his thoughts to himself.
“I tried to puzzle this one out…”
In order to understand Andrew Sullivan you need to realize that he speaks a language that looks like English but isn’t. For instance, “I tried to puzzle this one out” actually means “I worked hard to concoct a lie to defame critics of The God King”.
If Obama were white his approval ratings would be in the 30’s and the media would be savaging him. Of course, if he were white, he wouldn’t be the president.
That photo was obliviously taken when Obama was a doorman at a fancy Manhatten night spot and was trying to keep out non-hip undesirables, like Joe Biden, so they would not mix with and upset the sexy in-crowd.
Could be Biden telling Obama that he sent his auntee in the projects a lil something for Christmas.
It’s not hard to see the Connery Bond in Obama’s tuxedoed posture with crossed arms and crossed legs. Clearly that’s the persona the White House flacks were hoping to evoke.
But the comparison is so unfavorable to Obama that it’s laughable if it wasn’t so perverse:
Other than the fact that Obama has no military service, no prior Intelligence service, has never jumped out of an aircraft in flight, probably has never been in a fist-fight, never handled a gun, and can’t find his ass with both hands and a flashlight, yeah, he’s very much like a James Bond super special agent….
He looks like an actor playing a cool black guy playing a cool president.
Which is what he really is.
The real question is how did Joe Biden become vice president?
But the comparison is so unfavorable to Obama that it’s laughable if it wasn’t so perverse:
Only if you don’t like Obama in the first place.
The White House PR folks do like Obama. Obviously they thought it was neat to evoke Sean Connery and James Bond in a single visual stroke so much that it overcame any concern they might have had that Obama’s facial expression was out of whack next to Joe Biden.
Again, look at the Connery Bond here and tell me you don’t see the visual similarity.
If you think Obama is cool, that’s all you need.
I would have exactly the same expression if Joe Biden tried to explain anything to me , guy really is a doofus, in fact anyone with fair to above average intelligence has to say to themselves, “jeez, this guy really is a doofus” whenever he speaks on TV. Maybe 0bama just now figured it out.
My caption submissions:
“I am telling you, it was a damn UFO, right there in my back yard”
“If I was president I would never…..”
“Seriously, you have to brine your turkey, you soak it in a pound or so of salt but it doesn’t taste salty”
Neo:
It really is not too late to make another New Year’s resolution. How about “resolved: to ignore anything and everything Andrew Sullivan writes or says in 2010.” I’ll join you in that one. Maybe other readers will too. F
Obviously they thought it was neat to evoke Sean Connery and James Bond in a single visual stroke so much that it overcame any concern they might have had that Obama’s facial expression was out of whack next to Joe Biden.
That’s the perverse part: he is anything and anyone they can make him look like, but he’s never done anything but ride a great wave of bullshit and affirmative action.
“Of course those terrorists are history: he looks like James Bond!”
“Of course he will rescue the economy: look at how deeply he is thinking!”
Well Boosh wore a flight suit! Yeah, and he actually flew fighter planes once upon a time.
“Seriously, you have to brine your turkey, you soak it in a pound or so of salt but it doesn’t taste salty”
That’s funny! But I think it would be even loopy-er:
“Seriously, you have to brine your turkey. Brine is water with, get this–this is the important part; salt in it; about a pound of salt, but it doesn’t taste salty; this is Ol’ Joe tellin’ you this: You soak a turkey in brine, that’s water with salt in it, and it tastes good, you know–I mean the turkey, not the brine. The brine tastes like water with salt in it–which it is….”
Too long for a caption. Yours is better, but I channelled a little bit of Ol’ Joe from Scranton for you.
Geez: Ol Joe from Scranton is looking pretty sparse on top–with that long wispy hair….
Dear God, these people in charge are horses’ asses.
Neo,
Off topic
http://sistertoldjah.com/archives/2010/01/05/the-poverty-leads-to-crime-theory/
Crime is down in spite of poor economy. Another liberal argument shredded by the facts.
I have not heard anyone say the photographer is racist. Or the film, or the camera itself.
I have always been under the impression the camera never lies. Candid, (look up all the interesting meanings of the word) of course.
Once again I am reminded of what he has said about himself. He is what we see, what we wish to see. At least until the chad has been dimpled, and those who voted for him have been left hanging.
Gray: You gave me my first laugh of the day. Now, which of the two turkeys gets dunked first?
I’m with colagirl on this: Obama’s looking like some combination of defensive and insecure. The first time I saw the photo, Obama reminded me of nothing so much as the neighborhood kid-bully who’s being told no one wants to listen to him anymore because there’s a new, bigger kid on the block. The facial expression has more than one possible interpretation. But notice the body language: The arms folded (defensively?) across the chest–not so much. And Biden looks kind of like he doesn’t even notice, which would be even more insulting.
The more I look at the photo, the more I can even imagine his rapid, shallow breathing: He looks like a man who knows he’s threatened.
