Time’s Nancy Gibbs has found the true home of President Obama, and it’s not Kenya or Kansas. "None of these quite fit our blender in chief, but it struck me recently that Obama does have a cultural home: he's the first President from Sesame Street."
In a gooey article titled "Tickle Me Obama" in the June 15 edition of the magazine, Gibbs giddily associates educational programming and Barack Obama as very similar concepts:
The President is every bit as much a product of the show, but it's not just his age and mastery of the alphabet that make Obama the first Sesame Street President. The Obama presidency is a wholly American fusion of optimism, enterprise and earnestness — rather like the far-fetched proposal of 40 years ago to create a TV show that would prove that educational television need not be an oxymoron.
She was thrilled that Sesame Street taught numbers and letters, but in an urban milieu with "noise and grime and grouches." Houses that were "not white, not rich" knew this show was for them:
And yet for all its empathy, Sesame Street has been highly cerebral as well, the perfect hatchery for the Empirical Presidency...
Sesame Street's genius lies in finding gentle ways to talk about hard things — death, divorce, danger — in terms that children understand and accept. The polls can tell a President what the American people want to hear, but after so many years of sandbox politics and childish games, there comes a time to grow up. Given the hard choices, does the President think we're ready to handle complexity and delay gratification? If not now, when? Professor Obama has at least talked to us like we're adults. The question remains whether President Obama will govern as though he believes it.
Gibbs puts all of the shiny rhetorical toys in Obama’s bucket: braininess, optimism, enterprise, earnestness, mastery, empathy, and "adult" focus. That leaves conservatives with ignorance, pessimism, sloth, cynicism, incompetence, misanthropy, and childishness. Is she sure she’s not still playing "sandbox politics"?
[Hat tip: Tom Johnson. Image from Time.]
—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
Give me a break...how far
June 7, 2009 - 16:49 ET by bigtimerGive me a break...how far up is her head ...and I could fill in a couple of blanks here but won't....
It is past sickening now...it's total madness...these people have more than drank the kool-aid...they are drowning in it...
I'm hoping the sounds of their choking on their blithering tripe is coming sooner rather than later.
The next elections can't come soon enough.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Who, in their right mind,
June 7, 2009 - 17:00 ET by motherbeltWho, in their right mind, could call this Presidency, after Obama's most recent apology tour, a wholly American fusion of optimism, enterprise and earnestness ?????
Good Everloving Grief!!
<sound of duct tape ripping off roll>
Gibbs is so deep in the tank she needs SCUBA gear! The only thing Obama is "earnest" about is telling others what to do, the only thing he is "optimistic" about is his own magical ability, and the only thing he is "enterprising" about is government takeovers of private companies and banking institutions!!
But people like Gibbs don't see that....they see what they want to see.
George Will has a scathing column on Obama's capacity for saying one thing while doing the opposite, and Gibbs is right up there with the people who believe in him all the while they are being deceived.
"What we are not doing -- what I have no interest in doing -- is running GM," says the president who, when not firing GM's CEO, purging its board of directors and picking new members, is designing new products (imposing fuel economy requirements that will control size, weight, passenger capacity and safety). The president, overcoming his professed reluctance to run GM, resembles the journalist Don Marquis when, after a month on the wagon, he ordered a double martini and exclaimed: "I've conquered my goddam willpower."
*******
I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows. -Bart Simpson
Re Will
June 7, 2009 - 17:38 ET by slickwillie2001Good Will article; it's good to see Will coming around, TFP. Another quote from it:
"John Sweeney, head of the AFL-CIO, and Gerald McEntee, head of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees -- which is government organized as an interest group to lobby itself -- have demanded the resignation of two directors of Citigroup. Their premise is that businesses receiving direct government subventions should conform to the wishes of the president's allies."
Isn't that nice? Might as well cut out the middleman, dispense with all those conference calls with el Presidente, and let union goons control companies directly. Why don't we give the big union fatcats each a cabinet seat ? Or would that be a step down for them?
Union Control/Socialist/Communist Party and connections to O
June 7, 2009 - 17:56 ET by bigtimermb and slick....
Check these links out, I have posted them here in the past, but both of your posts reminded me of this, notice the dates and what has come to pass since then, this was before the bail-outs to-boot.
