.
Maybe I’m an easy marker, but this works better than you might think — the President is very comfortable talking to Tha Yoot one-on-one. Even NPR was impressed:
… [T]he president sat down for interviews with three YouTube stars: GloZell Green, known for her outrageous experiments and observations; Bethany Mota, a 19-year-old who gives makeup and decorating tips; and Hank Green, who co-creates videos about science, tech and more.
Some of the questions got right to the point. Obama glossed over issues of race and policing during his State of the Union address, but GloZell Green forced him to expand on the issue with this question: “I hope that this changes — how can we bridge the gap between black, African-American males and white cops?”
Nineteen-year-old Bethany Mota asked the president why she and other young people should even care about politics. High-five, Hank Green, for saying what many younger viewers were thinking as they watched Tuesday’s State of the Union: Is it all just talk?…
“There are some areas where I think we can get some Republican cooperation,” Obama replied. “There are some areas where it’s important for us to frame the debate and get the American people behind us.”…
Mota had a confession: Before preparing to interview the president, she said, “I never really followed politics that much.”
“Politics is just — How do we organize ourselves in a society? How do we make decisions about how we’re going to live together?” the president responded….
At Bloomberg Politics, Arit John points out that aging political junkies are not exactly the President’s target audience:
…[I]s it really beneath the dignity of the president to engage with millennials—the country’s largest constituency—in the way that interests them? Younger people vote at embarrassing low rates, and to the extent that they do follow the news, they’re more likely to get it through social media than older Americans. Meanwhile, the three stars who interviewed Obama—Green; Hank Green, 35; and Bethany Mota, 19—have 13.8 million subscribers between them, and many of those followers think it’s beneath the dignity of the media to scoff at the session…
What say you guys?
Baud
Why is new media supposed to be different than anything else? It’s just people talking.
Shana
As a mother of a 24 year old who’s very into politics and has worked on several campaigns, and a 22 year old who’s not into politics, I say go get the kids where they are. Broadening the universe of people paying attention to politics and explaining why it’s important to do so is a good thing.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
twitter is suggesting that Sarah Palin said something particularly obnoxious about Obama in the middle of an all-time, epic word salad at Steve King’s hatefest. Anybody know the dirty details?
srv
The kids make Republican’s hearts sing.
SNL is much more entertaining:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAsBta25OGQ
ruemara
How else are you supposed to reach people if you don’t go where they are?
Hill Dweller
Their questions were better than most of what you’ll hear from the front row at the daily White House press briefing.
Bobby B.
@Baud: Just people talking, with The Corporation standing over, benignly. Why is it that Chuck Todd has that job of his? He’s got Huckabee tomorrow morning and I’m not joking when I say you’ll lose your breakfast watching that. John Mendelssohn’s gonna spooge all over the screen.
Omnes Omnibus
@ruemara: I’ve heard that shouting at clouds is popular.
mclaren
A 19-year-old who gives makeup and decorating tips interviewed the president.
Genius.
What’s your tip for hair styling, Anne Laurie? Are hair extensions too “yesterday”? What about outré colors like pink and blue — too shocking?
And how do you spritz up a dull living room? New wallpaper? Mood lighting? Or a new slip cover for the couch?
Omnes Omnibus
@mclaren: … speaking of shouting at clouds.
GregB
McLaren. Please share with us your tips on how to be the perfect douchebag.
You’ve got that shit nailed.
schrodinger's cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Cloud, computer, no difference.
sharl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Dunno about Word Salad Sarah saying anything particularly nasty about Obama of late – though wouldn’t be surprised – but she did recently hold up a nasty sign targeted at Michael Moore, in response to comments the latter made about the guy whose story was told in “American Sniper”.
So yeah, she ain’t running, just working her usual grift. This latest probably ties in with some planned touring she has with that sniper guy’s widow; too lazy to look up a link.
Omnes Omnibus
@mclaren:
The President got a 19 y/o who never before thought about politics but has a huge audience to think and talk about politics. How exactly is this a bad thing? Please try to answer without using the phrase “Shithole America.”
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodinger’s cat: I don’t use cloud storage. Don’t trust it.
sharl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Oh, THIS is probably what you are referring to:
Stayin’ as classy as ever, that one is.
bago
@Baud: Youtube stars aren’t afraid of corporate blowback. They don’t have to sell ad space to pay for the infrastructure to be viewed, so they aren’t beholding to investors or corporate interests beyond their own personal brand.
Chuck Todd famously said that he won’t press on difficult questions, because if he did, he wouldn’t be able to get guests onto his show. Chuck Todd has to get corporations and campaigns to buy ads on Meet the Press, and he has to flatter politicians to do so.
A girl with green lipstick just has to get you to click.
Which is journalism, and which is “dignity”?
JR in WV
Nothing Palin can say can belittle anyone lower than she lands by uttering her caribou-shit.
More power to President Obama for talking to people the kids look up to, and perhaps getting at least some of them aware of politics. At least aware of the diff between the Republicans and the Democrats.
The last time President Obama made a serious misstep politically was long before he was elected President. So I will depend upon his skillz to move us forward.
