Jean Schmidt delivers Republican campaign message to 1st graders at a Catholic school:
Parents of Cincinnati elementary school students are upset over remarks made by U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt. She reportedly brought up the abortion issue in front of children as young as 6. The school’s principal sent a letter home to parents on that same day informing them that the topic of abortion came up during Schmidt’s appearance.
Here’s part of the apology letter the school sent parents after Mean Jean turned a civics forum into a stealth campaign event:
I do not recall the exact words she used, but she paused towards the end of her speech and stated that this would be the only time when she would be ‘political’ in her address. She defined abortion as the taking of a child’s life in the mother’s womb. She indicated that abortion involves the killing of a child before it is born. She was not graphic or any more detailed in this regard. Later, when a child asked about it, she indicated that an abortion is something that a doctor does when a mother requests this.
The school’s principal asked that parents keep the incident within the parent community to avoid the school becoming “embroiled in any sort of political controversy during an election season.”
Reading the school’s letter, it’s clear Schmidt carefully and deliberately inserted the anti-abortion speech, because she actually prefaced it with an announcement she was now going to be “political” and a child asked a question on abortion only “later”, after she delivered her stump speech.
Schmidt is a war-mongering clown, so I’m not surprised she’s blatantly pushing the GOP political agenda on 1st graders in the week before an election but the incident brought this particularly brutal and cruel media-generated “controversy” to mind:
President Obama’s plan to deliver a speech to public school students on Tuesday has set off a revolt among conservative parents, who have accused the president of trying to indoctrinate their children with socialist ideas and are asking school officials to excuse the children from listening.
The uproar over the speech, in which Mr. Obama intends to urge students to work hard and stay in school, has been particularly acute in Texas, where several major school districts, under pressure from parents, have laid plans to let children opt out of lending the president an ear.
It was complete bullshit, of course. Reagan and Bush I did the same thing, and no one batted an eyelash. FOX News promoted the lie, mainstream media picked it up and it was treated it as a legitimate controversy. Complete bullshit, ginned up by conservative activists and treated as fact.
There have been tens of false charges leveled against Obama in the last two years but this one hit me hard. It was so clearly malicious and mean-spirited. It was about barring the schoolhouse door not to The President, but to this President. It was about denying his legitimacy as President, but it went further. It was about assuming he had the absolute worst intentions, and insisting he prove he didn’t. It was about questioning his character with not a shred of evidence to back up the allegation, and making him sit for a test that has been applied to no other President in my memory, but one that this President, uniquely, has been forced to take again and again.
“Did President Obama set out to indoctrinate 1st graders? Perhaps! Discuss”.
“Will President Obama seat a death panel to deny senior citizens medical care? Perhaps! Discuss.”
President Obama passed the school entrance test that conservative activists insisted that national media administer. He was grudgingly and with great reluctance permitted to address school children, where he urged them to work hard and stay in school.
That national media went along with this blatantly race-based nonsense and gave him a test prior to admission that no other public figure in my memory has been forced to take is something I won’t forget, or forgive.
cathyx
Let the fact that Jean Schmidt is a sitting house member remind everyone that all the other teapartiers who are running for office could be elected too.
Daddy-O
Mean Jean strikes again.
Violet
The rightwing is terrified to see an “other” (black, female, name your “other”) in the top office. They know it’s a sign things are changing that they have no control over. Things like white men running everything and white people being treated with more respect just because of the color of their skin. The know it’s changing and it’s not going to be good for them.
This issue is at the heart of all the protests. White people aren’t going to be running the show in the same way. They’re terrified.
Sentient Puddle
Man, I remember back when Jean Schmidt was the boogeyman of flavor. Did she mellow out for a while, or did the rest of the establishment just go above and beyond?
arguingwithsignposts
Only tens?
ETA: @Sentient Puddle: the second one. She just can’t keep up with the crazy being brought by the likes of Bachmann and that idiot Fox from NC.
shortstop
What’s with that sleazy principal’s attempts to gag the parents on this? He/she allowed Schmidt to come; he/she can take the national heat for what transpired.
Rhoda
The disrespect and the jealousy in many cases toward this President has been insane. The “You lie!” shout during the State of the Union, the questions of his nationality, these all occurred with an MSM that takes every far right attack as gospel that must be refuted. I firmly feel the majority of the DC Press Corps is jealous of Obama; they didn’t think he could win in 2008 and when he pulled it off they bought the messianic celebrity commercials McCain was running. That didn’t come out of nowhere; that’s how the MSM sees Obama as the ultimate celebrity. Halperin just posted that on his Drudge Light “how I see things” comments. This bleeds into not only the commentary and analysis; but the straight news. Notice how the DC press thought he lost every debate until the focus groups proved them wrong. Why? They don’t want to acknowledge his success because they feel threatened by it.
Karl Rove’s comments about him being the too cool for school guy in the country club with the blonde, while stupid, come from the villagers feelings toward him. He’s the quarterback and they don’t know why; he’s supposed to be the token black dude not the Prom King. And it’s eating at all the wanna be Prom Kings.
That’s why the Republicans could work for two years to keep the country in recession, block every damn thing, not staff the executive, refuse to consider the nominations the POTUS made, and essentially fight to shut down this government and have the media not report any of it and take their spin as the basis of fact and blame the Democrats.
