Senator McCain Isn't Funny, So Stop Encouraging Him
As we approach the August vacation season, naturally our thoughts turn to President Bush who has a just-a-regular-guy penchant for both five-week paid vacations and participating in unrelated tomfoolery during times of crisis.
This week, for instance, as the stock market spazzed and the price of everything climbed higher; as disaster struck American soldiers in Afghanistan; and as more Americans lost their homes to foreclosures due to the effects of Reaganomics... President Bush played t-ball.
In the past, it's been guitar-strumming and cake-eating during hurricanes. It's been golfing while Bin Laden planned to attack inside the U.S. It's been pontoon-boating trips, Barney-Cam videos and hilarious slideshows during some of the bloodiest days of the Iraq occupation.
And during Tuesday's press conference, as the DJIA sank below 11,000 for the first time in years, here are some of the president's facial expressions while mumbling his way through questions about bank bailouts, lost savings and $5/gallon gasoline:
The only explanations for these faces are, 1) the president doesn't take his job seriously -- like always, or 2) he's being tickled.
Undignified displays of grinning nonsense coinciding with times in which he ought to be acting like a president will hopefully be recorded as significant part of his legacy. To be fair, however, President Hoover was almost as bad -- participating in an All-American Grabasstic League exhibition game while the stock market crashed. (Historical sporting note: the Dale City "Blustery Pips" won the day, 32-10. However, their team leader, Festus "Long Whiskers" Pennypacker, suffered from tired blood and had to take three penalties for "infield respites." None of this is Hoover story is true.)
And now it's clear that the president's would-be Republican successor, Senator McJackie the McJokeman, will prove to be even less serious and dignified in the role of Smirker-in-Chief. If that were even possible.
Last week, in response to a serious question about Iran, the Republican presumptive nominee joked about killing Iranians with weaponized cancer. This week, it's news about a joke involving gorillas and rape.
"Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, 'Where is that marvelous ape?'"
Get it? Women like to be beaten and raped. Hoo-hoo! In days past, it's been jokes about wife-beating, bombing Iran, Chelsea Clinton's looks, and Alzheimer's Disease. Based on these precedents, I can only imagine Senator McCain's forthcoming zingers about still-births, burn victims and Thalidomide.
But not unlike the president's overly jocular behavior during serious questions or serious crisis, for Senator McCain it's all about context and tone. How should a president behave in public? No one expects the presidency to be monastical of course. In fact, many of our greatest presidents were able to use comedy to their advantage, and more than a few of them knew how to make with the profanity. But, like anything, there's a time and place for such behavior. There's a context.
--The president isn't you and me. You and I can tell whatever joke we want whenever we want because we don't have to represent 300 million people on the world stage. Your personal behavior doesn't necessarily get passed on to posterity as a reflection of an entire era in American history. So if you want to tell that gorilla rape joke to your spouse or parents, have at it. If Senator McCain wants to tell a joke like that, he embarrasses more than just himself.
--The president ought to have good judgment. No shocker there. Judgment in this regard is the difference between, say, an invasion of Cuba leading to thermonuclear war or, on the other hand, a smarter, more sensible quarantine option. (Historians will forever hypothesize how Nixon, for instance, would have handled those 13 days.) Is certain behavior appropriate or obnoxious? If a candidate is unable to control himself and blurts out a joke about bestial rape or killing civilians despite the fact that there are reporters everywhere and he happens to be running for president, it goes a long way towards determining whether he's someone who we can trust to make snap decisions with global implications or whether he's simply a tweaking street loon who talks to invisible shadow people.
--The president should know the difference between funny and not funny, or else -- stay away from the comedy. A sense of humor doesn't literally mean "the ability to recite a joke." Anyone can repeat a joke. But politicians like Senator McCain have managed to accumulate a captive audience of reporters who have to laugh at his jokes or else be tossed out of the barbeque loop. Consequently, he can tell one of his awful jokes and everyone in the corp snarfs up their cole slaw. This reaction has thusly given the senator the false impression that he's funny, when he's really not. The gorilla rape joke, for example, is only funny in the context of, say, a larger bit about unfunny jokes -- or bad comics who try way too hard to be funny.
There was a classic episode of The Larry Sanders Show in which Hank, played by Jeffrey Tambor, guest-hosts the show. The first night during the opening monologue, the audience laughs along with him because he's genuinely nervous and humbled. However, the next night, the novelty of Hank is worn away due to his enormous ego and so he bombs. Then everything goes to hell when Hank, still in the monologue, calls the head writer "a hopeless retard" -- thinking it would get a laugh. Instead, the audience is shocked into silence until someone yells out, "You suck!" Artie (Rip Torn) stops the show and airs a Best of Larry in its place.