Mike J
DFTBA
schrodinger's cat
@Omnes Omnibus: No cloud storage, only cloud outrage?
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: I never do.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodinger’s cat: Neither TYVM.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@sharl: ah, John McCain’s one true legacy, the gift he gave us all.
kc
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Called him “boy,” according to my Twitter feed.
TooManyJens
@mclaren:
Yep. She asked him about police brutality against black people, and recognition of Cuba. So now those issues are newly salient for her young viewers. Sounds like a fine idea to me.
ETA: Oh, I was thinking of GloZell Green, not Bethany Mota. I only caught Mota’s first question, about how hard it is to afford college. But hey, who cares about that, amirite?
sharl
On the topic of the original post, I thought this was an appropriate response:
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Palin’s “boy” comment:
http://crooksandliars.com/cltv/2015/01/palin-calls-president-obama-overgrown
Mike in NC
@JR in WV: The Whore from Wasilla becomes more irrelevant with every passing day. Needs to knock out at least one more coloring or cook book before nobody knows her name.
Omnes Omnibus
@TooManyJens: He talked, seriously and with respect, to people with wide youth audiences. How could that be bad? Anecdotally, I have always talked to my nephew and niece as if I take them seriously (because I do) – I know that some of their concerns are silly, but they are serious to 13 and 11 year olds. Respect garners respect. At any age.
Mandalay
@Mike in NC:
Why did you choose to call her a “Whore”?
TooManyJens
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s incomprehensible to people who either don’t respect anyone, or think respect is due only to those with money and power.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mandalay: Why do you think he did so?
@TooManyJens: The kids really like me (I know, it confuses me as well).
Cervantes
@mclaren:
Are you objecting to the YouTube interviews? I can’t see a good reason to do so. I assume the three interviewers were picked because (1) people watch what they do, and (2) they generally don’t do anything stupid. If talking to them gets a message out to where it needs to go, what’s the problem?
Mike J
@kc: “‘Overgrown little boy.” Which sounds a little different from “boy”, but it’s believable that it was a way to work it in.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Nah, I am good with kids because I can give them back to their owners when they become douchebags.
Hal
Rob Lowe is not happy.
TooManyJens
Hank Green wrote a very good article about the interviews, and the concept of legitimacy: https://medium.com/@hankgreen/holy-shit-i-interviewed-the-president-fa3e8fb44d16
(Also, I don’t know exactly how old I thought GloZell Green was, but the answer was not 52. Damn.)
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: PotAYto/PotAHto.
Tommy
@Mike in NC: She is a terrible person but you shouldn’t call her that. There are many other words in he dictionary you could use. I don’t think “whore” is one of them. I don’t like that word nor think a women should be called it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@efgoldman: I can’t bring myself to watch the video, but a few twitter witness say it was a bewildering performance, even by Palin standards
Omnes Omnibus
@Tommy: Whore is an accurate term for a person who sells his/herself for money, is it not?
Mike J
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: 18 days until truck day!
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: What the fuck Dropkick Murphy’s song has Scottie grabbed? I haven’t heard anything of it.
Villago Delenda Est
I’m sure the vermin of the Village are aghast at Obama going over their loathsome heads and talking directly to people via YouTube.
Chuckles the Toddler can sit on it and spin.
Johnny Coelacanth
@Tommy: What do you call a person who’s always for sale?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Sandia Blanca
We did not watch the SOTU, but we just watched this entire video, and were impressed by the questions and the answers. I think this is an excellent way to reach out to the people who are inheriting our messes. Thanks very much for sharing this.
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: Shipping up to Boston, believe it or not.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tommy: Also too, are you at all familiar with the phrase “Whore of Babylon” from the Book of Revelations? Sometimes culturally literate people reference that phrase. Just saying.
Tommy
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes it is. Kind of the definition of the word. Knew the second I wrote my comment somebody would go there. But I don’t think you have to call somebody that to make your point.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mandalay:
Well, here’s a good reason right here.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: @Mike J: Dear god.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tommy: If it is accurate, what is your problem with its use?
ETA: Why should one use restraint in one’s description of Ms. Palin?
PaulW
My take on the potential GOP candidates of the 2016 primaries… for what it’s worth, I can’t see a single one of them campaigning in such a positive way to impress enough moderate/no-party-affiliate voters to win against Hillary (who isn’t much positive herself) in the general election.
fuckwit
Keep in mind that President Obama used to be Professor Obama.
He’s a teacher at heart; outreach to college-age folks is a big part of who he is. He for some years early in his career was employed teaching young men and women exactly at the peak Social Media and YouTube age: undergraduate age.
If you’ve watched him, you notice he’s very contained in his emotions, but the only time I’ve seen him moved to tears it was addressing and/or speaking about young people (only twice, so far: thanking his young campaign team after his last campaign, and his press conference after the Newtown gun massacre).
Young people are what has motivated and animated him, and still do. Also keep in mind he has two teenage daughters, who I’m sure spend a lot of time on Tumblr and Twitter and Instagram and YouTube. The dinner-table discussions around the White House I’m sure include topics that are “trending” on those media on a daily basis.