That is what happened. The Media reported the Republican spin as fact FIRST and then only later reports the truth on A20 or something and then asks why the Democrats can’t message? It doesn’t help that the left wants everything done by fiat and doesn’t recognize that half of Bush’s success occurred because the MSM took HIS spin as the basis of every story after 9/11 and he was looking at a one term presidency before that the press was actually fair before that and reported his actions and the democratic response and allowed folks to make up their mind. The MSM has been looking for an Obama is failing, has failed, will fail, is a one term President since Nov. 5, 2008. They’ve analyzed him to death all with the eye of GOP spin doctors under the guise of not giving him a free pass; implicit is that they did give Bush a pass (ETA: And that is an excuse they use and specifically articulate because people can feel the difference and the critical tone and it’s their way of telling viewers we’re looking out for you not just screwing with the first black president).
It’s fucked up. And with the Supreme Court letting corporate money in the mix the class war has started to come out into the open. And the White House is fighting on multiple fronts. And we’ve learned; that’s the best way to lose a war.
But great post, we should all remember the many ways the MSM is fucking with us all.
Kay
@Sentient Puddle:
She’s a moderate now, compared with the rest of the crazies.
She’s still a liar, though. Her campaign hack issued a statement that the speech was in response to a question from a student, which is a lie. The student asked the question in response to her diatribe, which the school makes clear in the letter.
She’s blaming the1st graders for getting her into trouble.
Face
When you own the airwaves (AM radio, TV, cable), you own the country.
Yours truly,
The Soviet Union
James E. Powell
@cathyx:
I don’t think it’s a matter of could, it’s pretty clear that a significant number of teabaggers will be elected.
In some respects, this is nothing new. I haven’t heard much from them that I haven’t heard from other right-wingers for the last thirty years. Which brings me to Jean Schimdt.
It’s all well and good that we make note that she is a whack job, but so what? It seems to make her more popular with her district. Which brings me to the voters.
We have spent the last year or so decrying teabaggers and other variants of the right-wing crazy, but we almost never go directly at voters. Is it just something that no one will ever say? Voters, who are stupid, ignorant, or racist will never be called stupid, ignorant, or racist?
Maude
Schmidt: IOKIYAR
Obama: blacks should not been seen nor heard.
Kay
@arguingwithsignposts:
I’ll compile a list. I need one. Someone brought up Gates the other day and I had forgotten all about it.
Jay in Oregon
I don’t have any problem with those people, I just wish they’d quit pushing their deviant agenda in our schools.
Won’t someone think of the children?
EDIT:I wanted to clarify that I was referring to the Schmidt story, not the Obama one.
arguingwithsignposts
@Kay:
That would be an awesome list (in the sense that it would put them all in one place, not that the items on the list would be awesome). It may be less than 100, but it feels like thousands.
Chris
It was about assuming he had the absolute worst intentions, and insisting he prove he didn’t. It was about questioning his character with not a shred of evidence to back up the allegation, and making him sit for a test that has been applied to no other President in my memory, but one that this President, uniquely, has been forced to take again and again.
That’s what annoys the shit out of me, although it’s something that applies to the entire Democratic Party in this day and age. The fact that Democratic candidates have to spend so much time and energy “proving” basic inanities like yes, they do go to church, yes, they do love the troops, yes, they do love their country (a litmus test now defined by “do you believe in American exceptionalism?” which in turn is a concept that’s essentially come to mean American supremacism, a supremacism that’s morally justified by America supposedly being founded on the exact values of the post-1980 GOP), and yes, they’re “real Americans” with a wife, two kids, a dog Fluffy and a nice suburban house.
Things like this paralyze the political discourse in ways I didn’t even think were possible, and then we wonder why the government can’t get shit done.
suzanne
Children as young as six? Are you fucking kidding me?
My daughter is six and it was only a few months ago that she finally figured out that married people see each other NAKED.
The schools she attended both last year and this year sent home these warning letters to parents saying that the children would be watching the President’s speech unless the parents objected. When I was a kid, they only did that for sex ed. But I guess watching a black man talk is the same as FUCKING.
The Dangerman
The ginned up controversy regarding socialist indoctrination was nothing compared to the horseshit we saw THIS week; at some level, there was some possibility, no matter how remote, that Obama might be indoctrinating the students. No, the bullshit over Obama comparing the Right to Rosa Parks is complete and utter nonsense.
I don’t see the end game for the Propagandists; do they really think keeping about half the Country bugfuck crazy will lead to a governable society?
Malron
And yet, behold all the mindless trolls who will soon wade into this thread to pooh-pooh your concerns by insisting race has nothing to do with it and both sides do it also too.
HRA
There is too large a segment of this country who bears an off the charts hatred for people based on the color of their skin. They totally disgust me.
Cincinnati and a Catholic school is not at all a big surprise to me for an incident of this kind to occur.
Upset? I would be much more than upset at having a politician addressing my child about a subject not essentially at the age of 6 and at whoever allowed this woman to address my child. The principal would have been personally confronted immediately by me.
Martin
Our back to school night for my daughter’s 4th grade class was right before Obama’s speech. The teacher is liberal. Most of the parents are as well, but there’s always one or two wingnuts in every crowd.
The teacher must have spent several minutes out of the 60 minutes we get to learn about the classroom reassuring these few agitated parents that Obama wasn’t sending negro mind control rays into their kids brains. After the first sentence that the teacher uttered that everyone picked up on as the ‘ok, I have to justify this to the insane parents’ the entire room became visibly agitated, except for the parents whose attitude suddenly and deliberately became very angry – arms crossed, not buying this explanation that there really weren’t any mind control rays coming out of the TV.