There are some great links inside these links too.
People really need to wake up.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Scary, bigtimer....just scary
June 7, 2009 - 18:22 ET by motherbeltAnd Sweeney makes no bones about the election being just the beginning....
I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows. -Bart Simpson
O's radical friends and wonderful history
June 7, 2009 - 18:33 ET by bigtimermb...
Here is one of the best and most eye-opening things I have read about all Soros connections, Obama, tons of characters we all know etc...(even clear back to Pelosi and O's ties)
I don't think I have ever posted this here...it's a keeper to read later, I still haven't completely finished some of the other connections inside of it.
Just want to put this here for those who I think would be enriched by this also.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Thanks. I'll bookmark it
June 7, 2009 - 18:43 ET by motherbeltThanks. I'll bookmark it for further perusal.
Can't concentrate that deeply tonight. LOL
Here is another good site for tracing connections...David Horowitz does yeoman's work:
Discover the Networks
I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows. -Bart Simpson
...oh yeah, this is rich
June 7, 2009 - 19:00 ET by bigtimer...oh yeah, this is rich too, thanks mb.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
That may not be the most
June 7, 2009 - 17:21 ET by BlazerThat may not be the most ridiculous thing I have ever read in my entire life, but it's definitely on the top ten.
I'm pretty sure I lost 30 I.Q. points just reading it.
Gimme a break, I'm as white as they come and grew up in an upper-middle class home and watched Sesame Street as a kid growing up.
Mastery of the alphabet? Hello, it's only 26 damn letters? If he's such a master of it how come he has to get everything force fed to him over a teleprompter?
Does everything thing always have to be about him ? I sure can't wait till all these idiots are funemployed.
"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious. "
- Ben Kenobi on Liberals, and the MSM.
" The Cake is a lie."
"Time" magazine reporters
June 7, 2009 - 19:01 ET by kg"Time" magazine reporters just can't help themselves.
"DumbAssity of Dope"
How did young Barry watch
June 7, 2009 - 17:46 ET by stratmanHow did young Barry watch Sesame Street in Indonesia?
Sesame Street wasn't on Indonesian TV until 2008.
Furthermore, Sesame Street did not begin broadcast anywhere until November 10, 1969. Barry was already in Indonesia at this time. Plus, Hawaii probably did not receive Sesame Street broadcasts till well after the show's inception.
Young Master Sotero returned to Hawaii in 1971 at the age of 10. How many genius children like Barry watch Sesame Street at the age of ten, especially one who had never seen it before and would find American TV culturally incongruous with life in Muslim Indonesia.
I believe this Obama-Sesame Street story to be pure propaganda for the masses. Or else Obama was a bit of a simpleton as an adolescent.
Press Secretary Gibbs is becoming America's version of Baghdad Bob.
strat... Heheee...excellent,
June 7, 2009 - 18:00 ET by bigtimerstrat...
Heheee...excellent, excellent, catch!!
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Catch what? Nowhere in the
June 7, 2009 - 18:13 ET by mandrakeCatch what? Nowhere in the article does Nancy Gibbs actually claim that Obama watched Sesame Street. She's just going off on some rant.
You are correct
June 7, 2009 - 18:26 ET by evilcontractorShe did not state that he watched the show, but she did imply that he did. What other meaning could we draw from this sentence, "The President is every bit as much a product of the show, but it's not just his age and mastery of the alphabet that make Obama the first Sesame Street President." I know of no other way for him to become a "product" than to have watched the show.
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. Sir Winston Churchill
www.btreasures.com
But, you can't pin that on
June 7, 2009 - 18:47 ET by mandrakeBut, you can't pin that on the President. Like he's responsible for what every nutcase writer sez about him?
Hero Worship
June 7, 2009 - 18:53 ET by evilcontractorYou're so right...She is just displaying a real bad case of hero worship. Unfortunately, there are way too many cases breaking out in the liberal press advocate organizations. It's sorta like the "swine flu" but much, much worse.
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
Sir Winston Churchill
www.btreasures.com
mandrake... That is
June 7, 2009 - 19:08 ET by bigtimermandrake...
