Do You Remember…
By Mitch Berg
…when “swagger” was a bad characteristic in a president? Why, it doesn’t seem so long ago.
But everything has, apparently, changed; CNN has apparently hired a Swagger (or, as the stupid kids are spelling it today, “swagga”) consultant to analyze Obama’s…well, you know where this is leading, right?
Evidence of “swagga” offered by the panel included: Obama being corrected by his wife during an interview and accepting it graciously; and, Obama hugging people.
After the segment, fellow CNN anchor Heidi Collins Kyra Phillips (who’d teased the segment by telling viewers, “If you look closely, you might notice the commander in chief has more swagger than Mick Jagger…”) asked Holmes whether any white American president has had swagger, to which Holmes replied:
Maybe it’s one of these things you’re not supposed to say, but you can go from Billy Dee Williams to Shaft to whoever you want to talk about and there’s just a bit of a swagger that we associate with them…
After which Collins Phillips and Holmes (really!) “hug it out” and exchange a “fist-bump.”
In the meantime, Mark Hemingway at NRO also asks:
A reader asks, “Wasn’t it just yesterday that a swaggering president was a bad thing?” The answer to that is clearly yes:
White House Watch: Bush swagger could crimp domestic agenda
Obama rejects swagger of Bush for a sober analysis of economic crisis
Republican Convention Turns on the Macho Swagger, Misrepresents Bush Legacy
Bush’s Iraq swagger a distant memory
Lame Duck Bush Has Swagger, Not Waddle: President Continues To Do As He Pleases
How to Swagger and Bully Your Way to Disaster: Bush’s Foreign Adventurism
. . . and etc. There’s much more where that came from.
So let’s try to keep track of things, here:
Out: Tingly legs, the rule of law.
In: Swagger, McCarthyism.
Do try to keep up.
That is all Word.
May 6th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Texans have a hard time saying “swagga.” It comes out “suh-wag-uh.” Simply not acceptable.
May 6th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
What about Clinton’s “swag the dog”?
May 6th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Obama’s got a lot of s.w.a.g.
Stupid
Wild
Ass
Guess
May 6th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Word.
Truth.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Swag is loot… you know, the stuff a burglar makes off with in a large bag.
May 6th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Like the UAW and Chrysler?
May 7th, 2009 at 6:49 am
Well, the arrogant air of the previous president was indeed a problem. However, I don’t see how the fine manners of the current president is a problem. Isn’t it better?
Don’t you have anything better to do Mitch? Seriously. You must live in opposite land. Or is it the bubble.
This is how it goes: You read some other (better) writer who had been linked a few hours ago by some other blogger in your bubble. You say “me too”. Your idiot readers then celebrate your brilliance. Then you have the last word in long-winded, snotty retorts containing more bubble rhetoric.
You ain’t Bill O’Reilly. You’re not even Micheal Savage. You are the lead singer in a chorus of Village Idiots housed in the gutter. Or something like that.
Did you really just accuse Obama of McCarthy-ism? Really? What on earth are you talking about? And Rule of Law? What is that? Where do you get these crazy ideas? If any recent president violated the Rule of Law, it was Bush.
You are hopeless, Mitch. But on the outside chance that someone reading this might need to hear it: what you hear inside the bubble is pure propaganda. Think about it. Liberals can’t possibly be the cause of all of your problems.
May 7th, 2009 at 7:04 am
It must be the circle of life. Peev becomes relatively polite, engaging and interesting to debate with, and I blow out Doug, but I pick up an insulting rhetorical football hooligan.
“Uncle”:
Don’t you have anything better to do Mitch? Seriously. You must live in opposite land. Or is it the bubble.
Two responses: Why is it of concern to you? And since I’ve been doing this for seven years and have managed to raise kids and maintain a career, clearly “better” stuff gets done.
On the other hand, you’ve managed to grunt out six comments on this blog in the past two days, all of them more or less asking me why I’m wasting my time.
This is how it goes: You read some other (better) writer who had been linked a few hours ago by some other blogger in your bubble. You say “me too”. Your idiot readers then celebrate your brilliance. Then you have the last word in long-winded, snotty retorts containing more bubble rhetoric.
Sometimes! And then you – an even less capable writer – comment on that! And that makes you – an anonymous commenter – the lowest form of rhetorical life.
The ciiiiircle of liiiiiiiiife….
You ain’t Bill O’Reilly. You’re not even Micheal Savage. You are the lead singer in a chorus of Village Idiots housed in the gutter. Or something like that.
Wait – you called me a bad writer, but then you end a labored, clunky simile with “or something like that?”
I’m going to let the audience stew in the deliciousness of it all. Or something like that.
Did you really just accuse Obama of McCarthy-ism? Really? What on earth are you talking about?
DHS hit-lists? Ring a bell?
And Rule of Law? What is that?
You seem to be completely ignorant of things going on in this country and world. And you seemingly voted for PBO. Connect the dots?