It became clear the teacher was going to talk about this until their postures loosened. After 30 seconds, the other parents started their own quiet side discussions about how fucking stupid it was that a teacher had to defend the President. After a few minutes, the other parents started their own LOUD side discussions about how fucking stupide these other parents must be. The teacher changed topics at that point, I think realizing that tiny chairs were about to get thrown at the wingnuts for insisting that their paranoia become the center of attention.
gene108
My first grade teacher did a mock election. Everyone voted for President Carter, one kid voted for John Anderson, none of us voted for Reagan.
If they let six year olds vote, I bet we would’ve turned the 1980 election for President Carter :-)
brantl
“That national media went along with this blatantly race-based nonsense and gave him a test prior to admission that no other public figure in my memory has been forced to take is something I won’t forget, or forgive.”
If this is the worst you’ve seen from these people that’s unforgivable, Kay, you seriously need to get out more. I’m not sure your outrage-o-meter can take it, though.
Kay
@arguingwithsignposts:
It does. Media, aligned with or cowed by conservatives, have whipsawed the whole country through fake controversy after fake controversy after fake controversy since he was sworn in.
I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s Clinton Era on steroids.
During the Clinton impeachment hysteria, I had to drop out. I was so tired, and I could no longer tell truth from fiction. I took up gardening.
I’ve come to realize that’s the point of the hysteria. To wear us out.
Chris
@James E. Powell:
We have spent the last year or so decrying teabaggers and other variants of the right-wing crazy, but we almost never go directly at voters. Is it just something that no one will ever say? Voters, who are stupid, ignorant, or racist will never be called stupid, ignorant, or racist?
Oh, I’ve let voters have it pretty hard in the last couple of years. Conservative voters for being racist, elitist and ignorant, but also the voting public in general, because the fact that the GOP is even considered as a rational option by anyone but its fanbase is a testament to how far fucking gone this country is. It doesn’t help that voters love to play the little “do Dems really love me? Do they really love the troops? Do they love America?” game I bitched about in the last post.
But that’s me, and I’m a nobody. Politicians simply can’t afford to do it; although I’m sure they all share your assessment of the electorate’s stupidity, if they say it out loud, they won’t win. And intellectuals won’t do it because they’re afraid of being perceived as elitist.
chopper
i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again. conservatives in this country, or at least a large portion of them, treat democratic governance in the manner of a military occupation. they think of obama as someone who subverted democracy and installed himself ala your average south american coup.
given that, a lot of this craziness makes more sense. it’s okay to hate the president with this type of zeal, even though when your guy was in charge it was all ‘you must respect the office’. because this guy is only in charge because he’s illegitimate. all the birther stuff and all the wacko paranoid conspiracy theories just fit right in to this backbone.
the funny thing is, the last guy was less a ‘legitimate’ president than the current one.
Omnes Omnibus
@chopper: Projection.
Comrade Dread
“Keep your government hands off mah PUBLIC schools!”
Woo… USA. USA. USA.
–Head meet desk–
Kay
@brantl:
Obama means a lot to a lot of little kids. If you’ve ever watched them at a rally or appearance, that’s clear.
That’s why I thought this was so cruel, and ungenerous. I know he can take it, and has, with a lot of grace and dignity. Seems vicious to do it to them.
Chris
they think of obama as someone who subverted democracy and installed himself ala your average south american coup.
You can take the coup analogy further; they’re people who believe that Obama is illegitimate because he’s a leftist and for no other reason. How he got into power is irrelevant. I’ve seen wingnuts outright calling for a military coup here, arguing that it’s “not an ideal solution” but that the alternative is just not okay.
If you ask them about the coups the U.S. led against democratic governments during the Cold War, they’ll answer that it’s okay because those people elected leftists. Mossadegh, Arbenz, Lumumba, Allende, Chavez, Aristide all lost their right to govern the moment they were left wing. It’s long been understood on the right that democracy is unacceptable if it produces an electoral result other than what they want.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Goodness me. What a shock it is to hear a Catholic wants people to keep quiet when an adult behaves inappropriately towards their children!
Martin
@gene108: Heh. Three years ago my son’s 4th grade advanced placement class had a class newspaper. It ran all through the primary season. By January the girls in the class had appropriated editorial control over the paper and turned it into HillBuzz. The boys staged something of a coup around Super Tuesday (they thought a more balanced view should be given, even though there was zero interest in the GOP primary among the students), but it was clear that the girls fervor was not going to be overcome. They considered a 2nd paper, but the girls made it clear that wasn’t going to happen.
The whole thing was fascinating to witness. Got lots of good discussions about what really was going on there.
eemom
Great post, Kay, and I particularly appreciate and heartily second the vehemence of this statement.
Please ignore the condescending little twerp telling you to “get out more.” This isn’t about grading “the worst.”
Admiral_Komack
Mean Jean is a bitch.
Off-topic: What is the Ballooin Jucers opinion of the Meek-Crist-Clinton dustup?
Linda Featheringill
@Violet:
Counterrevolution.
In the past, successful counterrevolutions have set up authoritarian regimes and some of these have been quite nasty. And when some of the people that “took their country back” decided to go for philosophical and ethnic homogeneity, things got really, really bad.
One of the disturbing things about what we call TeaParty people is that we don’t know how far they would go to make sure that they don’t have to deal with change. We don’t know where their personal limits are. We don’t know what they are capable of.
Lurked
@Martin:
I presume it wasn’t the prospect of “negro mind control rays” beaming out to their kids that had them upset, it was “kids see negro as President, learn to consider it normal” that agitated them so much.
ThresherK
Not one Evita quote about “getting them while they’re young”? I expected more out of this crowd.
