Thursday, May 07, 2009

The First Liberal Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Mock Obama

We've seen countless examples of moonbattery involved with any criticism of Obama, whether the criticism was trivial (Michelle Obama's expensive sneakers worn to a food bank) or important (President Obama's lies and flip-flops regarding campaign promises, or the release of intelligence techniques to our enemies). But nothing has sent the Left through the roof like Dijongate.

The "scandal," if you could call it that is simple: Barack Obama and Joe Biden went to a burger joint to order greasy all-American hamburgers, but Teh One orders his with dijon mustard.

The story was funny for two reasons. First, the whole point of the photo op was to show the POTUS as a regular guy, since he's been branded an elitist for liking arugula. So, instead of eating a greasy hamburger with cheese and French's mustard, he uses a hoity-toity French mustard. It truly was a non-scandal if not for MSNBC's deleting of the offending verbiage ("Dijon mustard"). It was just funny.

But worse has been the reaction of the nutroots to the story. It should have, at best, been a post that had a shelf life of a day or two. Instead, it's been featured on the Washington Post blog, and the hysteria from the Left has kept the story going.

Here is the second blog post about the subject, and author William Jacobson makes the point for why the Left has gone nuts over nothing:

I think the answer to why the nutroots cannot let Dijongate rest is the inherent insecurity of the left with their hold on power. While the mainstream media and left-wing blogs constantly tell us that Republicans and conservatives are dead politically, I don't think they actually believe what they are saying.

The nutroots and mainstream media understand that Obama and the corresponding Democratic majorities in Congress were elected through a unique confluence of circumstances which may never be repeated. The historic election of the first black president; an unquestioning mainstream media which embarrassed itself with its biased coverage; an economic credit crunch just weeks before the election; a Bush administration which lost its will to fight for its policies soon after the 2004 election; a Republican candidate who refused to attack Obama's relationships with seedy characters even though Democrats showed no such restraint as to the Republicans; and a generalized discontent with the existing Republican power structure.

There is a lingering question, however, as to just who Barack Obama is, and whether we elected a blank slate who makes it up as he goes. This point is made not just by conservatives (who made this argument prior to the election), but also by Democrats and left-wing activists who openly wonder whether Obama's election promises on terrorist detention, gay rights, and a host of other issues were "just words." The nutroots doesn't know who Barack Obama is anymore than I do, and anything which fills in the void in a negative way is viewed as a threat.

This void in Obama's story leaves the Democratic hold on power vulnerable. One disastrous photo-op, open mike, or tape recorder left running, could puncture the Democratic bubble.

Which is why the mainstream media and nutroots need to protect Obama's image. As others have noted, the late night comics have stayed away from the usual mocking given to all prior presidents, even though Obama has provided plenty of potential material through his teleprompter dependence.

When George W. Bush was president, the Left mocked every. Single. Thing. About the president. From his walk to his accent to his intelligence to his manners. They sneered at him for clearing brush on his property. They joked about him choking on a pretzel. And when they weren't blaming him for everything, they were yukking it up about how stupid he was.

But somehow, Barack Obama isn't funny, even when he does silly things, makes tons of verbal gaffes and is caught lying in the most ridiculous ways. Amazing.