There’s nothing surprising about what he’s doing and I am very glad he’s doing it. The old cliche is true: young people are our future. We will all be living in their world in 20 years. What they think, feel, and do, matters a great deal.
Suzanne
The idea that a 19-year-old who cares about makeup doesn’t deserve to talk to her elected leaders is just a bit ageist and sexist, aye? I mean, I wear makeup. Does that make me unserious?
Went and test-drove the 2015 Honda CR-V today. Mr. Suzanne and I agreed that we both preferred it to the Nissan Rogue and Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid. Still want to check out the Mazda CX-5. But I’m nervous. I don’t like spending large chunks of change,
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: To make it worse, it was written by Woody, the man with “This machine kills fascists” written on his guitar.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: Buy the Honda or the Mazda. Whichever feels better.
scav
Seriously. Attendees of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner are calling some different event beneath the dignity of the Presidency? Sweeties.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: I know. If I were completely sober, I would drive to the Governor’s mansion and egg it.
PaulW
the power of the Presidency is the pulpit, bully or otherwise. The President speaks to the American people however and whomever he can. Back in the 1930s it got to be radio. Back in the 1960s it got to be television. This is the 21st Century. If Obama needs to speak to the youth of this nation that lives through YouTube and Tumblr and social media, then dammit he needs to. We all do.
The strength of a society is its ability to communicate with itself in a clear and honest manner.
Omnes Omnibus
@PaulW: Exactly.
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: Pelt it with wooden legs.
Tommy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I watched part of it. I lived for a time in the deep south. Calling an adult male that is African American a “boy” is a huge dog whistle. Code for calling the person a nig^&er. That is just what it is. She needs to be called on this.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: I do not specifically have an issue with the word “whore”, though of course YMMV. But there is a pretty good argument to make that one should show restraint in language describing even total assholes because when certain terms becomes OK to use in common parlance, it makes life harder for everyone else. This is why it bugs me when people disparage Chris Christie was “fat and disgusting”. The dude is a total asshole, but all the fat people who aren’t assholes are hurt when it becomes okay to disparage their bodies with the intent of disparaging their character, and that’s not right.
Villago Delenda Est
@Tommy: The new “ni*CLANG*” is “thug”. It’s used all the time by the scum of Faux.
Suzanne
@efgoldman: We are looking at the 2015, because it has some features we really want. Most especially rear air vents, as I feel awful for my kids in the backseat in Arizona summers. But you’re right, the dealer was super-aggressive. They even offered to pay off our other car if we were willing to buy in the next four weeks.
Mike J
@Villago Delenda Est: Used for anybody who dresses like Bill Belichick.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: The woman sells herself for money, figuratively if not literally. I have no problem with someone using that term for her. If Tommy has arguments contra, he is free to offer them.
Suzanne
@efgoldman: It really does. I don’t have a problem with “whore” when it’s used in the context of, say, “media whore” and is gender-neutral in its application. But I have a problem with disparaging sex workers. If anybody deserves disparaging, it’s the johns.
ruemara
hmm. Check engine light is on and I managed to cut the back of my throat on a homemade potato chip. This has been a strange january.
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: I would generally find a different word to express my displeasure, if for no other reason than the fact that it’s too easy to distract away from what she said to what I said.
I have no moral problem with it, merely tactical.
TooManyJens
The use of “whore” as a term of contempt relies upon the assumption that a person who has sex with people for money is inherently worthy of contempt. Now, perhaps you think that, but if you don’t, you might want to reconsider the use of a term that endorses that view.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: I don’t disagree with you. But Tommy said this:
People disagreed.
Omnes Omnibus
@TooManyJens: Co-sign.
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: I can understand his point, even if I think he’s wrong. There are plenty of other words to show my contempt that are less likely to change the argument from what she said to what I said.
Calling somebody “whore” because she called somebody else “boy” just seems like bad form.
Jerzy Russian
@Suzanne:
Buy it. I have a 2013 model and I love the shit out of it. It was the second-to-last 2013 model on the lot, and we got a good discount on it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: Let’s just see Tommy’s reply. It should be instructive.
satby
There’s lots of highly accurate unflattering names to link to Palin, but let’s not distract ourselves from what she said that started this kerfluffle.
FWIW whore is probably one of the nicer things to call her, IMO
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m just waiting for Obama’s Minecraft video. There’s no way he could be any worse at Thaumcraft than Sjin and Duncan of the Yogscast are.
(Yes, I watch Yogscast. They’re more entertaining to me than TV sitcoms.)
Cervantes
Frankly, Palin is a buffoon. What I think people should do about her is not discuss her, not call her anything at all. If anything could make her stop, that might be it. Alas, ignoring her seems to be difficult for many people, so perhaps the next best thing would be to criticize her on the merits: not an arduous task. Whereas calling her names just distracts from her buffoonery, plays into her hand, and works to her (fund-raising) advantage.