That is true...but you can betcha he loves every second of this type of BS in the press and the tv screens....as if he isn't there enough anyway in person.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
BT
June 7, 2009 - 19:25 ET by mandrakeI suspect a person doesn't get to be President in the first place without a huge ego. I'll bet President Bush had a large ego too..he was just better at hidding it.
President Bush was what he
June 7, 2009 - 19:41 ET by bigtimerPresident Bush was what he was and he showed it.
Something called grace and dignity and not thinking you are above others...let alone displaying it...24/7.
Obama is the height of narcissism...his arrogance is nauseating.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
I suspect a person doesn't
June 8, 2009 - 08:28 ET by Dan The Man 2I suspect a person doesn't get to be President in the first place without a huge ego. I'll bet President Bush had a large ego too..he was just better at hidding it
We all have ego Mandrake and some are bigger than others but, we dont hide ego. President Bush and other Presidents had confidence in their abilities and drive to get to the Presidency. Some like Duh One is egocentric and has drive to get there, Duh One has ability but it aint in leadership unless we look to lemmings.
President Bush gets his drive from God and his personal relationship with God whereas Duh One gets his from adulation from others. Look at the Presidents retirements and what they do and you will see where they get there umph from. In President Bush's case it aint ego.
DTM, could you imagine all the hell and slime the libtards have
June 9, 2009 - 00:57 ET by pahuberthrown at GWB w/o his relationship w/ God?
I would not have been able to take it. That was an actual display of superhuman strength. W/o that relationship with God anyone else would have broke down.
But, you can't pin that on
June 7, 2009 - 19:28 ET by motherbeltBut, you can't pin that on the President. Like he's responsible for what every nutcase writer sez about him?
mandrake, you have to admit that during the campaign, he took advantage of every bit of their hero worship. From being oh, so solicitous and calling attention to the fact when someone fainted in the audience, to playing upon their "messiah" feelings by posing in pulpits and preaching in churches. And he never did a single thing to discourage all the messiah imagery and the role that was being thrust upon him. He revelled in it. And he used it to his advantage.
And he's certainly not above continuing to use it now.
I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows. -Bart Simpson
Just think back to the
June 7, 2009 - 20:04 ET by ThisnThatJust think back to the Greek columns, and obama's staged convention event. He loved it. Not for a moment did he think it was over the top. You're right, MB -- he is hooked, and has been since Boston 2004.
And I think he's hooked on this because that's all he has. He has no experience in anything -- no military service; no business experience; not even any real elected-representative experience. All he has is this false adulation bestowed upon him, and he's lapping it up faster than it can be doled out. A true empty shell of a person.
___________________________________
Liberals constantly demand that we accept a glaring falsehood as truth; Obama's elimination of the word "terror" will make terrorist acts less terrifying
Read the article, mandrake.....
June 7, 2009 - 19:36 ET by motherbeltIf you had, you would have seen this (emphasis added):
When Sesame Street founder Joan Ganz Cooney met Obama at a
fundraiser last year, she was prepared to hear what she always does.
"I'd have bet you a million dollars," she says, "that [Obama] would
tell me how his kids watched Sesame Street." But instead the
President-to-be told her that he and his little sister watched the
show.
She says that Obama said he watched it. She accepted that as the truth.
I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows. -Bart Simpson
Ok, I may stand corrected
June 7, 2009 - 19:55 ET by mandrakeOk, I may stand corrected here. Tim Graham's original post said it was the June 15th edition of Time. Today is only June 7th. Unlike the MRC I don't have access to a time machine..so I guess I'll just wait till Time June 15th hits the stands.
Again, do your reading, mandrake
June 7, 2009 - 21:18 ET by motherbeltAnd you would have seen that Tim linked to the online version of the article, which is available now. The June 15 print version is also probably on the stands already.
I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows. -Bart Simpson
What a shallow comparison.
June 7, 2009 - 20:13 ET by ThisnThatWhat a shallow comparison. And yet for all its empathy, Sesame Street has been highly cerebral as well, the perfect hatchery for the Empirical Presidency...
Sesame Street is the product of PBS, a multi-billion dollar taxpayer-extorted extravaganza. Are you trying to tell me that the ultimate in high-brow "education" is a big multi-billion dollar yellow bird, and that the result of this eduction is the acceptance of an Empirical Presidency -- because it taught Obama about the 26 letters of the Alphabet?
