This is pretty great. Watch till at least the 2:12 mark to get the joke. The key thing here is that Obama has a winning sense of humor. That’s not the reason you vote, or don’t vote, for somebody, but this guy is in another universe of charisma versus Romney. He comes off as a normal guy.
No, Mitt Romney Can’t Do This
40 Responses to No, Mitt Romney Can’t Do This
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James says:
I don’t know, Rod. I think I would rather spend a week with the Romneys in Wolfeboro than a week with the Obamas in Hawaii. The Romneys, with their traditional values, feel much more *normal* to me than Mr. “I wouldn’t want my daughters punished with a baby” and his kin. Need I also mention that Obama is one of those tackily extravagant nouveau riche; I’m not sure I could bear a week with him launching shrill, hypocritical attacks on the wealthy.
Neither are “regular” guys. I’m not sure we’ve ever had one of those in the White House.
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icaursr says:
“launching shrill, hypocritical attacks on the wealthy”
Out of curiosity, could you please quote one of this shirll attacks – directly and in context, rather than from Fox News.
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Brian says:
Clearly Obama’s the candidate of the top 1/2 of 1%, since that’s about the fraction of the population that watches Fallon’s show….
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Sheldon says:
Following icaursr, I would love to see an example of Obama as “tackily extravagant noveau riche”; especially when Romney is building a multi-million dollar elevator(!) for his multiple cars. The now-famous and omnipresent epistemic closure on the Right remains a wondrous sight to behold – truly an Eighth Wonder of the World.
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Sheldon:
“Even the president made uncomfortable jokes about why his wife needed so many things. Behind the scenes, aides said, the Obamas were concerned about money: the president’s books could only sell so many copies, and it would be years until he could write more and the first lady could write her own. From vacation rental homes big enough to accommodate the Secret Service to all the personal entertaining they did at the White House, their lifestyle had grown fearsomely expensive.”
http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/296787/book-obamas-concerned-about-own-personal-financesYou can love the guy all you want, and hate on Mitt all you want, but the Obama’s ain’t exactly opposed to livin’ large these last few years.
I also love the crack about epistemic closure, when if you traveled in slightly different circles you might perhaps be aware of this sort of thing.
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Scott in PA says:
This is great? Nauseating. And the uniform adulation with which The One is greeted by the Obama Youth is a little chilling.
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Peter says:
Romney may have a likeability gap with Obama, or a charisma gap if you want, but at least I think he is aware of that fact and hopefully he doesn’t overcompensate and turn himself into a clown. I heard him (or read him) say somewhere that Obama may be likeable, but he’s also incompetent which is why he shouldn’t be re-elected (I paraphrase). If Romney can stick with variations on that theme and not try and out-cool Obama he can stay on point and avoid the cringe-worthy moments these campaigns always seem to bring out (I’m looking at you, John Kerry).
This is my preferred campaign, but of course I think it’s preposterous that anyone would vote for a president based mostly on their personal feelings towards the candidate. It doesn’t matter which of them you would prefer to hang out with. You’re not going to hang out with them. Ever. I realize that not everyone votes this way.
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SmartWhiteMan says:
Wasn’t Nixon on “Laugh in” with Goldie Hawn?
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JoeCommenter says:
The Romneys, with their traditional values, feel much more *normal* to me
The Obamas are every stereotype of an upper middle class professional couple that exists in suburbs everywhere. Yes, the Obamas would likely not be “normal” in rural America, poor urban neighborhoods (either Newark or Charles Murray’s “Fishtown”), but when you’re talking about “middle class professionals”, the Obamas are about who is expect to show up if I lived in Sterling, Virginia and invited my neighbors for a BBQ. I think conservatives forget that because they really have made a strong effort to argue that Obama is an “other.”
The Romneys would be known as “that preppie Mormon family with that guy I can’t really have a normal conversation with.”
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Aleck says:
“The Barack Ness Monster!” Ha ha.
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John Doe says:
Obama definitely seems like a modern regular guy. I mean in the sense that all he wants to do is go on expensive vacations that somebody else pays for, pal around with celebrities, play golf and basketball, and generally not do anything useful. To a “regular guy”, that sounds awesome.
Why is being a regular guy a compliment for a president? I don’t mind if my plumber or my mailman is a regular guy. For my president, I want somebody extraordinary, not some guy that embarrasses himself on late night TV. Almost every politician will tell you that America is an exceptional country, so why does the public demand that “regular guys” run it?
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Brian, how on earth does the episode you cite, describing the Obama’s unexpected expenses, justify the phrase “tackily extravagant noveau riche” – especially in contrast with the Romney episode I cited? As for epistemic closure, yes, it depends where you sit, to some extent. But I think objective assessments of how, say, Obama has been demonized – have you forgotten his forged birth certificate? “apologies for America”? – with how he in fact has governed would give you a much harder case to prove that I would have. But I don’t expect you to agree.