Suzanne
@Jerzy Russian: I’m leaning toward it, yeah. I have a 2000 model that is about to cross 200K miles, and I have just loved this car. I am not a fan of the design of the back, though. I think it looks goofy, and I found it hard to see out the right rear, so I would want to spend the extra money for their lane-change camera.
shortstop
@Omnes Omnibus: or you could just go to bed and, when you finally wake up tomorrow, think about actually leaving the house instead of repeating the sad nightly pattern of drinking alone and squatting on a blog comment thread getting obsessively belligerent with the same couple of people.
sharl
@ruemara: I’m not an auto mechanic, but the ‘Check Engine’ light came on regularly in the last couple years of ownership of the 2001 Accord I got rid of last year. Both a professional auto mechanic and a coworker wise in such matters said it could be all sorts of things, but they agreed that in older cars it was often an oxygen sensor that ceased to function, and that – probably – I could get away with ignoring it. So I did.
You might ask around about that, especially if your budget doesn’t permit an immediate trip to the shop. Based on age and mileage on your car, it might be the same situation. I think there are more car-savvy folks among the morning crew here; they’d certainly offer opinions more informed than mine.
The auto mechanic I went to – primarily for other issues – actually got the light to go out for awhile, after saying he could offer no promises in successfully doing so. I forget what he did – a general cleaning out of some air lines with pressurized air, maybe? But it worked… for awhile.
And sorry about the chip thing – sounds painful!
srv
As mentioned on another thread, the first grandson of King Abdulaziz has been appointed Deputy Crown Prince in KSA. He’s the one who replaced Bandar Bush as intelligence chief. Wiki has an interesting story on one of the four assassination plots he survived:
We had the shoe guy, and the underwear guy, but someone beat the Joker to the punch. Apparently, MI-6 is worried about female bombers, with, erm, implants or boob cavity bombs.
jl
I watched the interviews yesterday and thought they were great. And who the hell is Howard Kurtz to talk about dignified? Kurtz? Dignified? We talking about Kelly and Kurtz? Dignified?
Just Some Fuckhead
Since politics is basically old white people doing shit for old white people, I can’t imagine why young people would be compelled to vote. What a horrific waste of time since the boomers have their clutching gimme hands firmly on the spoils of government. By the time the locust generation is in its dormancy, millennials will be lucky to have SS intact. Not that they’ll be eligible for it since boomers blew up the economy and then sat on the few jobs that weren’t Jimmy Johns delivery.
jl
@Tommy:
[Palin] ” is a terrible person but you shouldn’t call her that. There are many other words in he dictionary you could use. I don’t think “whore” is one of them. I don’t like that word nor think a women should be called it. ”
I go with ‘Clown’ for Palin, along with Newt (aka ‘lil’ Newtie), Carson, ol’ Huck and a few others of the grifter class. Earlier this evening, I heard a clip of Palin talking at King’s hucksterfest. Palin’s attempt and earnesterly speakering about about the value of full clown car-ing for the primaring of GOP candidating for upcoming 2016 presidenting electioning. Even the GOP base chucked at her.
I don’t see that Palin speaks any more oddly than Dub, and I never heard an audience chuckle at him like that, but then, life isn’t fair. But Dub was president for a while, so there is that going for him.
Thor Heyerdahl
@Omnes Omnibus: So in Palin’s case is she the “Whore of Babble-on?”
srv
@Just Some Fuckhead: These boomers simply don’t understand who it is that is going to be wiping their asses at the old folks home when they rage for $12/hr minimum wage.
Foresight is not their strength.
Thank god we’ll have death panels.
GregB
Palin sounds like she’s one crack-pipe hit away from yelling at furniture and defecating in public.
jl
@GregB:
See there? That’s what I mean. So, why did the audience laugh at her and not the other very similar nutjobs and King’s nutjob festival?
But I forgot that they are sexist.
ruemara
@sharl: I have decided to look at it in the morning. this is where I open the hoodm examine everything with a concerned look. check the oil, clean the battery contacts and see if any hoses or things like that are obviously dangling. I’ve never really fixed anything when I do it, but I feel more proactively a motorist. Unfortunately, I paid a massive amount fixing the o2 (?) sensor just a few months ago. Things do happen.
seaboogie
@Suzanne: I have one of the original 1999 CR-Vs, and it drives problem free with minimal maintenance all these years later. As a semi-poor person, I am grateful to have such a reliable ride.
So, about seven years back my mother (who is an oblivious narcissist and is considered by her children as “some lady that we know”) was looking for a new vehicle to manage the MN winters. She wanted something not too big to manage, reliable, and 4WD. So I said “Mom, I’ve been driving a CR-V for 7 years now, and it is all that and a bag of chips – go check one out. No response. A few weeks later I spoke with her and she told me that she had purchased a new vehicle. What did you get mom? A CR-V…the salesman told me that it was just perfect for me!!!” This is why I am in therapy.
Mandalay
@Tommy:
Well said. Nobody here would dream of calling Hillary Clinton a “whore” for taking $12m in speaking fees….would they?
cckids
@jl: I really, really don’t think you can attribute laughing at that speech of Palin’s to sexism. From many accounts it was past incomprehensible, even for her. Link to TBogg’s account of it, which includes a video, if you’re drunk enough.