Artie's advice to Hank: "Now Hank, what have we learned here? When you're vulnerable and humble, people like you. When you act like an asshole, people tend to think of you as an asshole."
President Bush has been Hank for a long, long time. Senator McCain, if elected, will be far worse.
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Bob,
Your point could of made in one sentence: "I belong to
HAP (Hate Anyone Republican
This above is a real gem provided by some neo-con wannabe named Silknspark. The smart guy who wrote this thinks HAP is an acronymn for Hate Anyone Republican! .....Price
And then they wonder why I call them The Failure Monkeys!
Silk, we don't just hate Republicans. We hate stoopid people who vote for 'em too.
FIRST GORILLA JOKES...
Next Guerrilla jokes. Where will it stop?....
But Barack is:
"Throughout our history, America’s confronted constantly evolving danger...f
Uh, what? What a moron.
What is the point you are trying to make bb922335???? by the above statement
But Barack is:
"Throughout our history, America"s confronted constantly evolving danger...f
Uh, what? What a moro
Apparently Barack didn't make a 'ssssssssss' sound after bomb in his quote, thus not pluralizing it, instantly turning him into a moron.
As the saying goes, "It takes a moron," to know a moron." AND YOU'RE THE MORON. The issue is re: McCain not Obama.
That Japanese did bomb Pearl Harbor:
"A photo taken from a Japanese plane during the attack shows vulnerable American battleships, and in the distance, smoke rising from Hickam Airfield where 35 men having breakfast in the mess hall were killed after a direct bomb hit."
You're the moron. Maybe a little more attention paid in history class and a little less beating up kids for their lunch money would have done you a world of good and saved us all your stupid comments.
I am baffled at these people who are simply fanatical. My question is WHAT DOES THAT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH OBAMA sir? The article is about undignified funny-pretenders like this moron candidate of a moronic party.
The genius who wrote this needs to do some research. That joke was made 22 years ago. Hey jackass, McCain wasn't "running for president" in 1986. You are reaching pretty far when you have to go back two decades to dig up a tasteless joke to try and paint somone as unpresidential. Didn't Clinton make a joke about sleeping with a 500 year old mummy WHILE he was in office?
Please, lets talk about who was more publicly embarassing as president. Getting orally serviced by interns. Finding new uses for cigars. Telling the country that oral sex is not cheating. Opining about the definition of "is." And of course, hitting on mummies. But you're right, Bush sometimes partakes in recreational activity. The nerve of that guy!
stubby,
I know. I think sex is creepy too. I never get any. It's dirty.
It's all about sex with you guys. Bush is a war criminal and will someday face an international tribunal..
Your party tried to go back to O'bama's kindergarten records, remember?
hmm, clinton finished up his run in the white house with approval ratings in the 60%s. bush: lucky to hit 30%. something tells me americans are more embarrassed by dubya.
Scull & Bones boy. . . Scull & Bones . . .you jest two decades is but a moment in time. . .
free; Your comment is right on except for one little thing. McDrain is not a funny- pretender. He is a politician that means F*&#*@% predator.
Now that's my phone buzzing there. I don't want you to think I'm getting fresh or anything." --posing for a picture with supporters in Indiana, when he apparently felt his phone start to vibrate in his pocket, against which one woman was closely pressed
One time when Obama said something funny. For previous poster.
McCain spends an inordinate amount of time wasting time making "funny" remarks.
He is constantly trying to channel Ronnie Raygun to the point where any serious question is turned into a farce. Very aggravating man. He has spent what 20 yrs gorging at the trough and hasn't done a damn thing for America but tell it what a great guy he is. A great example of a professional job seeker.
People in general just plain dislike this lizard. Both sides of the aisle.
John is as full of it as a Christmas turkey.
Actually, I think Sen. McShame was at least trying to be politically correct when he told the rape joke. Here in the south, crackers tell the same joke with a not so subtle variation. In the local version told by the rednecks, the victim is a black woman who gets raped when a zoo attendant leaves the gorilla cage door unlocked. When a friend visits the victim in the hospital, she says how terrible it is that the incident occurred, to which the victim says, "An' that ain't the half of it; he don't call, he don't write, an' he don't come to see me." One must suspect that Johnny Boy simply told it race-unspecific, but it's no less sexist. Seems to me an analogy could be drawn to the 1990 Texas gubernatorial race that pitted the late Ann ("Poor George") Richards against Clayton Williams. The latter made an infamous joke to reporters when, comparing bad weather to rape, Williams concluded, "If it's inevitable, just relax and enjoy it" Needless to say, "Satan" Williams lost the election. So should McShame.
crackers? oh the hypocrisy
"The only explanations for these faces are, 1) the president doesn't take his job seriously -- like always, or 2) he's being tickled."
or 3) He's stoned out of his gourd.