The only thing I’ve found that counters baseless charges of racism is a direct attack on the Leftist’s premises. Don’t bother trying to defend yourself, go on the attack.
It’s tiresome but be ready with one liners, like:
Right, and “Iraq is Vietnam”.
Polly want a cracker?
Head Start owes you some money back, sucker.
Right, and if the Queen had balls she’d be King, but can we now continue with the discussion?
Sticks and stones can break my bones but….na nana na naaa
If you continue to insist upon making a fool of yourself, people are going to start to believe it.
I’m going to tell on you to Barak.
Do I look like Jesse Jackson?
There, now do you feel better?
Hey dude, I thought having a Porchmonkey wasn’t cool.
Go bother your Mommy.
[You and I both know] you’re just saying that because I’m white.
What does that have to do with what I just said, you moron?
No, it’s just that I don’t do Affirmative Action.
No, I just don’t share your Cult’s fetishes.
Bucko, you don’t even know who Nina Simone/Walter Williams/Shelby Steele, etc. is./ insert any black person you honor or appreciate but the Lib Racist would almost necessarily have no clue about. Maybe even a list.
Or if you have some Progg cred act over them use it, like, “Well have you ever roomed with a Black person?”
Anecdotally, one of my daughters was in an all redneck wedding a few years back, so she had some pictures. In almost every picture there was a 5 year old little black girl right in the middle of things, smiling and posing for the camera. Finally I had to ask my daughter who she was. She said, “Oh, the groom’s parents adopted her a few years ago.” Their son was also a Marine.
….
First, very insightful post, neo… and very correct.
This is the reason why I can’t stomach the left. I’m not always 100% on the right, either, although I lean that way most of the time…. but the left just has way too much BS.
For example, this repeated bringing up of racism regarding anything where an African-American is involved. If anyone criticizes a black person, or says anything that could remotely be considered offensive… even if one has to be overly sensitive, delusional, and on LSD to take it so… then it must be racist.
And it gets in everywhwre… during the contested 2000 election, as if it werent contentious enough without adding further fuel to the fire, Jesse Jackson said it all “looked like Selma.” Apparently everything “looks like Selma” if the left doesnt get its way.
And then… regarding Andrew… what can I say. Its a shame he’s now taken this line of thought. I used to like his writing… wayyy back when. The shamelessness with which he has now adopted this new “liberal Obamaite persona,” after once being a “neocon Bush supporter,” and that after apparently many other personas, shows that he belongs on the left: where hypocrisy and lack of integrity are no cause for shame.
*I have always been under the impression the camera never lies.*
However, photographic exposures can pick up things that the human eye cannot notice, which is why my tendency is to ignord the `significance’ of images such as the one at issue here.
for anyone who still has a VCR, go ahead and put in a tape and press `Freeze Frame’ or equivalent function. You’ll find the people on screen are making the weirdest, funniest expressions. However, this is not in evidence when you view the images at regular speed.
This is even more the case with photgraphs.
Obama may have just been closing his eyes for a moment – a fraction of a second even – and this may be why his expression looks so `arrogant.’
But a moment later or earlier, he might have been animated in expression…
Funny, the thing that struck me first when I saw the picture was: “so that’s what Joe Biden’s head looks like from the back!” Usually he’s pretty careful to show the hair plugs, not where they used to be.
In re the White House photogs trying to make him look like James Bond — not a chance. Had they really wanted to, they would have posed him. Remember this?
By the way, you should also check out the hi-res versions of the photo (which show his eyes shaded, but clearly open). I doubt that will change anyone’s mind, but it’s interesting.
Neo, I once heard that a person with half-closed eyes is often a sign of disinterest (at best). I mention this because President Obama looked that way for almost his entire speech yesterday, talking about the Christmas terror attack, who’s to blame for it, and what he’ll be doing about it. He looked phenomenally disinterested in the whole deal to me.
Of course, perhaps he was just tired…
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
8 lies of ∅bama
http://www.breitbart.tv/the-c-span-lie-did-obama-really-promise-televised-healthcare-negotiations/
baklava, you beat me too it!
reminds me of when the politburo said that there were record amounts of food, and yet the shelves were empty.
the funny thing is that americans believe that the soviet people were completely fooled by the news, when in truth, it demoralized them to be lied to so blatantly and know it.
just cause people dont say anything to bs, doesnt mean that they dont see the bs…
I’ve been wondering this for years: Why does anyone still care what Andrew Sullivan thinks or writes?
I agree that the funniest thing about this photo is that the White House thinks it makes their man look good.
Gramscians a la bella kuhn style sexualization of children have now gone on an active offensive..
Pornographic videos flood YouTube
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8061979.stm
they were targeted at children…
The material was uploaded under names of famous teenage celebrities such as Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers.
Many started with footage of children’s videos before groups of adults performing graphic sex acts appeared on screen.
why?
because socialsits want their music for free!
nice
In re the White House photogs trying to make him look like James Bond – not a chance. Had they really wanted to, they would have posed him.