What planet is this woman from, and why is she allowed to roam the streets, drawing a salary, rather than being locked up in a looney bin somewhere?
___________________________________
Liberals constantly demand that we accept a glaring falsehood as truth; Obama's elimination of the word "terror" will make terrorist acts less terrifying
TnT... I really though
June 7, 2009 - 20:34 ET by bigtimerTnT... I really though about adding in the tax-paid PBS BS that we have been forced to pay for decades now...plus the Empirical Presidency phrase... I don't know, anymore I don't even think how silly, ridiculous, inane, or how low can they go anymore...
It's mind-bending..let alone a disgrace.
I remember well all the maddening, mean, covers they could put of President Bush, VP Cheney along with any in the news in the rest of his administration compared to what they are doing now...
I seethe with anger at the press/msms...I despise them.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
I think she meant to say
June 7, 2009 - 21:20 ET by motherbeltI think she meant to say "Imperial Presidency" LOL
I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows. -Bart Simpson
Give 'em time mb...they
June 7, 2009 - 21:22 ET by bigtimerGive 'em time mb...they will be.
I would not doubt it one bit!
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
"Looney Bin"?
June 8, 2009 - 08:43 ET by EdCoyneDon't you mean "home for the mentally unique"?
Ed Coyne
www.PoliCalc.com
The latex gloves media
June 7, 2009 - 21:54 ET by In_AweI refuse to even pick up one of the "news weeklies" anymore without donning latex gloves and gearing up for a gooey, queasy ride through leftist adoring tripe about Obama. NBC last week put my TV remote on notice as well.
Newsweek's editor calls Obama a God and Time's writer calls him a professor imbued with everything good, and kind, and cool, and sexy, and smart, and ... give me a break. Can none of these syncophants look in the mirror and feel shame at their intellectual regression and emotional childishness?
"End to childish
June 7, 2009 - 22:12 ET by RogerCfromSD"End to childish games?"
How naive the liberal. How stupidly childish and naive.
Each needs a punch in the nose by reality and then we'll see how many of them still adhere to the silly notion that one can appease evil.
A nation cannot be free without a free, unbiased media. We are not free.
"Is she sure she’s not
June 7, 2009 - 22:32 ET by NL207"Is she sure she’s not still playing "sandbox politics"?"
Hmmmm.... The only thing I can recall having found in a sandbox as a child were cat turds.
I have to agree with Nancy Gibbs
June 7, 2009 - 22:42 ET by OxyConWhen I think of Obama, I think of Sesame Street also.
Oh, who are the people in Obama's neighborhood?
Obama's neighborhood?
Obama's neighborhood?
Say, who are the people in Obama's neighborhood?
The people that he meets each day
There's Rev Wright who hates the whites
There goes American terrorist Billy Ayers
Don't forget Jew hater Farrakhan
And crazy Father Pfleger
And A.C.O.R.N.
Oh, who are the people in Obama's neighborhood?
Obama's neighborhood?
Obama's neighborhood?
Say, who are the people in Obama's neighborhood?
The people that he meets each day!
Fortunately I never watched
June 8, 2009 - 00:16 ET by RR GOPFortunately I never watched Sesame Street much during my formative years, so escaped a lot of the brainwashing by the Communist Children's Workshop.
I was into Mister Rogers. Much more 'calming' show anyway.
One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 61% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory (yep...approval for Congress now at 39%...do you believe that!?).
Captain Kangaroo and Mr.
June 8, 2009 - 00:44 ET by bigtimerCaptain Kangaroo and Mr. Green Jeans for me...Romper Room too.
Yep...that did the trick...worked for me...
Hey, it's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
BT: Same here. Also, a
June 8, 2009 - 01:29 ET by stratmanBT:
Same here. Also, a ukelele playing, straw hat wearing, (pre-Mr. Spock) pointy eared guy in a blazer named Barnaby. Barnaby also had a sidekick named Woodrow The Woodsman.
Barnaby always ended his show with the saying:
Didn't watch Sesame Street - was too old when it began. But the oldtimers like Captain Kangaroo and Barnaby were still enjoyable. I would take them over Big Bird and Cookie Monster any day of the week.
