Coolest Campaign Moment Ever?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Debates, HillaryListen, I’ll say right off that this is complete fluff, but it’s the coolest pop culture reference I’ve ever seen by a presidential candidate…especially following that “debate.”
It happens around the 2:20 mark.
He just had to get that dirt off his shoulders (warning: profanity and harsh language).
Anybody else know of fun pop culture references by candidates or Presidents?
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April 18th, 2008 at 6:49 am
Yeah, that is “cool.” Maybe Jayze and P-Diddy can throw him a big “pimps and hos” party in the White House. What a grown-up response! It certainly didn’t come off as being an being arrogant, condescending and stupid regarding legitimate concerns being expressed about his long-time associations. After all, its not like the guy is running for President of the United States or anything. Yeah, I wondered if Obama has considered what it would look like if his daughters were to grow up and be in Jayze video.
But I’ve always contended that we should elect someone with a real grasp of “pop culture” and all of its deliquencies.
April 18th, 2008 at 6:55 am
Oh, get over yourself. You throw around all sorts of bawdy humor here and you can’t appreciate this? Get a life.
April 18th, 2008 at 8:48 am
I think the question is whether it’s wise to make a cool hip hop cultural reference in response to a flap over your disconnect with white blue collar rural folk.
I’m just sayin’….
April 18th, 2008 at 9:57 am
No I can’t appreciate it. I don’t even know what he or Jayze means — is it a black thang or dandruff thang.
And I’m also not running for president — or “Cool-Hip-Relater-In-Chief” as Obama would have it. Maybe he could loosen up the talks with Ahmadinejad by putt’in on some Wu-Tang and gett’in jiggy wit it. Maybe bust out the Boone’s and have Michelle do her rendition of the Thung-Song…
God, what has this country come to…
April 18th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Brush your shoulders off…
Also, numerous cowboy movies have used the motif of the hero brushing his shoulders off after he gets in a dustup as evidence that he’s being the better man. It’s about rising above the BS.
Indeed, what has this country come to when people can’t appreciate something that’s so clearly cool?
And by the way, “cool” is a bonus to have in a POTUS…obviously.
Well, that’s a particularly unkind parsing of this, since that was only a small part of what happened at the debate. It’s clear that he was talking about the entire 45 minutes of personal attacks and Hillary jabbing him at every opportunity.
April 18th, 2008 at 11:08 am
There might be another interesting Obama gesture in this video.
Check out 1:18 into the video. Obama says “Senator Clinton is in her element”. At the mention of her name he casually scratches his cheek with what could be interpreted as the one-fingered salute. Some in the crowd react to the gesture and Obama gives a big wry smile like he is in on the joke.
I am not sure what is going on here. But other bloggers have jumped all over this with other video of the same moment.
April 18th, 2008 at 11:23 am
I don’t find the second statement to be self evident in the least. Sounds like an even more inane version of electing the guy you’d most like to have a beer with to me.
April 18th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Thanks MW. Now that is cool! Obama just went up one small totally irrelevant point in my book. He should have made it a tad more overt and it would have been even cooler.
C Stanley — don’t entirely discount the “beer” test. You want to elect a guy that you can have a beer with — as it reflects his temperment and ability to communicate. But since we’re talking about Obama — I guess we’ll have settle for a chardonnay, wine cooler or soy milk.
Justin, if Obama is elected, you are definitely going to need the following video on “How not to talk to black people”:
http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=29098
April 18th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
If you play the video backwards you can clearly hear “Paul is dead” – “Paul is dead”.
April 18th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Thiis could cut a few different ways. Certainly it helps the Barack image take a big dismount from his “elitist” high horse, but not sure how this plays with the “not politics as usual” acolytes.
April 18th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Ok, this is getting weird. There are three distinct gestures here. Giving Hillary the finger. Brushing her dirt off his shoulder, then at 2:50, he scrapes the Hillary shit off his shoes. Its like there is another whole speech going on.