Monday, February 1, 2010

Yes, Virginia, There Is an Obama

I've often wondered if having right-wing politics makes people stupid, or if stupid people just tend to collect right-wing ideas. I know, I know, people of any political tendency can be stupid. And intelligence (whatever that is) isn't everything.

So Avedon at Sideshow linked to this blog post about Obama's recent confrontation with some Republicans. I hadn't even heard about it before, but apparently Barry mopped up the floor with 'em.
Faced with salivating opposition party members WITHOUT knives and forks, Barry not only managed to hold his own, but did so on LIVE TV! For some reason this has shocked people, in spite of knowing that all Republicans, no matter how otherwise intelligent they might be, have to sign a waiver against the use of their own brains and limit themselves to parroting "talking points" despite how nonsensical it sounds when you play back a montage of Sunday morning talking head bites. Or that Obama can actually think and talk on his feet without benefit of teleprompter. So much for mainstream media propunditry. Congratulations to Virginia Foxx (R-NC) for taking advantage of the situation and getting Barry’s autograph! Way to go, Virginia!
Eventually I suppose I'll have to track down this exciting encounter, it must be out there in Teh Intertoobz somewhere. But for the moment I find myself skeptical. If Obama is so tough, why has he let the Republicans block his supposed plans to save America? It's one thing to cow a bunch of Republicans on teevee, another to keep them from torpedoing your legislative agenda. Is this supposed to be, like, the part where mild-mannered Barry O rips off the mask and reveals himself as ... SuperObama? I'll be waiting to see if any more comes of it.

Still, if the Republicans are so stoopid, why are they able to block the Democrats so effectively? Intelligence is obviously not necessary. Or maybe the Democrats are even stoopider? The first commenter to that blog post writes:
Thanks, and as you point out, the requirement for being party of NOPE is brain death. Anyone with the I.Q. to notice that the party that is now insisting that the Dems gave us just horrible deficits, is the party that did just that, has no qualities that fit in with the prospective voter for the right wing.
When your hot new President and his legislative-dominant party have collaborated with the Republicans at almost every turn, when they have backed down on nearly everything they had promised the people who voted for them, complaining that those mean ol' Rethugs were standing in the way and calling them names, I suppose it is comforting to fantasize that the opposition party are brain dead. If the Democrats are so incompetent that a bunch of brain-dead Republicans can stymie them, though, what does that say about the Democrats? It's true, the Democrats are not solely responsible for the "just horrible deficits," but they did their share to produce them, and when Obama became President and the Democrats took over Congress, they apparently decided that no matter what anybody said about those deficits, they were going to keep them.

But why can't I get that second sentence to parse? Or the first one, for that matter? This person writes like a teabagger.