Comrade Dread
Pro-life and pro-war.
One of these things is not like the other…
eemom
@Kay:
One image that stands out for me from the 2008 campaign was a picture of a little AA boy, about 8 or so, gazing up at Obama giving a speech. Never, never, will I forget the look on his face.
Bella Q
Thanks Kay, for writing about this. I linked to the story last night and hoped you would do a piece. I especially appreciate your emphatic statements. Did I say thank you?
Eric S.
@HRA:
In my once every couple of month foray into Facebook today I found a college roommate had left me an invitation to join the group “I Love Being White.” When I clicked over to the group it had something like 44K members. I left him a nasty gram and defriended.
Paris
Why was this hag allowed to waste school instruction time addressing children? Did she do this while collecting her tax payer funded salary? A double waste of tax payer’s hard earned money!
Kay
@eemom:
I went to the rally at OSU a coupla weeks ago and they were fun to watch. They waited on line two hours and they were still really, really excited.
I was doing that horrible thing that adults do, where you’re just beaming at them, which sort of frightens children. The back-away-from-the-crazy-aunt move was in evidence.
ChrisB
All this shit the Republicans threw at Clinton and now throw at Obama make me wonder what they would have said about Hillary if she was president.
It would have been just as bad; I just wonder what they would have picked on/manufactured.
Martin
@Lurked: I didn’t fucking care. I just wanted to hit those people with a tiny chair.
Mnemosyne
@Rhoda:
It’s not just the press — I’m firmly convinced that the bulk of the problems that Obama has with the Senate are due to jealousy that this half-term Senator was able to leapfrog over them and become president. He didn’t wait his turn, damn it, and now he has to pay.
Mnemosyne
@eemom: @Kay:
This is my all-time favorite picture from the White House’s Flickr photostream.
eemom
@Mnemosyne:
reminds me of a little cartoon from early in the ’08 season: Obama swan-diving into a pool labeled “presidential primary,” making a big splash — and Hillary is standing off to the side scowling and grumbling “Why can’t he test the waters first like everybody ELSE?”
WereBear
@Mnemosyne: Me too!
Martin
@Mnemosyne: Nah. Obama nailed it in his ‘question time’ event. The GOP is stuck in a corner. If they support any of his stuff, they lose their voter base and they’ll get routed. They’ve got no solutions to offer to draw others in as supporters on reasonable grounds.
Their only strategy is to shut Obama down completely, recycle their popular sounding but impossible ideas to the electorate, and trust that nobody listens to the folks calling them out on their bullshit. It’s going to be very interesting if they get control of the House how they keep this charade going. I hope Reid wins, but loses the majority leader spot. We need a fucking firebrand with a split Congress that will force the hand of the GOP. Harry is totally not that guy.
JGabriel
Kay:
To be fair, it wasn’t just 1st graders. It was all students, grades 1 – 8.
And, yes, what you’re thinking is right: that is worse.
It was deeply un-American, and infuriating, in that it accused the majority of American voters of electing a president in bad faith.
.
eemom
@gene108:
I remember one of those too — except, ummm……. it was fifth grade and Nixon vs. McGovern.
I am old. So very, very…….old.
JAHILL10
Here’s the thing. I expected this kind of crap from the right when Obama was elected. I am sure he expected it too. I didn’t expect the MSM to go along with it as wholeheartedly as they have, which on some days makes me despair for the direction this country is headed.
But when the left starts in on him I almost choke on my rage. As in ABL’s earlier post on why we vote, I remember crying when this man was elected, because some of the promise of this country’s purported ideals had actually been reached and a whole segment of our society who had been asked to be patient and wait and wait and wait for that promise to be fulfilled didn’t have to wait anymore. There it was in reality. And all these kids growing up today can see it and know it. That’s when I think God HAS blessed America.
Then you see Jon Stewart grilling BO over where his public option pony is and I just want to shoot the television.
Lurked
@Martin:
If Reid manages to pull it off he could gracefully resign as Majority Leader by saying that he needed to concentrate on serving his constituents. He’s had one or more mild strokes, after all, and while I wouldn’t want him to remind everybody of that right now, I’m sure it would make sense for him to retire from the leadership.
I won’t dump on him like many do, I think he did a moderately good job with the Senate rules as they were, but I agree we need a Majority (or, heaven forbid, Minority) Leader with some fire. It would help our messaging to get somebody younger and more energetic in that position. (I realize “young” in the Senate means “sixtyish.”)
I also blame the Senate as a whole for being far more concerned about the ridiculous bylaws of their exclusive little club (their “traditions,” and they consider the filibuster one of their sacred “traditions”) than about serving the people–and Reid was very, very concerned about those “traditions” and their “comity”. I do think that the constant spectacle in the Senate is one reason people soured on Democrats.
kay
@Mnemosyne:
I’m active in a state Party, and there’s a lot of truth to this, although everyone vehemently denies it. I don’t (actually) attribute it to race, because the Ohio Democratic Party is really diverse, and it crosses race lines. I attribute it to a sort of clubbiness, that says they don’t “know” him like they “know” (or “knew”) the Clintons.
One of our retired county chairs brought this up to me during the primary, and I listened, because it was a valid political point. He asked whether Obama had long-term relationships within the Party that would back-stop him when things got tough (and we knew things would get tough). I think it’s a disadvantage he has that Clinton wouldn’t have had. A political reality that has to do with relationships (or perceptions of A Relationship) and so is hard to measure, but it’s what I believe. I think the Clinton name and “brand” would help, in terms of long-time Democrats, now, when he needs them.