In addition to the “overgrown boy” remark, she let fly with this: “The middle class, everyday Americans are really getting taken for a ride. That is status quo, GOP leaders, by the way, the man can only ride you when your back is bent. Strengthen it. Then America will be taken for a ride.”
Anna Marie Cox has a tumblr up with a transcript, and it is mind-boggling, like performance art, or an old SNL “Bad Chinese Theater” skit. Read that. They are NOT laughing at her because she’s a woman.
Bush was remarkably gaffe-prone, but he apparently could read/use a teleprompter, though it was painfully obvious he’d barely rehearsed, and that the words weren’t his. But I challenge you to find an entire speech he ever made that was soooo bull-crap crazy as what Palin spewed today.
cckids
Link to Anna Marie Cox’s Palin transcript. It is simultaneously a hoot and just f*cking appalling that people would vote for her.
SRW1
@Hal:
Does Rob Low not realize what yelling at the kids to get off his lawn makes him look like?
jl
@cckids: OK, thanks. I just heard a clip. After a few stiff shots, I will take on the whole speech.
cckids
@jl:
Best of luck to you. I didn’t get far; she does look either drunk, high, or something. The transcript was enough for me.
jl
@TooManyJens: Thanks. Interesting commentary by Green.
And I thought Glozell said “put the ‘dic’ in dictator”, not ‘the dick’. I guess I am too innocent and naive for corporate media media analysis.
sharl
@cckids: Haha, I’m sure the actual audio sounded as much like word diarrhea as that transcript suggests.
I’m mostly with Cervantes on the merits of ignoring Mooselini, but I think low-visibility discussions in blog comment sections like this will give her minimal oxygen. I also think that certain sites that specialize in covering the loons – Wonkette and TBogg’s place at Raw Story come to mind – should be OK too. To the extent she, Newt, and other wingnut grifters serve as nuisances to the “serious” GOP candidates, I’m happy to see her crash their parties.
I would hate to see her current and future antics get front-paged here or at other larger blogs though, and I hope – though probably in vain – that TPM and similar news sites at least keep their postings on her deeply buried; complete absence would be preferred, but I doubt we’ll be so lucky.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mandalay: Hillary Clinton doesn’t deliberately dress like a streetwalker.
Villago Delenda Est
@srv:
Q would come up with something like that, for sure. If only to lure 007 into a trap.
SRW1
@cckids:
Jebus, what was Sarah on? I don’t listen to her that often, but that pitch of her voice in combination with her gesturing really made me think she may have had a few too many before she went to the microphone.
22over7
@ruemara: you might try replacing the gas cap. My mechanic said that sometimes they get a bit loose and make the check engine light come on. Worked for me.
Yatsuno
@Villago Delenda Est: Not to mention giving speeches is a perfectly respectable profession for a former politician. And if the fees are outrageous to some, the solution is don’t hire her.
A Humble Lurker
@Villago Delenda Est:
Okay, screw Palin, but that sounds awful close to ‘she deserved/wanted it, look how she’s dressed!’
wasabi gasp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlfhyFVJVvc
Anne Laurie
@Omnes Omnibus:
From reports, Shipping Up to Boston. Which shows about seventeen layers of committed cluelessness, because nothing says “sociopath politician from the Midwest” like a Woody Guthrie song about a crippled sailor as interpreted by a bunch of Irish-American bar rats.
Mandalay
@A Humble Lurker:
Exactly: “I’m fully entitled to call that woman a whore because the way she is dressed doesn’t meet my approval”.
You wouldn’t expect any posters on a supposedly progressive blog to think that way any more, but apparently some relics from a bygone era still do.
Anne Laurie
@cckids: IMO, the GOP people-in-charge here used Palin as a Shiny Object to distract the lamestream media from the really dangerous prospective candidates. And it worked! Because it’s much easier to point at Babble-Sarah than to examine what Walker/Christie/Santorum/King are up to, and how dangerous they are to those of us who aren’t white male Republicans with money…
Villago Delenda Est
@A Humble Lurker: You and Mandalay have demonstrated that you’re fuckheads, because Palin uses her sexuality as part of her entire grifting package.
She dresses like that to appeal to fascist twits like Rich Lowery. Hell, McCain was photographed checking out her ass.
She’s not appealing to intellect. This from a supposedly “Christian” woman.
She doesn’t deserve any respect. She’s not even attempting to earn it.
You two are playing right into the right wing meme of “political correctness” with your tut-tutting over this.
Mandalay
@Anne Laurie:
Well I watched Ted Cruz preach to the choir, and he certainly received rapturous applause, but in a tepid press conference afterwards he showed that he has all the warmth and amiabilty of a gutted fish. So my biggest takeaway from the Iowa debacle is that there is no way Cruz can become president – he’s way too much of a rigid, preachy and condescending know-it-all to win over the undecided. A bit like Newt Gingrich, but with even less charm.
Mandalay
@Villago Delenda Est:
Fine. So don’t respect her, but that doesn’t entitle you to call her a whore.
No, it’s absolutely nothing to do with the right wing, or even Sarah Palin. People like you who think it’s OK to call a woman a whore because of her dress are showing a fundamental disrespect for women, no different to the “slut shaming” that is regularly mocked here.