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Polichinello says:
The Obamas are every stereotype of an upper middle class professional couple that exists in suburbs everywhere.
Yeah, who doesn’t attend a church where the preacher loves to howl, “God damn America!” and references 911 as “the chickens coming home to roost” with malicious glee?
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JoeCommenter says:
Yeah, who doesn’t attend a church where the preacher loves to howl, “God damn America!” and references 911 as “the chickens coming home to roost” with malicious glee?
Yes. Who doesn’t? The media, being made up overwhelmingly of seculars, is pretty blissfully unaware of how many people go to a church where their priest or minister believes really out-of-the-mainstream-extreme stuff. You do not go into the ministry unless you believe stuff to a greater extreme than average church goers. That’s how I knew that Obama would weather the Jeremiah Wright thing.
“Man, you should have heard what our minister said this week about our society after that gay marriage bill passed.” / “Yeah, I hear ya. Ours is like that, too. Another burger?”
Trying to portray Obama as some kind of alien seems extremely forced. Professionally, he and Michelle are the ambitious high school strivers made good. In this clip, Obama is the suburban dad playing the straight man in a humorous skit.
Romney’s case for election is that he’s that proven management consultant needed to come in and fix things. No one likes that character from Office Space, but one can argue that is what is necessary right now. But that is the strength Romney needs to play to, because he can’t compete head to head with Obama as “the guy you want to have a beer with.”
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MC says:
“The Romneys would be known as ‘that preppie Mormon family with that guy I can’t really have a normal conversation with.’”
Speaking as the father of a preppie Mormon family, Mitt Romney seems perfectly normal to me. As someone at the Atlantic wrote, his problem is that he makes uncool “Dad” jokes which fail to account for the ironic detachment of our popular culture.
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MH - secular misanthropist says:
I stopped watching TV because my favorite shows always get canceled. For example the live action “The Tick” or “Greg the Bunny”, both gone in record time. Meanwhile stuff I can’t stand stays on the air for years.
This means I am a contraindicator for popularity and success, an anti-Neilson rating of sorts. So Mitt’s biggest problem is that I like him and voted for him twice before. He was the governor for four years and his wooden demeanor is an acquired tastes, but it grows on you eventually.
However, as a connoisseur of the doomed I am sure to tank his campaign
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“Professionally, he and Michelle are the ambitious high school strivers made good.”
Another example of how we see what we want to see, facts be damned. Obama may be many things, but “ambitious high school striver” is not on the list. You don’t have to rely on some right wing nutter to know this is nonsense–by his own admission he was a complete and total screwup as a high schooler.
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Sean says:
Obama may be many things, but “ambitious high school striver” is not on the list.
Yeah, no one associates earning scholarships to prep schools and the Ivy League, then rising to the top of their class in one of the top law schools in the world with “ambitious high school strivers.” That’s so completely outside our notions of what it means to succeed in America that Obama clearly has no idea what this country is about.
He wasn’t a “complete and total screw up as a high schooler,” he was a kid who dabbled in drugs, like a lot of inquisitive kids do. He called it a “great moral failure,” but IMHO it was just adolescence. He got into Occidental, which is a college with standards. “Complete and total screw ups” usually end up in junior college, and that’s if they get their sh*t together.
Facts be damned, indeed.
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Sean: Um, he went to Punahou. Then he ended up at Occidental. Do you know anything about Hawaii? Taking that path takes some concerted effort, is all I’ll say.
Let’s just say that high-school/college combo would be like someone from Philip Exeter ending up at Occidental.
Again, all this is Not A Big Deal, but it’s just plain not true to act like Obama was some sort of nose-to-the-grindstone “ambitious high school striver” and you make yourself look silly trying to argue that case.
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AnotherBeliever says:
I say the following mostly, though not entirely, tongue in cheek: If Barack Obama actually sings jazz a few more times during this campaign, and is caught in sunglasses a time or two, he’s got it in the bag. He’s already a sitting incumbent. He hasn’t done marvelously, but neither has he tanked, despite a completely gridlocked Congress. There was that whole Osama bin Laden thing. The out of Iraq part. The economy’s recovering, shakily and unsteadily as it may be. It’s doing that despite him, probably – it’s not clear to me that who the President is makes a huge difference in the economy unless he/she manages to enact some truly awful decisions. But it’s still an up trend.
Romney’s only hope is to pick a bad ass combat veteran as running mate. Or at least an astronaut. Someone of good character who not only looks and sounds cool but has done something incredibly cool. Fight cool with cool is my advice, Mr Romney.