Anyway, it’s wildly unpopular, my theory, and it makes everyone uncomfortable, so take it as one person’s opinion.
Mnemosyne
@Lurked:
Senate Majority Leader Al Franken?
Hey, a girl can dream.
Mnemosyne
@kay:
I think there’s a little bit of a race component (the whole “Hillary worked so hard and now an unqualified black male is taking it away from her”), but I agree it’s not the biggest part. It really is age, I think. Not to start the Age Wars up again, but I really do think that the older Baby Boomers staffing the government are having a hard time realizing that someday soon they will no longer be the political and demographic force they once were and, like every generation before them, they will have to step aside and cede power to the younger generation. Like every generation before them, they don’t like that idea one bit and they’re fighting it as hard as they can.
Obama is in the very youngest cohort of Baby Boomers, so he’s a GenX or even Millennial president in the same way that Kennedy was the Baby Boomer president even though he was a WWII veteran. He’s a symbol that the battles of the 1960s are (or should be) over and it’s time to move on. For frack’s sake, when Hillary was in the primary, the Republicans were running Woodstock commercials against her! Obama represents the end of that, and that’s what the generation currently controlling Washington can’t stand.
eemom
@JAHILL10:
Speaking of…..ABL, if you’re reading this please do a post on Jane Hamsher’s latest sewage today blaming the anticipated Dem losses on HCR. Pretty please.
I would pay serious money to see you take on that insufferable twat. She’s already got her lackeys trolling this blog.
Adrienne
@Mnemosyne: Aww. I love it. But, my favorite has to be the one of the little boy that asks to touch Obama’s hair to see if it felt like his own.
Catsy
@Mnemosyne:
I think a lot of people underestimate how much of a factor this probably is. Politics in general–but Congress in specific–has a lot of (usually) unspoken rules about knowing your place, waiting your turn, and respecting seniority.
To them, a lot of this is about how that uppity negro just wouldn’t wait in line.
Mnemosyne
@Adrienne:
You just made my co-worker cry (in a good way). :-)
Mnemosyne
@Catsy:
It’s partly “uppity negro” but, as I said above, there’s also a big chunk of “young whippersnapper” mixed in there as well. Obama didn’t pay his dues, and now they’re pissed.
Elie
@Violet:
I agree Violet but I would only amend it slightly: some white people… thankfully..
Their fear is palpable and I believe for even some of them, is a source of shame. You know when you stink of fear — and they know their own cowardice and scream ever louder to distract from everyone knowing their flaw, their vulnerability…
Dunno how the election will go — but it won’t make that much of a difference in the long run even if a few of the clowns get in and spend a couple of years continuing to scream and stoke fear and resentment. They are trying to refight the civil war as they have been doing since the civil war ended over a century ago. They will still lose — again.
Time is not on their side. Nothing is on their side.
catclub
@Comrade Dread:
“Pro-life and pro-war.
One of these things is not like the other… ”
So, actually, both of those things is/are not like the other.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Certainly we do. Civil Rights Era Assholery – Support from Police + Fear of Activist Judges = Lots of Smoke – Heat.
That picture made me cry big hot girly tears.
Elie
@JAHILL10:
“Then you see Jon Stewart grilling BO over where his public option pony is and I just want to shoot the television”
I just don’t think Stewart could resist tweaking Obama’s nose as a sign of his (Stewart’s) power and influence — “See — I stuck it to the Prez, I’m such a big dude”
More about Stewart’s ego in my opinion. I think Obama knew that and was why his smiles were forced and his tone serious — he knew the little man he was talking to was going to suck some of this energy to stoke his own fire — not really trying to get anything accomplished. Stewart is a comedian. A clown or at best, a jester. He played that role — a sometimes important role but in this case, just about stroking himself.
Maude
@Mnemosyne:
A good example is when John McCain talks about Obama. He breaths smoke because of it.
Jealousy is vindictive and we see that too against Obama.
I don’t understand the “professional left’s” hatred of Obama.
I see comments where they lecture the president.
Adrienne
@Mnemosyne: Tell her to join the club! I tear up every single time I look at that picture. The little boy with his tie is like death by a thousand pounds of cute! That this happened in the Oval Office just ices the cake…
K
Speaking of…..ABL, if you’re reading this please do a post on Jane Hamsher’s latest sewage today blaming the anticipated Dem losses on HCR. Pretty please.
I would pay serious money to see you take on that insufferable twat.
I don’t know if the folks who run this are taking requests for taking on insufferable twats, but if you are, I seriously recommend Bill Whittle at PJM. The guy is the single most smug, puffed-up, self-satisfied prig in the entire right-wing blogosphere, which is saying something considerable given the company he’s in.
Elie
@Maude:
I suspect that there are some of the same human failings in the left as well as right — some aspects of racism, jealousy and just plain arrogance.
What bothers me more about the left is their blindness to the damage it causes our side (assuming that they would want solidarity on progressive issues and for the President to have the power of their support to accomplish what they generally support). It has been unclear to me that their goals tally much with how they are treating him. I donot accept that they are too stupid to figure out how politics works and that there is a step by step to any policy change on a big scale. I am left, therefore, with darker interpretations. A few of these folks will need to be outed for these darker reasons and made to face their biases just like anyone else. Until that label “racist” can be placed on some of them, we will be continually surprised and kept in the dark about their purpose…. As much as they bleat about how Obama has betrayed them, THEY have betrayed him and most importantly, betrayed our collective, progressive ability to get more done and dominate the conversation from a positive and can do place. Instead, they have facilitated weakening our hand and stengthening the tea party. I will never forget one of the gay rights activists threatening that he would never vote for Obama again… that somehow, he would do better with another option? Who actually was being betrayed here?
master c
I had to talk about abortion with my 8 year old, because during the 08 election, her teacher told her she was voting for McCain because “Obama was for abortion”. When I questioned the teacher about it, she said she assumed because it was Catholic doctrine it was okay.