Obama is trying to force Chrysler’s bondholders to accept the abrogation of their bond contracts in the Chrysler bankruptcy – which is a legal, contractual matter – and threatening to sic the White House press corps on them if they don’t. It’s breaking the law, in a manner that says “I’m the President, and the laws are what they say they are”.
Ringing a bell yet?
Where do you get these crazy ideas?
By thinking. Try it.
If any recent president violated the Rule of Law, it was Bush.
OK. Which laws? Name ’em?
I mean, you were completely ignorant of two rather serious rule-of-law issues that are current in our society; let’s see if you can go through actual laws and find what Bush broke. Go for it!
(and I know – you’ll go to “Daily Kos” or “HuffPo” or “Minnesota Progressive Report” and find what those deranged bobbleheads say was “illegal”. So get it over with, so I can dispense with your infantile argument move on).
You are hopeless, Mitch
Mommy? Is that you? Don’t lie to me, Mommy – if that’s you, please say so!
Liberals can’t possibly be the cause of all of your problems.
Ah.
And where did I say they were?
Well, Somebody in this conversation certainly lives in a bubble, anyway.
May 7th, 2009 at 7:54 am
uncledavid has insults:
“You must live in opposite land”
“… (better) writer …”
“Your idiot readers …”
“… long-winded, snotty retorts …”
“You are the lead singer in a chorus of Village Idiots housed in the gutter”
“You are hopeless”
and ignorance:
“I don’t see how …”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“What is that?”
“Where do you …”
but it’s other folks who live “in a bubble”. Surprised? Not in the least.
May 7th, 2009 at 8:09 am
The phrase “Rule of Law” means that we all live under the same law, nobody is above it. That concept is breaking down under this Administration and Congress, who seem to believe they aren’t bound by the law, they can do what they want. Recent examples:
Government employees running an Enemies List operation out of the White House against a private citizen who also happens to have a radio show.
Congress passing and Obama signing a law authorizing bonuses for AIG employees, then threatening those same employees for accepting the very bonuses that Congress and Obama had authorized.
Wasting money pledged for Troubled Asset Relief to buy GM, fire the boss, then drive it into bankruptcy. Chrysler, too.
Forcing banks to take money they don’t need and don’t want, then refusing to let them pay it back and get out from under that debt.
Pressuring Bank of America not to disclose material facts about a merger to its own stockholders.
And that’s only in the first 100 days.
.
May 7th, 2009 at 8:46 am
“Opposite land” must be the place where couples unite in that “opposite marriage” some girl spoke of a couple of weeks ago.
May 7th, 2009 at 8:53 am
Snotty retorts are the main reason I come here. It’s the best reason to read all the comments. The zingers that fly around this place are just plain inspirational.
Y’all white men can’t swagga. The Repubs need to find us some tricked out pimp daddy mofo that can run upside ‘n downside PBO & get all up in his grill and go all Superfly TNT on his ass! You know, make him feel like his daddy had worn a jimmy hat that night! Git wit it yo!
May 7th, 2009 at 9:14 am
After reading a bit from King and his links to Ed & others concerning the PBO orchestrated MOPAR situation:
http://www.scsuscholars.com/2009/05/bullying-works.html
and recalling the PBO manufactured torch & pitchfork parade over the PBO guaranteed bonuses at AIG, I think I got the difference!
Cowboy swagger=bad; Thug swagga= good.
May 7th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Well, the arrogant air of the previous president was indeed a problem. However, I don’t see how the fine manners of the current president is a problem. Isn’t it better?
Yup. Arrogant plays so much better coming from a Liberal. They have it down to a science (as evidenced by the subsequent ad homina).
May 8th, 2009 at 7:03 am
Mitch, I could have written your snotty retort myself. Go ahead. Have the last word. Just hope the bubble doesn’t burst.
Just remember that you’ll always get your way on your blog and that you are never wrong. You’re a special little snowflake.
I’ve got more, but you’ve got them all.
What would it be like if this was a room where we all had to face each other?
May 8th, 2009 at 7:13 am
uncledavid said:
“What would it be like if this was a room where we all had to face each other?”
For starters, you might think twice before you insulted every other person in the room, “snowflake”.
May 8th, 2009 at 9:36 am
You also wouldn’t be able to change your name 3 times a month, & we’d all know what the village idiot actually looks like.
May 8th, 2009 at 11:49 am
What would it be like if this was a room where we all had to face each other?
Well for starters you would likely be facing Berg’s sternum, Snowflake. I’d pay to watch the exchange.
May 9th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
So…2 threats of violence. About what I expected.
May 9th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
One flight of fancy. Par for the course.
May 9th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
Just remember that you’ll always get your way on your blog and that you are never wrong. You’re a special little snowflake.
I agree with uncledavid, Mitch! You’re a power-hungry little miser who’ll “always get your way on your blog”!!
But you’ll never have your way with us, Mr. Berg! We have a sense of decency and self-respect!!
That’s R-E-S-P-E-C-T: “respect”!!