Saturday, December 16, 2006

Obama Ear Flap, Make him shut up Michelle

It all started back in October when the New York Times' Maureen Dowd wrote:

"He’s intriguingly imperfect: His ears stick out, he smokes, and he’s written about wrestling with pot, booze and ‘’maybe a little blow'’ as a young man."

And there it would have stayed, buried beneath the sex-scandals, racist rants, and all the other pre-midterm election insanity - that is if Senator BO himself hadn't resuscitated it.

Fast forward to December '06. He sees Dowd in New Hampshire and says:
"I just want to put you on notice.... I was teased relentlessly when I was a kid about my big ears."
It was all caught on audio tape natch, and now there's a percolating debate over whether the junior senator from Illinois was serious or not...over whether he's getting a free ride from some media or not, on and on. It's fodder for Rush Limbaugh and even an "Open Question" on Yahoo for chrissakes. He uttered two sentences that have generated a million column inches of unecessariness.

It's not his big ears - but his big mouth that he should worry about. And now, Mrs. Obama, it's your job to make him put a sock in it.
At this level of unimaginable scrutiny there can be no unscripted jokes in public places, no private throwaway comments meant to flatter-slash-intimidate influential columnists. That job should be left to staff. The next time he sees some random b!@#$ that took a swipe at his ears, tell him to smile, wave, and keep steppin'. Unless, of course, said b!@#$ is moi.

MSNBC'S Carlson joins Limbaugh in taking Obama "big ears" comment seriously (MediaMatters)

GOP media lemming alert: Is big-eared Barack Hussein Obama this year's John Francois Kerry? (MediaMatters)

Barack Obama - He's All Ears; Maureen Dowd Questions Whether He's All Man (Bizzyblog)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Obama was very smart to say that to Dowd. Like any pundit, she's very flattered to find that a politician actually reads and remembers her work. And that knowledge has a tendency to make a writer a bit less nasty when they comment.

Also, he knows that if the criticism of him focuses on his appearance, or his name, or the way he dresses, he wins. Nobody is going to vote against him because he's too skinny, or because his ears are too big. So keeping his critics focused on his superficial qualities is a good move for Obama.

Anonymous said...

Michelle needs to shut her stupid mouth up. What the hell is she doing, saying things that will obviously be all over the news, and will obviously hurt Obama? Is she THAT stupid??