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Oh, and it’s not likely, but David Petraeus 2016!
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Think the Prez has a good sense of humor, but this didn’t strike me as a good example of it — seemed a bit stilted to me, as if Obama was trying to be a good sport, but fearing at any moment he might be horribly embarrassed by some random comment.
Agree with AnotherBeliever that Obama’s ability to sing, to play ball, and to mix with all sorts of people gives him a coolness that will make him pretty much unbeatable with young people. Don’t think Romney should try and match that — he already has a problem with appearing to try too hard.
Besides, to win a Republican candidate for President has to win the suburbs and most older folks, for whom appearing cool is probably as much a negative as an advantage.
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VikingLS says:
Attacking Obama’s charachter is ridiculous. The problem with Obama, or Romney for that matter, isn’t that they’re bad men. The problem with them is that they both represent a status quo we can’t maintain. This is going to turn into a referendum on Obama and Romney’s personalities because there really isn’t much difference between them. There’s not even much to go on there, Romney and Obama would be perfectly comfortable moving in the exact same social circles.
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MattW says:
“Yeah, no one associates earning scholarships to prep schools and the Ivy League, then rising to the top of their class in one of the top law schools in the world with “ambitious high school strivers.””
The scary thing is that this is the same person who believes Obamacare is constitutional, and to say otherwise is tantamount to judicial activism. Something is very very wrong with the top law schools in this country.
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“He hasn’t done marvelously, but neither has he tanked, despite a completely gridlocked Congress. There was that whole Osama bin Laden thing. The out of Iraq part. The economy’s recovering, shakily and unsteadily as it may be. It’s doing that despite him, probably – it’s not clear to me that who the President is makes a huge difference in the economy unless he/she manages to enact some truly awful decisions. But it’s still an up trend.”
What criteria are you using for an improving economy? A completely fake unemployment number? I’m also not really sure how much credit people are giving Obama for the Osama killing. The public loves the SEALS, but Obama? What did he do besides green light the assault? After a couple years of seeing grannies and children get molested at airports, I think there is growing skepticism concerning the war on terror.
As far as truly awful decisions by Obama, here are a few to get you started: suing a border state that actually wants to control its border, mandating the purchase of health insurance, bombing Libya, loaning money to Solyndra, reneging on promises to ease up on the drug war, and so forth.
If anybody reads Larison’s blog, which they absolutely should because it’s outstanding, they know that Romney is pretty much worthless too. His foreign policy is downright frightening. He might be a good Mormon, but he would make a terrifying president.
As an aside, Rod I think you do a great job of moderating your blog comments. It can get feisty on here sometimes, but I think it’s still respectful. I try to be.
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Dave D. says:
Why yes, I am glad that everything is so good in the USA that our president has the time to golf 90 times or more during his term, as well as pop randomly on talk shows to schmooze in such a self-deprecatingly way. At least he is well rested and informed to face the challenge of pitching fastballs on the first day of baseball season and recording messages for the 100th celebration at Fenway Park.
I know I am going to cross the aisle and vote.
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Leo Ladenson says:
“He comes off as a normal guy.”
Yeah, a normal guy who ate a dog. Uggh, after the contraception mandate/attack on religious freedom, are we really going to have another round of Obamacon-fidence games?
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Niall says:
Like one of the commenters above, I find something vaguely creepy about the totally uncritical adulation with which a great many US millennials seem to regard Obama. Listening to the audience scream and shout and whistle was just weird and sinister.
What makes it even more interesting is that the crowd on that show doubtless regard themselves as skeptical, independent-minded “freethinkers”, just like all the Obama fanboys and girls in Europe.
There’s a strange double standard in operation. If they saw a crowd of Catholics greet the Pope that way, I think we would soon hear adjectives like “brainwashed” and “sheeple”.
But hey, I’m just an uptight Brit. YMMV.
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JLF says:
Let’s face it. Forty percent of the electorate is going to vote for Obama. Absolutely nothing will change that. Forty percent of the electorate is going to vote for Romney. Absolutely nothing will change that. I want to know who the twenty percent in the middle are.
After all, they are the same twenty percent that decided to reelect both Bill Clinton and George Bush . . . and might do the same with Barack Obama. I want to know what they are thinking about today. I want to know where they live and what they do for a living. I suppose I really just want to know how they can walk through life and not give even the least concern to what’s going on around them and who might be responsible for it. I suppose I really just want to be them for a change.
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Chris says:
Its not just charisma. Its Obama’s ability to seem like a genuine authentic person that makes him such a contrast with the plastic and stiff Romney. Mittens and his family seem like the robots from the “Stepford Wives.” They perfectly groomed, coiffed and dressed and deeply eerily unlikable. Except that this time rather than being just the wives its the whole lot of them. Mittens can’t even play the genteel patrician because he reeks of pretense that only the newly rich can possess. Now since the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, I look forward to the many gaffe’s he will produce this election season.