You don’t get to call a woman a whore because you don’t like the way she dresses any more. The world has moved on, and you need to grow the fuck up, and stop acting like a knuckle dragger.
A Humble Lurker
@Villago Delenda Est:
You’re really gonna complain about political correctness? Obviously the things that we DO are more important than the things that we SAY and there are a lot of people who don’t realize that, but most people who bitch about political correctness in my experience are people who are mad they can’t say n****r in public and get ‘heh, indeeds’ for it anymore. So really, I’ll fight for political correctness just to spite some motherfuckers.
There are plenty of Republican politicians who don’t appeal to intellect and who act in opposition of their supposedly Christian label and who do so while taking on important responsibilities for the near pitiable schmucks who voted for them. Which many actual whores can be proud to say they don’t do.
Palin is an idiotic, petty, incompetent, frightfully unpleasant woman who has lot’s you could criticize. And you jump right to these clothes and call her a whore? Really? Not only is this erring on the side of slut-shaming, it’s erring on the side of puritanical slut shaming. Those who fight monsters, man.
Not to mention, I’d be more inclined to blame the idiots who fall for that trick than the men and ladies who try to pull it. If it didn’t work, people wouldn’t try it. You are responsible for your own gonads, people.
NobodySpecial
@A Humble Lurker:
Blaming the victim is an ugly, ugly job. Good thing you’re here to do it, I guess.
SWMBO
@ruemara: Take it to Discount Auto or AutoZone or one of the car parts places. They have a gizmo that can read the computer and it will give them a code. Write it down. Search for it. It can tell you if it’s a bad O2 sensor or bad thermostat or if the gas cap hasn’t been screwed back on tight enough. There is a lot of info that you can get from this. You may need to replace the O2 sensor again (or the connector may have loosened). This is a little more involved than just looking under the hood but you could save yourself some $$$ in finding it out yourself.
A Humble Lurker
@NobodySpecial:
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t there something of a time honored tradition here to not pity people who are victims of the consequences of their own stupidity?
NotMax
@srv
Private Snafu got there first. (~2:50 – 3:10 of the video.)
BillinGlendaleCA
@ruemara: Sometimes the OX sensor will go off due to a mileage counter(it does on my car, but it’s old).
Tommy
As I have said here a number of times I don’t think you should call the lady a whore. Call a Wall Street banker a whore. Fine. Call an ambulance chasing lawyer a whore fine again. I just don’t like that word used against a women. I am not standing up for the lady, just saying.
My mother was a lifelong Republican and Palin was the straw that broke the camels back. Voted for Obama twice. First time in her life she voted for a Democrat. She felt she was stupid, and I don’t have a problem using that word to describe her.
When she saw that interview where Palin wouldn’t list the books or newspapers she read my mother was floored. How was that possible somebody was a governor now running for one of the highest offices in the nation and she doesn’t read? When later she said it was a gotcha question she’d had enough.
Came to me and said I had been politely harping on her for years that she ought to be a Democrat if not a liberal and maybe I was right. That her party could put up somebody like Palin was beyond her. I told her the party she was joining wasn’t perfect, but I think it is safe to say we won’t be running a “Palin” anytime soon.
raven
@Tommy: That fucking scumbag is no lady.
Cervantes
@Tommy:
The word “whore” is often used to control women via their sexuality.
The same applies to the word “lady.”
I agree that discussing female politicians in these terms is not the brightest or most helpful idea anyone ever had.
Cervantes
@Suzanne:
@TooManyJens:
@Mandalay:
Good points. Thanks.
HeartlandLiberal
@Omnes Omnibus: No kidding, agree re: danger of cloud storage 100%. I am retired IT professional, so run five servers, two Macs, two laptops, and six PCs. But you don’t have to do that to have your own cloud like I do. You can buy hard drive SATA connection cages, plug in a 3 TB drive, attach it to your computers, and you can back your stuff quite effectively. The ONLY reason for average consumer to use “the cloud” would be to pass data or pictures temporarily across the Internet, but always pulling them down to local storage for long term. This tech is now so affordable it just continues to amaze me. I just slapped a 3 TB drive in a cage on my Win 8.1 development PC so I could use HPER-V and spin up virtual machines, e.g. Windows 10 preview, versions of LINUX.
I recently had to work with a department here at major university, where I still do consulting database work and computer infrastructure maintenance, and they put ALL THEIR PASSWORDS FOR ALL THEIR ACCOUNTS IN THE CLOUD, in a service that lets you access and use them online. If there was ever a total recipe for disaster, that is it. Sooner or later that server WILL be hacked, the passwords WILL be compromised, and all heck will break loose.
FWIW, I have over 100 accounts scattered all over the place for which I must maintain unique passwords. That is what a little red plastic 4 x 3 notebook with looseleaf pages, with one page per account, kept by my PC at home, is for. It will NEVER be hacked electronically.
Keith G
This will work great as long as it’s part of an ongoing effort to meet the “kids” where they are and continue to speak about issues that interest them and continue to help them by suggesting and pointing to ways they can make a difference.