If Bush ever had to take a urine test they'd probably find an entire pharmacy in that braindead, junkie's blood-stream.
Remember when it was the "hippies" who did the drugs? Why is the fact that most of today's righwingers -- whether politicians, pundits, or media stars -- are flagrant pillheads, cokeheads, and alcoholics never pointed out or ridiculed?
Bush's jokes are idiotic, and belie his complete lack of intellect.
McCain's jokes, on the other hand, are disturbing. They're ALL disturbing. It's like your quiet grandmother suddenly telling an offensive joke about incest. It's the sort of thing that makes you think "so I guess it's about time to find you a good retirement home." I'd say that's right where McCain is.
I WOULD SAY MORE LIKE...
"I guess it's about time to find you a good mental institutio
The gorilla joke is not at all funny but I must disagree with you that humour has no place amongst the great & the good. Perhaps an ability to laugh at oneself is a sign that one doesn't take oneself too seriously - something all politicians seem to be guilty of. At the same time I must say that whilst i would consider myself, an albeit foreign, supporter of Mr Obama his response to the amusing New Yorker cover was not good; he should have laughed once, asked for a copy & then suggested the debate moved on to something with a little more substance.
Just my view, of course.
McCain wasn't laughing at himself. He was laughing at all women who have been beaten and raped. Maybe when you have been beaten and raped, I will consider your view of this.
As a rape survivor, I am deeply offended. Enough is enough. Mysogenistic "jokes" are not jokes. This is not the appropriate situation to tell rape survivors to "lighten up", as some other posters here have suggested.
The piece of video you are speaking of...? The one where Obama is informed of the cartoon, but has not yet seen it...? His reaction is fairly nuetral, if you ask me.
After he saw the cartoon, he was on Larry King and said, "It's just a cartoon". Just to keep our facts straight because the GOP even has the nerve to fly the idea that Obama has no sense of humor. Obama is so really funny cannot see how they will pull that off.
If George W. Bush is not by common definition a simpleton, why does he persist in acting like one? If McCain is not Bush's dummy, why doesn't he get off of his lap?
Forgive me, but with the problems we face, I don't need laughs from our President. I'd like some serious faces trying to get us out of this mess. McCain's jokes are sick and stupied! Tells me alot about who he is! McCain is out of touch more than I have time to list.
Bob,
Your point could of made in one sentence: "I belong to
HAP (Hate Anyone Republican
The vitriolic hate generated from your group, will disappear in November, long enough for the socialists (Barack is NOT a Democrat.) to get votes from those hated Repubicans.
Good grief socialists are transparent.
Yeah we all know the republican party has served our country so well these past 8 years. wake up will you?
Yeah, the guy who jokes about rapes is a nice guy and the guy who points it out is hate filled.
Do you even know what the word socialist means? Republicans give out more money under socialist programs: see Fannie Mae.
Yeah, socialism for the weathy, the rest of us get more unregulated capitalism.
Revolution is not a dirty word!
"Your point could of made..."
HAP an acronym for Hate Anyone Republican? Not HAR?
And don't get me started on the commas.
Silknspark, I think many of us get your point only too well, though it's probably not the one you were trying to make.
And by the way, since the traitorous predatory robber barons hijacked my country in the name of capitalism, and BROKE JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING THERE IS TO BREAK, a little socialism is looking pretty good right about now. I for one am plenty tired of credit card companies and mortgage companies and doctors and hospitals and drug companies and electricity providers sucking the very life out of working people, while their CEO's and execs buy yet another speedboat or beach house or trip to the French Riviera.
You can call it socialism, or you can call it Fred for all I care, but buddy, the people have had about enough.
And you can take that to the bank, provided your bank hasn't gone belly up by Monday.
McCain's humor is typical of the elitist, bigoted white male environment in which he was raised. I was raised in an elitist white male environment but I wasn't raised to be bigoted. If you want four more years of the same, vote for him. If he gets elected I am leaving the country.
Maybe McSame identifies strongly with Shrub because they are both ne'er do well sons of families that provided the lubricants necessary to make up for an easy life of priviledge.
You'll have to forgive Shrubly for the unseemly facial expressions, Bob. You see, he is feeling a little giddy these days with only 6 months to go and carpetbags packed to the clasp with good ole American green.
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