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PDGM says:
This has to do with television, and with its power in US politics. I just happened to be reading a Wendell Berry essay yesterday dating from 1972:
“Because the extreme middle is characteristically in power, its characteristic medium is the one that is most popular–television. How earnestly and how well this middle has molded itself to the demands of television is apparent when one considers how much of its attention is given to image making, or remaking, and to public relations. It has given up amost altogether the disciplines of political discourse (considerations of fact and principle and of human and historical limits and possibilities), and has taken up the cynical showmanship of those who have cheap goods for sale. Its catch phrases do not rise from any viable political tradition; their next of kin and the TV jingles of soup and soap. It is a politics of illusion, and its characteristic medium is pre-eminently suited–as it is amost exclusively limited–to the propagation of illusion.” (from the essay “Discipline and Hope” in A Continuous Harmony, 1972.BTW, I don’t think this is true of just Obama; one look at Fox News disproves this.
Maybe presidents should avoid cheesy television, regardless of their party?
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John Haas says:
Polichinello “Yeah, who doesn’t attend a church where the preacher loves to howl, “God damn America!” and references 911 as “the chickens coming home to roost” with malicious glee?”
“”God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve,” said Falwell, appearing yesterday on the Christian Broadcasting Network’s “700 Club,” hosted by Robertson.”
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There’s a strange double standard in operation. If they saw a crowd of Catholics greet the Pope that way, I think we would soon hear adjectives like “brainwashed” and “sheeple”.
I can’t speak for Jimmy Fallon’s audience, but if you pay any attention whatsoever to how Obama has been treated by the left in this country, you can’t possibly maintain the fiction that his supporters all have stars in their eyes.
Also, give them some leeway: that audience was there to applaud, laugh, and follow whatever else the cue cards say. I’m not suggesting at all that their applause wasn’t sincere, but a talk-show audience is supposed to do that. Context matters.
Ultimately though, what choice do we have? Romney’s at least as unattractive a candidate, on a personal level, as Dukakis was. Who even pretends to know what he stands for, and believes he’s sincere? What evidence do we have the Romney isn’t precisely the same kind of big business-coddling, warmaking Republican that we’ve seen over and over in our lives? Given the stakes, I’d cheer a bit louder and longer too.
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Carol says:
I saw this. What an embarrassment. And then to have the media gush over the president’s performance the next day was just laughable. I noticed the president had no problem appearing with The Roots, the band that played “Lyin’ Ass Bitch” when Michele Bachmann was a guest on Fallon’s show. Obama should be ashamed of himself.
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Obama should be ashamed of himself.
Yes, this was sooooo reprehensible. What an awful person he must be for taking part in a comedy routine. You can’t trust anyone with a sense of humor, I always say.
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cp says:
Why yes, I am glad that everything is so good in the USA that our president has the time to golf 90 times or more during his term,
Oh, golf. Why are you always the first target of irrational haters?
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“Yes, this was sooooo reprehensible. What an awful person he must be for taking part in a comedy routine. You can’t trust anyone with a sense of humor, I always say.” – Sean
For a president who is oh so sensitive when it comes to remarks made against liberal women, he sure doesn’t care about what is said against conservative women. He should have not appeared on the show with this band.
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“Romney’s only hope is to pick a bad ass combat veteran as running mate. Or at least an astronaut. Someone of good character who not only looks and sounds cool but has done something incredibly cool. Fight cool with cool is my advice, Mr Romney.” – AnotherBeliever
What makes Obama cool? The mom jeans he wears? The way he pitches a baseball (ugh!)?
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For a president who is oh so sensitive when it comes to remarks made against liberal women, he sure doesn’t care about what is said against conservative women. He should have not appeared on the show with this band.
So merely being on stage with a band that once played an instrumental version of a rude song to introduce one conservative woman equals not caring about what is said about ALL conservative women? Wow. Just, Wow.
If you haven’t boycotted NBC, which continues to pay those horrible people, Fallon’s sponsors, “the root” of the problem (pun intended), and every guest who has gone on that show and been introduced by music from that band, by your own standards you’re just blowing hot air, Carol. Methinks this is more an excuse to get angry at the President than anything else.
Believe me, Carol, your life will be a lot better if you don’t choose to take every attack on one conservative woman as an attack on all, and if you don’t choose to be offended by every little thing. (And man, is this EVER a little thing. Sheesh!) A sense of perspective is in order if you’re making moral judgments based on evidence so thin.
That is charisma? Seemed kinda cringe worthy to me. Which I guess does make him seem kinda normal.