If this happens once, and then the West Wing moves on, this won’t be of much help.
chopper
@Omnes Omnibus:
ah, but you have to understand. the more young people stay deliberately ignorant of politics and avoid voting, the faster america will turn into a complete shithole and then mclaren gets his glorious revolution. you know, the one everybody else fights and dies in while he runs the coat check. then
worker’s paradise!serfdom!satby
Ok, so I’m a woman, and it’s only my own opinion, but calling someone who sells not only herself but her family, especially her disabled child, as a means to generate income comes damn close to the word whore. As it has been pointed out (by the first person who objected), the term is not used ONLY in a sexual context and not only on women.
I’d really like to think ignoring her would help make her go away, but I think she would be out there anyway, keeping her aggrieved following a festering wound on the body politic.
Robert
@bago: Yes…Yes and Yes…Nailed it…
WereBear
Sarah Palin puzzles me, because most people I’ve met like that can share the blame with their upbringing; that kind of anti-intellectual, take pride in their deficiencies, corporal punishment, mammon-worshipping, low self-awareness “raising” that flourishes like the rankest poison ivy in America. The kind she’s giving her own children, actually.
But her father was a schoolteacher and the rest of her family doesn’t seem to share in the reality show pageant she is making of her real life. Still, use of the word “whore” doesn’t seem accurate. We know someone like Chuck Todd knows better; he truly has sold out journalism principles for money.
But Palin has been madly searching for her way in the world since all those colleges. This is a con artist who has found her true calling. I’m sure she’s sure everyone sells themselves.
debbie
@Suzanne:
I think using “attention whore” to describe Palin is pretty accurate, actually.
satby
@WereBear: I would have to agree with you there.
Tumbrel for Hire
The Yoot are politically largely apathetic but, when pressed, both overwhelmingly support Democratic policies and hate Republican ones. So, the Village and their Republican enablers hate this kind of “new media” engagement by the President because it could result in voter engagement inroads that they couldn’t even dream of making. Their only hope is to relentlessly malign the “new media stars” to try and keep the President away from engaging them at all – keeping The Yoot apathetic.
Good on Obama for thumbing his nose at the retrograde.
Cervantes
@sharl:
And I’m mostly with you on the merits of agreeing with me! More seriously, you’re right, of course: I was not referring primarily to obscure comment threads — yet when no one anywhere ever mentions her again to me, it won’t have come a moment too soon. I imagine McCain feels the same way, but my sympathy for his predicament does not exist.
WereBear
That was an awesome interview!
He’s such a people person.
Matt McIrvin
@Villago Delenda Est: Palin personally deserves no respect, but when female politicians get this particular kind of grief, there’s collateral damage.
It’s kind of like all the old jokes about Ann Coulter being “Mann Coulter”. Coulter is a deeply horrible person and there’s no point in being polite to her, but when people do that, they’re implying that it’s somehow bad or discrediting to look androgynous or like a trans person, and that affects other people who did nothing wrong. Just as with Palin, it’s really tempting, because Coulter’s appearance is indeed one of the things she trades on for appeal, she has a whole misogynistic shtick about how liberal women are ugly, and it’s an attempt to turn that back on itself. But it’s better not to go there.
Caravelle
Thing is that whores don’t “sell themselves” for money. They sell some of their time and limited use of their body, like all employed people to some extent or another. The difference is that sex is involved, and sex is A Thing. Especially for women; really even saying that prostitutes “sell themselves” is tantamount to saying that they are their sexual activity, which isn’t a coincidence at all since reducing women to their sexuality is, well, also A Thing.
So I can absolutely see how it would be problematic to call a “whore” anyone who “sells themselves” in a way one disapproves of (or more specifically, does things in return for money that one believes shouldn’t be done in return for money); it strengthens the idea that prostitutes “sell themselves” to begin with, and that their selling of themselves is intrinsically more demeaning than any other kind of selling of one’s time, use of body, mind, or anything else.
tl;dr: Calling sellouts “whore” is demeaning to whores. And not necessarily in a jokey way either.
Cervantes
@Caravelle:
I could not agree more.
JCT
@Suzanne: I agree with Omnes, either the Honda or the Mazda will be great, go with the feel, you’ll be driving it a long time…
Funny coincidence, my youngest finally decided that living in SoCal without a car was too unpleasant. So he came for a visit to pick one out with us. Had him drive a Hyundai Accent first (he’s paying for most of it himself) – perfectly fine if a little sluggish. Then walked around the corner to drive a Mazda 3. Heh. I was in the backseat, but I could see the grin the minute he accelerated for the first time.
I vividly remember going with my dad to look at my first car almost 40 years ago.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Yeah. 15 minutes every couple of years is certainly beyond the pale.
WereBear
@Just Some Fuckhead: Gee, and we wonder why young people are apathetic. Once they turn 18, they have just as much responsibility as anyone else.
I’m not even a boomer, but I’m tired of blaming everything on them. No generation is monolithic.
