“Retread Banality”: “Man Up, Obama” Op-Eds Entirely Played Out
Earlier this month, New York Times “visual op-ed columnist” Charles M. Blow blasted Barack Obama for his refusal to stand “up for his convictions.” The thrust of the article—an unoriginal idea if there ever was one—was that the president needs to heed those who “worked tirelessly” to get him elected and institute the reforms they were counting on. Ram through that public option. Clean up the mess in Iraq. Extricate us from the “quagmire” in Afghanistan. Rebuild New Orleans. Reform Wall Street. God almighty, you’ve been in office almost 10 months now. What’s the hold-up?
I for one am sick of reading the “Man Up, Barack” editorial, which is then regurgitated by friends and neighbors as if they were the sole authors of this retread banality. Invariably, the person suggesting that Mr. Obama man up thinks of himself as a tough-as-nails hombre. In reality, they are usually the kinds of people who send their kids to Oberlin College, swoon over Andrea Bocelli, and think Jimmy Carter was a macho man. Teamsters they are not.
Barack Obama, raised by a single mother and his grandparents, born with no discernible financial advantages, clocked Hillary Clinton, clocked John McCain, and got himself elected the first African-American president of the United States. He got himself elected in a country that was still lynching black people when he was a child. Barack Obama, whatever you may think of his politics, doesn’t need anyone telling him to man up. Especially visual op-ed columnists.
In accusing the president of wimping out and caving in to Republican pressure, the Man Up Brigade makes two serious errors. One, they assume that the Democratic Party belongs to them. Incorrect. It belongs to all kinds of people. It belongs to working-class people and to civil servants. Only a portion of the Democratic Party belongs to the left.
In demanding that the president man up and do the will of the people—as defined by last night’s polls—critics are insisting that the president dance with the one who brung him. Well, he is dancing with the one who brung him. Barack Obama got elected president in large part because an awful lot of blue-collar Democrats in Pennsylvania and Ohio and the border states voted for him. He didn’t get elected simply because of liberals in Malibu and Massachusetts. So, in reality, Mr. Obama already has manned up. He’s told the left wing of the Democratic Party that he’s running the show, not them. Not comfortable with that? Go blog about it.
The penchant for personally taking the president of the U.S. to the woodshed is an example of that special arrogance that Baby Boomers introduced to this society. It derives not from the notion that any of us could do just as good a job running the country, but that in fact we should be running the country because we are so radiantly principled and implacable and, well, special. It’s based on the idea that if take-no-prisoners types like us were in charge we would pull the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, imprison half of Wall Street and jam that single-payer plan right down the GOP’s throat. It’s also rooted in the notion that the president is a babe in the woods, a neophyte, a rube who lacks the requisite toughness to succeed. Right, a politician from Chicago who lacks toughness. You know, the guy who hired Rahm Emanuel.
Those who excoriate the president for failing to man up display a shocking naiveté about the political process. Every GOP president since Ronald Reagan was elected in part because the Christian Right expected him to go to the wall and overturn Roe v. Wade. It didn’t happen. Those on the right had to learn the hard way that there are speeches and there are position papers and there are campaign promises and then there is reality. Politics is the art of the possible.
The worst thing about the sneering Man Up, Obama editorial is the implication that being the president of the United States is a cakewalk. Again, whatever you may think of the president or his policies, this at least is a man who puts in long hours and faces danger on a daily basis and takes a lot of heat from all quarters and does more than suck his thumb for a living. Mr. Obama, unlike those of us in the word-processing sector of the economy, actually earns his paycheck. Barack Obama has a real job.
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Are you fn serious ? He wanted the fn job, he got the fn job. Now he can’t handle the fn job. Most of us knew he was wrong for the fn job. Now he needs to just go away and let some one with real experience do the job that he lied to the American people about. I don’t want him to man up, I just want him to go away.
Three more years of this. I predicted all this would happen, and this Obama would take us to a place collectively where all of us would see the demise of life as we know it before our eyes.
I also predicted his treachery and tyrrany would cause all of us in this country to search out the genesis, the foundation the cherished intrangibles of how we became America and there would be a ressurgence of desire to return to what made us strong.
I’m manning up. I’m going to the ’stan on my own dime to take coms to the troops. Fear is now my constant companion and yet forward I go.
Fuck you O.
somebody’s goin’ to knock that chin into the dirt….
I’d like to volunteer
His poses usually are quite Mussolini.
it would look better upside down
upside down? no, in the dirt
Trust me on this..he looks like a METRO, I[’m telling you guys, he has had homosexual issues on the past, I’m sure Glenn Beck will run into this at some point. The ways he DOES things. Besides that, this joker is a total F-kUp and a joke of a president. Feel awful for the secret service men and women that have to protect this A-Hole all day long, I wish the secret service could also protect the constitution better than our Armed Forces, whom I don’t think realize that their commander-in-mischief is a socialist, Shame on the generals that are letting this country go into a communist tail spin and not doing anything about it. Trials for them as well…..Generals, keep that in mind if we ever get our country back without your help.
Golf anyone?
Mmm mmm mmmmm…. Barack Hussein Obama
Author JOE QUEENAN is a tool of the man. The concern is not whether or not obama is “bucking up, yo”. It is the devious and calculated attack on America’s liberties and freedoms. It is the reckless spending without deliberation in Washington. It is the pious hatred of the progressive liberals directed at Americans who want to retain America. It is the political posturing and inaction responsible for the deaths of American soldiers. It is the perception of weakness as seen by despot world leaders. It is the millions of out of work Americans with no real hope of getting a living wage job. It is the expanding government and shrinking small business climate perpetuated by an anti small business obama administration. Joe Queenan as like many are simply happy “our guy won” now back to working on my entitlements. Yes obama has a real job, how about a real birth certificate?
I am off to the Office Depot to print 200 copies of the pic.Loveland Colorado is going to have one on EVERY telephone pole.
“Pardon me mr ovomit,is that jizzm on your chin?
Why no,thats GRIZZM”
Grizz
Do you have a PDF of the poster or know where to get one?
I want to plaster the town with them.
I just printed the picture on my printer ,then took it to office depot.Final size was about 7″x7″.
The bitch that printed my order had her ass in a bind.She didnt like it one bit.Tried to out dirty look me,but Im an ugly fuck.
Good for you GRIZZ. Sounds like a plan. Wall, N.J. here he comes.
Wall, NJ? Holy crap man, I grew up in Allenwood!