I told her we haven’t even talked about sex yet…….[my daughter and I]
they are in public school now.
Admiral_Komack
@Admiral_Komack:
“Off-topic: What is the Ballooin Jucers opinion of the Meeks-Crist-Clinton dustup?”
I had to fix it.
eemom
well, with McCain the jealousy is purely personal, because Obama beat HIM. By all accounts he is a spiteful, vindictive old fuck. In addition to his many other charming qualities.
eemom
@Admiral_Komack:
I really wish Clinton could have pulled it off. However, I don’t understand why the failure had to be so PUBLICIZED.
kay
@Comrade Dread:
She was only pro-war when Bush was President, like a lot of conservatives. Now that they’re Obama’s Wars Schmidt doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the epic clash of civilizations that we had to win in Iraq, or the Iraqi peeeooople, that conservatives used to love like brothers.
She was just clowning for the cameras with that, wearing her flag dress.
Hogan
@eemom: Mine was Johnson/Goldwater. Now get off my lawn.
Elie
@Linda Featheringill:
I am not sure that some of the same thing can’t be said for some on the left.
Something is generally broken in our society. We are no longer liberal in the sense of tolerating diverse ideas and points of view and showing respect for divergence. We are in an authoritarian frame — social Darwinist period where we act out the will to power rather than the patient development of consensus and support for democratic process above all. Naw. We want our views, whatever they are, imposed on the masses, by coercion if necessary. Why waste time with making convincing and well thought out rationales? Part of the reason why so many candidates arent even trying to make sense anymore. It doesnt matter. You are either part of my tribe or not. If you are, you will vote for or support whatever I say. If you are not part of my tribe I want you destroyed and disempowered. Simple as that. Salem witch trials.
Nick
@JAHILL10: I’m the biggest Obot here. So much of an Obot, Corner Stone can’t even function on a daily basis anymore, but what I saw in Jon Stewart was a journalist conducting himself as a median between the President and the firebaggers. A good journalist acts as a median between the people and the government. That’s all they are, no one cares what they think or how they feel, they’re just conduits of information.
I don’t think Jon Stewart is a firebagger, but I appreciate that he was their conduit in that interview. Firebaggers had the President answer their questions and speak to their concerns.
Elie
@Nick:
I understand your point — that Stewart was acting as a medium for relaying the question of the firebaggers. do you think that Obama didn’t know, or had not heard of the concern about the public option? Do you think that there was really a true question there that the firebaggers had not had a chance to ask or be heard about? Really?
No. I aint buying that at all. Stewart did not ask a detailed question relating to if the President saw a way to have the public option added over time. It was the old “gotcha” frame — more of a statement that he had let them down on the public option than a question on how to move to get that in the future.
THAT was what separates the role of the medium that you describe, or the true role of the Court Jester, two very important roles that Stewart could have played
but did not. Not by a long shot in my opinion. Obama expected that and that was indeed what he got.
Allan
@eemom: For those who have decided that Meek should step aside and endorse Crist, the publicity is necessary because Meek said no.
It’s a message to FL voters from the national Dems saying, “We appreciate your loyalty to Meek and the party, but it’s OK to break rank and vote for Crist.”
The dustup in Rhode Island is a great example. The local Democrats got the message that it’s OK with Obama if Chafee wins, and support for Caprio evaporated overnight.
Calouste
@Catsy:
I think that is a specific American problem. In Europe, if you’re not party leader by the time you’re 50 or even mid forties, you pretty much never going to make Prime Minister, and to get there, you have to have a senior cabinet/shadow cabinet position (i.e. be amongst your party’s leaders) in your mid-late 30s. In the US, there’s hardly anyone in the Senate under 50.
Cris
Has anyone noted the additional irony, that right-wingers love to push the myth that liberals are introducing sex-ed to kindergartners? And yet here is Mean Jean, talking about reproductive matters with kindergartners.
eemom
@Allan:
Ah. That makes sense. Doubt it’ll work that way in FL, though.
WHY wouldn’t Meek do it? He’s not gonna win.
I seriously heard someone on NPR yesterday say that his wife was against it, implying that was the reason.
geg6
@Allan:
I agree. It’s all about signaling that it’s okay to vote for Crist.
fasteddie9318
Can I go and give an address to those same first graders about how the world would be a much better place if Jean Schmidt were to DIAF?
debbie
My local news stated that Schmidt said it had been totally unintentional. At least her re-election race is at least a bit competitive.
Funny about these family values promoters. I guess saying you’re one permits you to scare the bejezus out of them. Or maybe Schmidt just needed to talk to a more highly evolved audience.
fasteddie9318
@debbie:
Yeah, right. “Totally unintentional” is when her pea brain ekes out something approaching a rational thought.
JAHILL10
@Elie: Any other politician on his show and Stewart would declaim all responsibility as a journalist. “I’m just a comedian on a basic cable show!” is one of his most common dodges whenever anyone mentions the influence he wields with the young left.
But get the president on the show and suddenly he’s like, “You campaigned on the slogan Hope and Change. How dare you do that if you couldn’t transform Washington single-handedly in two years’ time?”