Anya
@SRW1: Wasn’t Rob Low featured in a sex tape? IIRC, he was having a threesome with two women, one of them a 16-year-old girl. Who’s more dignified? Someone who videotaped himself having sex with a 16-year old or a woman who eats cereal out of a bath tub?
And when did Rob Low become a stupid teabagger? He can’t understand why POTUS won’t meet with Netanyahu? What a fucking moron.
Cervantes
@Matt McIrvin:
I could not agree more.
kc
@Omnes Omnibus:
Hey, if you think it’s helpful for Democrats to call a prominent Republican woman “whore,” by all means keep doing it.
Ruckus
@TooManyJens:
That is of course the traditional meaning of the word. But meanings change over time and whoring one’s self out now has larger context.
I don’t think using that word is bad just that it redirects some into the traditional usage, and that detracts from the description of this particular person. I agree that total asshole is a better fit in this case, not that whore doesn’t have logical meaning.
Suzanne
@Villago Delenda Est: Palin’s clothes are not the problem or the point. She trades on her appearance? BFD. Women in a patriarchy will use whatever tools they have at their disposal, and she certainly doesn’t have the advantages of intellect or good judgment or experience. Almost every woman here has worn clothes that many would find inappropriate, or worn makeup, or worried about their shoes or their handbag or whatever. None of that has anything to do with our skills at our jobs or our parenting or our character or our citizenship.
Or just go with what @Matt McIrvin: said. It’s not about being nice to Palin. Disparaging Palin for her sexuality or her appearance or her clothes makes life harder for Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand and Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi. Not to mention every other woman.
brantl
If the congressional Democrats had followed the president’s lead, letter for lettter, they wouldn’t have lost. They needed to hammer the issues that they believe in, because the public believes in them, too. They should have gone after all the health care issues in the Affordable Care Act, instead of the whole thing, because the Republicans have propogandized it to death. Same with gay rights, women’s issues, etc. The tag line should have been: “So Democrats didn’t get your issues exactly right, would the Republicans have gotten any of them right?
brantl
@Tommy: Media Whore would have been more clear, and definitely true.
another Holocene human
@mclaren: more proof of his and our lack of sufficient dedication to the revolution
Elie
@debbie:
Why give this shit an airing? Esp since the source is lower than what is in a septic system. This is the big “Klown Kavalcade” meeting in Iowa — Klowns gotta klown…
Chris
@Tumbrel for Hire:
Yep, that’s the crux of all this.
Although I don’t think the Village is that worried about voter engagement. They just feel slapped in the face that Obama dared to go over their heads and talk to the rabble. The Republicans, on the other hand…
Uncle Ebeneezer
I wish Obama had let Anita Sarkesian interview him. Because 1.) I bet she’d ask interesting questions, 2.) it would be a great for a Dem President (and the Dem Party in general) to address issues of sexism, 3.) just to see GGaters heads explode (even more.)
sm*t cl*de
Booby traps.
Bruce Baugh
Caravelle@144 really nailed it, but…Palin isn’t selling sex. She’s using her sex appeal, along with other things, as part of her scams. Good descriptive terms for people like that include “snake oil sellers” and particularly the classic “grifters”. “Shill” is another possibility, but I tend to think of that in the context of people who are acting as clients of others on an ongoing basis, and she seems to me more like one more semi-loose object in the gelatinous gloop of right-wing politics.
I’m 49, and I thought the Youtube interviewers did a great job. They asked way more relevant questions than the mainstream press ever does, and showed more persistence in wanting answers. Obama, in turn, did a good job representing himself and his cause in clear terms. I’d love to see more like that.
beadyeyes123
@Cervantes: Agreed. I think it’s funny when cons get all worked up with the POTUS talking to YOUTUBERS yet if they showed some real respect, he might spend time talking to them as well. Since the typical fox audience treats POTUS as if he’s an alien invader, why waste time trying to change those closed minds?
beadyeyes123
@kc: When you are whoring yourself for money to show disrespect to people, you are a whore. Sorry it’s true.
beadyeyes123
@Bruce Baugh: Since the networks don’t bring in many of the younger, YT savvy viewers, this is an excellent way to engage with a frustrated set of potential voters. Seeing that Dropkick Murphys tweet get overrun by right wing Walker trolls was depressing as hell. Seeing the YT options makes me feel like MAYBE we are headed in the right direction to counter the lies and deception of the RW media machine.
mclaren
@Omnes Omnibus:
It epitomizes the degeneration of Shithole America. As do you, sitting in your Pentagon basement cubicle following your boilerplate JTRIG script designed to discredit anyone who dares criticize our corrupt and dying political system now ruled by your superior officers in the military-industrial complex.
Bruce Baugh
Mclaren: Keep on valiantly opposing the running-dog lackeys, man. All power to the soviets and ban the fuckin’ bomb. Diligently pursue all four correct actions and death to revanchist cockroaches, totally.
Cervantes
@mclaren:
What’s that “it”? Talking to these three individuals? Them talking to the President? The use of YouTube? The use of the Internet generally? The ostensible desire to reach people who generally don’t vote?
Can you elaborate the locus of this “degeneration”? Thanks.
You don’t mind if I refrain from commenting on this, do you?