Daniel in Brookline: Posing is only one way a photographer can get an effect. I am not arguing that any photographer posed Obama in that photo.
However, someone at the White House selected that particular photo out of hundreds taken that evening, because he or she thought that photo made Obama look good, and displayed it on the White House Flickr page.
So why that particular photo? Sure, it’s in focus and reasonably composed, but so were most of the others. We don’t care much about Biden and we have already seen thousands of images of Obama. So, again, why that photo?
I am arguing that the strength of that photo lies in its evocation of the famous iconic image of the first and still the most memorable James Bond played by Sean Connery.
That movie poster Bond is seared into the national conscisousness and is part of our cultural visual language. Any professional PR person responsible for representing Obama’s image knows that language and would spot the similarity of that photo to Bond.
Most Americans viewing that photo will make the Connery/Bond connection whether they believe Obama lives up to Bond or not. Read the comments on the original Flickr page.
any one remember this?
Who Are ‘They’?
To Obama, “they” are responsible for all our troubles. Problem is, “they” are most of us.
article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=NjUyOGEyZTUzNjAxMWFjNWI1NzJiYWM0MzIwNTZhN2Y=
Art wrote, “just cause people dont say anything to bs, doesnt mean that they dont see the bs…”
Think of these times as a teachable moment I suppose.
Huxley, but in none of the pictures in your comment Bond is posing with both his arms crossed.
As far as I recall interview-behavior training, we were always told never cross ones’ arms or keep them out of the view, as it speaks of defensiveness and hidden insecurity.
Tatyana: I am speaking only of the Connery Bond.
His arms are crossed across his chest though with one forearm at an upward angle holding a large handgun.
But that’s a totally different posture to read! It’s threatening while arm crossed for technical purpose – stability of the gun. Focus on the gun in hand, not the crossed arms. In this case – exactly as commenters above said already – he just looks defensive. His posture is confirmed by his face expression – see that horizontal line below his mouth? – like a stubborn teenager that perseveres silently while listening to a boring adult’ speech, tightens his mouth in an attempt of self-control, and just waits for a pause.
But that’s a totally different posture to read!
Tatyana: “Totally different”? Oh, come on. Obviously, Obama is not holding a gun, but he is wearing a tuxedo and both arms and legs are crossed in a similar fashion.
I’m not the only one see the Connery/Bond evocation in this picture.
Again, my argument is that the White House PR folks chose this picture because of that evocation, not that the picture is a perfect reconstruction.
Consider the picture an advertisement for Obama — because that’s what it is.
The question one needs to ask is “How does this particular picture work to enhance Obama’s image to the general public?” in the minds of his PR people.
The question is not “How badly does this picture fail for people who already distrust and despise Obama?”
The man is clearly falling asleep. That is the only conceivable reaction, other than peals of laughter, to Joe Biden.
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One of the first times I ever saw a photo of Obama, I thought “Benito Mussolini.” Most images I’ve seen of him since then have only reinforced my first impression.
Huxley, but if all that is needed to be considered Bondish was combination of tuxedo, crossed arms and legs, any waiter from an upscale Manhattan restaurant will qualify! (you know they are all young actors between auditions, do you?)
Naturally, that image would appeal to White House PR people: it presents the ideal they and their base aspire to. A perfect limousine liberal (or caviar socialist, as I’m told they are called in France). Stylish, obviously wealthy, confident and successful but considering of the “unfortunate ones”, a benevolent aristocratic do-gooder. Add to these qualities sex appeal and race appeal – the combo is irresistible. And it was irresistible- to all those voters who propelled that Mr. Nobody into the highest office chair in the country…
I’m not an Obama fan, but if I had to stand there and listen to Joe Biden I would probably look the same way.
“It’s not hard to see the Connery Bond in Obama’s tuxedoed posture with crossed arms and crossed legs. Clearly that’s the persona the White House flacks were hoping to evoke.”
Then they failed utterly: Connery looks self-confident, standing straight and tall, poised, and alertly looking the viewer straight in the eye. In contrast, Obama leans back with both arms crossed, eyes slitted and chin tilted up, looking down with a gaze reminiscent of Mussolini. The former tells the world that he is a man of competence and character on whom we can rely in a pinch. The latter is telling the world that he is a thug to whom we must submit.
“I’m not an Obama fan, but if I had to stand there and listen to Joe Biden I would probably look the same way.”
😀
I am so sick of all of this. Want to call me a racist? Fine, then I will wear it proudly. Just be careful what you say to my face.
Biden just gave The One some unwanted advice about giving speech “off the cuff.” Obama looks really pissed like his teleprompter refuses to work.
It should be a kind of criticism that’s constructive and not destructive as far I can remember I have been taught by my kind teachers. Everyone goes through different emotions and different experiences so we cannot really judge anyone just by the looks of it. Probably there is a better reason why Obama looks the way he looks in this picture.