I was deeply offended by the tack he took. It was cheap and it made no concessions to the insane political reality that exists in Washington. Generally, I like Stewart, but I liked him a lot less after that bullshit.
cintibud
@Sentient Puddle: Mean Jean hasn’t changed. She didn’t leave the wingnut brigade, they left her.
eemom
@JAHILL10:
I agree. IMO Colbert is the true progressive of the pair. Stewart is just a showman.
Elie
@JAHILL10:
Agree completely. See my comment at #65. He was purposely tweaking Obama’s nose…
I also agree about your opinion of his little antic. But why was that ok, do you think? Why would he disrespect Obama in such a public forum?
Different people can come to different conclusions, but I believe that the tone set by much of the “professional left” — the criticism unmitigated by the sense that in the end, we are all on the basically same side and should not damage our current leader most in position to forward our agenda — that blindness comes from a darker place, I fear. Not at all saying that Stewart is racist or anything like that…only that he and many others have not examined what has been going on with the left and the impact that is having on successes for the tea party and actually doing much that we want. I would like him to critique some of the lefties for a change — get some balance on both sides — (that won’t happen of course)
It was cheap. If I am Obama and return to his show, which I am sure he will at some point, he should arrive with a few barbs of his own to stick up Stewarts righteous left behind.
lennixwebster
THANK YOU AND AMEN YOU ARE 100% RIGHT.
shortstop
@Allan:
A big piece of that evaporating support was Caprio telling the president of the United States and the highest-ranking guy in his own party to take his endorsement and shove it…after having begged for it only hours before. Another aspect of it was said outburst bringing renewed attention to Caprio’s having shopped his candidacy to the RNC before choosing to run with a D behind his name. He is not a reliable Democrat. Chafee’s well to the left of this guy in many ways and Rhode Island knows it.
I sort of understand why Clinton and friends are doing the “It’s okay to vote for Crist” thing, but it’s totally tone-deaf where African Americans are concerned. I do not think that the Big Dog has thought through the optics of a bunch of white guys pressuring the black guy to drop out so that a Republican can win.
Meanwhile, Alex Sink’s race is extremely close and she needs every Democratic vote she can get. If African Americans stay home because of what’s happening with Meek, we will lose the governorship as well as this Senate seat — which, partly because of early voting, is probably irrevocably gone.
Jrod the Cookie Thief
People want someone to blame. Not that the various reasons that people go after Obama listed on this thread aren’t also true, but there’s also the factor that people just want to take shots at the top guy. Stewart just couldn’t resist. Maybe we was making up for never being able to do it to Bush.
It’s hardly a big concern to me. Obama is one of the few people around who can handle Stewart as easily as he’d handle a child. Let Stewert play his gotcha games; he’s not in Obama’s league.
The other day, my Obama-hating roommate stated that he holds Obama 100% responsible for our economic situation. In fact, he stated that it was Bush’s fault at first, but after six months in office it became Obama’s fault. If I facepalmed to that any harder I’d have popped out an eyeball. But the guy doesn’t feel that way because of racism (I think) or because Obama didn’t wait his turn. He just likes shitting on the top guy. (And he knows jack-shit about how our government works, but, y’know, him and the vast majority of Americans.)
Clay Boggess
What’s the difference between talking about abortion with students and teaching ‘safe sex’ by attempting to issue condoms without parent consent? Aren’t both sides in this case attempting to indoctrinate?
buckyblue
Even if the lie were true, that she was just responding to a kids question, she certainly didn’t have to answer it. She could have easily said, “that’s not an appropriate thing for me to comment on right now.” and been done with it.
Elie
@Jrod the Cookie Thief:
“Let Stewert play his gotcha games; he’s not in Obama’s league.”
That most certainly is true, but by treating Obama that way, he is not only just lame, but disrespects the causes that he says that he hopes this guy is going to fight for.
If I want you to do something for me, something hard to do, and I try to embarrass you in a public forum, don’t you run the chance of screwing your own aspirations? Or are we to think that Stewart in the end doesn’t give a rats ass about all that anyway — the progressive agenda is then just a vehicle — a means for him to look smart and cute and tweaking Obama’s nose has no more meaning than tweaking Bush’s nose would have presented. Its all the same, right?
Stewart is about Stewart and his brand has been clarified for me. Me,me,me.
Ash Can
So the principal invites, or was involved in the decision to invite, Jean Fucking Schmidt to address a bunch of grade school kids, without giving the first thought to the likelihood she’d do or say something vile? And then tells the parents to keep mum about her vileness?
I’m glad to hear that, at the very least, parents are upset about this. If I had any kids at that school, my to-do list would look really simple:
1) Yank kids from school immediately and enroll them somewhere else,
2) Horsewhip dumbfuck principal through the streets for about five hours, or until both of my arms got too tired to continue.
There’s no fucking excuse for this. I hope that school’s enrollment has dropped by at least half by now.
Jrod the Cookie Thief
@Elie: While I don’t think Stewert covered himself in glory with his Obama interview, I think he was less concerned about seeming smart and cute than he was about maintaining his rep as the guy who will ask the tough questions.
The main disconnect is that, when Stewart does so to media figures and right-wing politicos, he actually is asking questions that nobody else will. When he does it to Obama, he’s just doing the same thing as the rest of the media.
But yeah, it was more about Stewart himself than his interviewee. Welcome to the big time!
I just don’t think it’s a big problem, because Obama handled himself and made his case just fine.
Bender
@Admiral_Komack:
That the black man has to step aside because Whitey told him that another white man needs that seat?
