Politics

Laughing at Obama
By Dr. Leigh Broadhurst

President Barack Obama is degrading the office of the presidency.

On October 27, 2010, he became the first sitting president to appear on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.” Mr. Obama’s other recent eye-raising media appearances include The Tonight Show, Myth Busters and an abdication of a presidential press conference to former President Bill Clinton. He also consistently asks for the time and money of American citizens at www.barackobama.com. After The Daily Show appearance, even the hard-core left media were dissatisfied with Mr. Obama’s unprofessional, undignified and unpresidential behavior. The commander-in-chief should not willingly agree to be the butt of jokes, especially in order to sell advertising.

The president’s behavior has hit a new low in the rapport between our leader and the television set. Harry S. Truman gave the first presidential address broadcast from the White House on October 5, 1947.  It was a dignified and solemn event, as have been the majority of presidential addresses since. As TV broadcasting expanded, more presidential speeches were televised, but presidential popular media appearances never occurred until the age of Mr. Obama.  Why would a president desire such exposure?  Previous presidents such as Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, were fully exposed by the media—not on their terms of course—but due to their disgraceful activities in office.

Television was never friendly to Nixon.  A poor performance on televised debates is widely credited as causing his narrow loss to John F. Kennedy in 1960.  From 1972-1974, daily media updates of Watergate break-in hearings and trials provided damning evidence that Nixon just wasn’t the kind of person Americans wanted in charge of anything. Forced to resign rather than face certain impeachment, Nixon took the presidency to the lowest point in the 20th century: “I am not a crook!”

It took candidate Bill Clinton to fully realize the potential of the media and make appearances on the The Arsenio Hall Show and The Tonight Show.  His personality—not the medium of TV—allowed us to be awkwardly close to him, and ultimately to lose respect for both the man and the office.  Keep in mind he began his presidential career with the famous, expensive “Cristophe hair cut” aboard Air Force One on the runway at Los Angeles International Airport.  What eventually followed was a worldwide familiarity with intimate details of the president’s adultery and sex practices—Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky, cigars, bald faced lies and impeachment by the House.

Had Mr. Clinton kept his proclivities to himself, Al Gore would likely have won the 2000 presidential election.  Instead, it went down to the wire for George W. Bush.  Like his predecessors, his father H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, Mr. Bush made great moves as well as mistakes, but could not be seriously accused of demeaning the office of the president.  Mr. Bush was the first president of the new Millennium—The Internet Age—yet he did not feel the need to post blogs or sit in chat rooms.  By contrast, why does Mr. Obama believe that allowing citizens to download footage of him on The Daily Show web site at will improves his stature as a world leader?

Legendary Washington Redskins Coach George Allen provides insight into how to project authority and self-control. He coached his receivers who had just scored a touchdown never to spike the ball, jump around, dance, slap high-fives, etc.  He said, “Just calmly hand the ball to the ref and walk to your bench. You want to look like you’ve been in the end zone before, you’re used to it, and it’s no big deal.” Mr. Obama ought to learn from this: He is akin to the rookie doing back flips in the end zone, kissing the goal post, and throwing the ball into the stands.  He is big time now and wants everybody to know it.  Although frowned upon by most coaches and veteran players, end zone antics continue because rabid fans are up in the stands dancing, too and applaud them. And thus presidential popular media appearances—which to most seem ill-advised, embarrassing and degrading—nonetheless continue.

Consider how Dwight D. Eisenhower, elected to the Oval Office in 1952, projected authority.  Prior to that role, his title was “Supreme Allied Commander of NATO Forces.”  And prior to that as Supreme Commander of Allied Expeditionary Forces, Eisenhower led Operation OVERLORD, the massive D-day landing in Normandy, France and push to liberate continental Europe.  If General Eisenhower had not been successful leading the Allied Expeditionary Forces—there may not have been any U.S. Presidency to be elected to.  As the saying goes, we would all be speaking German now.  Hence, to stretch the metaphor, when you have this level of battlefield leadership, you’ve been in the end zone countless times and you’re absolutely used to it.  Respect is not granted to you as Supreme Commanding Officer, it is fully earned.  There’s no need to make yourself into news with end zone antics.  When you’re confident in your performance in office, news flows from your actions naturally.

In summary, there is a big difference between making news and making yourself into news.  If a politician makes news, then he controls the message. If instead the politician makes himself into news by outrageous, unconventional or disgraceful words or actions, and the media takes the bait, then he may have hooked a fish large enough to pull himself off the boat. In this case, the president cannot control the message and may not even recognize it when he hears it broadcast.

Mr. Obama has to learn that we are not laughing with him when he demeans the office of the presidency with his cheap media appearances, but instead we are laughing at him and are simultaneously lamenting the decline of the once-magnificent, awe-inspiring executive branch of government.

-Dr. C. Leigh Broadhurst is a research geochemist and geobotanist.