It's Howdy-Doody time
June 8, 2009 - 01:32 ET by NL207It's Howdy-Doody time ...
Bob Keshan was on Buffalo Bob's show before he went on to become Capt Kangaroo. He was Clarabell the Clown.
Romper Room...Hell yeah!
June 9, 2009 - 01:23 ET by RR GOPRomper Room...Hell yeah! Remember the magic mirror?
"I see Lucy, I see George, oh, and I see Bigtimer..."
LOL
One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 61% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory (yep...approval for Congress now at 39%...do you believe that!?).
Mr. Do-bee has had many a beer in my garage with me. No Lie.
June 9, 2009 - 01:31 ET by pahuberI will not say things of the magnitude that he can say, but apparently they (Cast) knew how to party.
I knew they could see me ; )
Mr. Do Bee! I had
June 9, 2009 - 01:35 ET by RR GOPMr. Do Bee! I had forgotten all about him until you mentioned it.
I didn't know until a few years ago that there were actually regional productions and TV markets for Romper Room, so I suppose that there were several Mr. Do Bees working at any given time?
One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 61% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory (yep...approval for Congress now at 39%...do you believe that!?).
Yes, there were... I will just say Mike got to play him on
June 9, 2009 - 01:46 ET by pahuberoccasion.
Last week I was on NB's when one of the Mr. Do-Bees (Mike) brought over some nice whiskey (congnac) while we listened to an oldies station. He has told me things I dare not repeat here... because I cannot prove (save call his butt into courts etc). No lie, he is a funny guy. Down to earth, and willing to try and get you a housing loan (my God, two edits to get this one word right) with low interest. LOL.
He will show up only during the middle of the night when he is bored and coming home.... oh, and my garage door is open. He is generally conservative, also.
LOL...sounds like quite a
June 9, 2009 - 10:33 ET by RR GOPLOL...sounds like quite a character.
One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 61% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory (yep...approval for Congress now at 39%...do you believe that!?).
First Sesame Street President
June 8, 2009 - 06:14 ET by ButtercupFirst Sesame Street President. What would make her come to the conclusion that he is a puppet? Imagine that!
This is not the first time...
June 8, 2009 - 12:38 ET by EdCoyneThis is not the first time I've heard a reference to Sesame Street, regarding this President. I believe I heard it during his campaign.
The funny part is that I may have realized Sesame Street was a "wildly liberal educational tool" when I was as young as 7 or 8 years old. What they promoted just "didn't feel right".
I guess he (Obama) didn't catch that, but he may not have had my background. You see, I was born and raised in the United States.
Ed Coyne
www.PoliCalc.com
Time
June 8, 2009 - 10:02 ET by jessieHjessieH So it's official...Obama is a muppet. I wonder about the rest of his cohorts? I know Biden isn't. He never goes by the script.
Oscar the Grouch is a Republican.
June 8, 2009 - 18:14 ET by jasperjava"That leaves conservatives with ignorance, pessimism, sloth, cynicism, incompetence, misanthropy, and childishness."
And how is this inaccurate?
Ignorance: "No one could have known…"; "Who knew there was more than one kind of Iraqistanis!"
Pessimism: "Oh noez! Obama's a Mooslim terrorist socialist communist fascist! We're DOOMED! Oh NOEZ!"
Sloth: When Dubya takes one-third of his so-called "presidency" on vacation, you have to wonder whether he had a hammock in the Oval Office for when he actually showed up to "work". Remember how he complained during the first debate with Kerry: "It's hard work! It's hard work!"
Cynicism: "Let's nominate Palin, and the broads who supported Hillary will come over in droves!"
Incompetence: "Heckuva job, Brownie."
Misanthropy: The Republican formula for success: hate all of humanity except for right-wing white American males.
Childishness: Preoccupation with earth-shattering issues such as what kind of mustard people put on their burger. "Ewwww, Dijon! YECCCHH!"
Q.E.D.
*
June 8, 2009 - 18:32 ET by R D Helm*
Hey Tim
June 8, 2009 - 23:41 ET by general companyFox Nation is featuring your artical
My Gov. thinks I am dangerous, so be careful
"Television is a freak show" Bernie Goldberg