I mean, that’s what Ball Juicers would think if the Republicans did this. Just like objecting a president’s speech to schoolkids is somehow “blatantly race-based” (with no explanation as to why) but the Donks kicking the black man to the curb for another old rich white guy is just good-old-boy politics-as-usual!
Meanwhile, deadman Crist and pushed-aside Meeks argue about what really happened — Rubio is probably busy looking for office space in D.C.
shortstop
@Clay Boggess: Those condom “distributions” are school fundraisers. And we at least wait until the kids are in second grade to sell them to ’em.
JAHILL10
@Jrod the Cookie Thief: I buy Stewart as “Asker of Tough Questions for the Left and Right” when he gets Bill Clinton on the show and asks him how it feels to know that the current president is daily getting skewered for not undoing all the anti-gay bullshit that was passed under the Clinton administration fast enough.
Elie
@Jrod the Cookie Thief:
“I think he was less concerned about seeming smart and cute than he was about maintaining his rep as the guy who will ask the tough questions.”
Not to belabor, but did he really ask a tough question? He made a statement acusing Obama of not standing up for the public option or other left causes. He made a statement. He did not ask Obama the factors that went into that approach, or the approach for fixing it or any number of what would have been tough but fair questions about WHY
He struck a pose on the same ol same ol ,”where’s my pony” bullshit we get ad nauseam from the so called WATB left.
Elie
@JAHILL10:
Yay!
Jrod the Cookie Thief
@Elie: You’re right, I think it’s more about Stewart posing than Stewart sticking it to the man. He hasn’t destroyed any long-running CNN shows lately, and he wants the old fire back.
TDS has been on the decline for awhile now, though it’s still one of the better shows on TV. I do expect the show to vastly improve if the Repukes take control of congress, so let me say right now that I hope TDS continues circling the drain.
@JAHILL10: Some questions about NAFTA and financial dereg would be nice as well.
ruemara
@Jrod the Cookie Thief:
You know, what really pissed me off, and by the fleeting facial expression on the president, Prez Obama; what was up with that stupidity of pouring his water into the president’s cup? It was disrespectful, not funny. It gave me a not to pretty look at John Stewart’s mindset towards this President. It’s not exactly bigotry, no, but I’ve lived a little and experienced something like it. It’s you were having a relationship with someone you didn’t know about and you forgot their birthday or something. You’re just a disappointment because you were supposed to be “extraspecial” and how dare you actually be human. You’re not just supposed to be good as everyone else, you’re supposed to transcend being human.
Cain
@Mnemosyne:
I was looking at a picture of Michelle Obama on that photostream. Wow, she looks absolutely gorgeous. That said, I’m somewhat sympathetic that she seems to have a more visual role and it must be hard to give up the professional life doing this kind of thing. And have to deal with asshats to boot.
cain
Cain
@Cain:
And another fucking thing.. Obama is out there going into people’s homes discussing issues in their kitchens.. how many presidents have done that? Did Bush Jr ever do that? Fuck no. ARGH..
This country makes me cry.
cain
Elie
@Jrod the Cookie Thief:
But you know what is sad? I think he could have some humor and ask tough questions of Obama. He could also do the public a service to delve behind some of the why questions.
Yeah, I know he hopes for a republican congress but the thrill is gone for me with him… I used to think that he was truly a jester — a very necessary but sometimes an uncomfortable role in a democracy — stating or asking the truth from power but using humor and wit to do it. He aint that. He had an unparalleled opportunity to prepare a show that would have shown that and possibly really improved his ratings and his credibility. He is a smart dude and could have definitely done it –
He didnt. Missed opportunity.
Ash Can
@Cain: What’s sad is that if she were to so much as cough without covering her mouth we’d never hear the end of it from the right wing and their mass media megaphones. She’d become the whole narrative overnight, and not in a good way. And she knows it, too, so she keeps a much lower profile than she’d ever need to if she were, ahem, less well-endowed with melanin. She could be another Eleanor Roosevelt and Jackie Kennedy and Hillary Clinton all rolled into one if it weren’t for all the masses of vultures ready to swoop.
Mnemosyne
@Cain:
I’m guessing she’s partly able to get through by reminding herself that it always sucks to be the pioneer and she just has to Jackie Robinson her way through it.
Carol
@Clay Boggess: Condoms are issued to high school students who are asking for them and who are already having sex. BTW, some high schoolers are 18 depending upon the date of birth, so they wouldn’t even need permission for getting condoms.
I any event, the conversation needs to be between a teacher and student, or parent and teacher. Jean Schmidt is a brainless teabagger who like the others has lost even a vague sense of appropriateness when it comes to stuff like this.
Elie
@ruemara:
I am glad that I missed that.
Case closed.
Stewart is an asshole.
I got something to put in HIS water/coffee/whatever.
some spit
JenJen
Late to this thread, but…
Word, Kay.
As an aside, I live in Schmidt’s district, and my record of voting against her is stellar: Hackett, Wulsin, Wulsin, and, since I’ve already voted against her, Yalamanchili.
I’ll never understand how she won that special against Hackett, because he was a sparkling candidate with a lot of support. Since then, though, I think we’ve been offering up some weak tea. Chili is good, but I’m almost certain my district will send Mean Jean right on back to Congress.
I still say this is a vulnerable district, and in 2012, I really hope we can find a candidate of Hackett’s stature to run against her and finally put her away. Let’s face it, she’s awful. So why can’t we beat her?
Admiral_Komack
@Admiral_Komack:
Sorry.
It’s MEEK, damn it
I need a drink. :(