Rope the Dopes
I admit it. I’m an addict. I just can’t stop watching, surfing, and listening to all this stuff. I know it’s vacuous, misdirected, and it’s certainly not good for me, but I do it anyway. Not only did I watch the entire so-called debate last night, I also watched the post-festum cud-chewers on PBS, ABC, NBC and CBS as well. And then the hangover morning radio: NPR, BBC, On Point…
Something is missing. So far as I know, no one yet has pointed to the classic pop culture precedent for last night’s spectacle. I refer, of course, to Blazing Saddles. Don’t pretend you don’t know what I mean. The new sheriff rides into town, and everyone is watching. Oh my god, he’s a black man! Within seconds their guns are pulled, point-blank. Things aren’t looking good for the first African-American lawman in this Wild West backwater. And then, suddenly, the sheriff takes out his own gun, and points it at his own head. In a stagy voice he barks out, “The next man makes a move, the n*gg*r gets it.”
Perhaps I should worry a bit when the only online comment I can find approximating my own position is on www.godlikeproductions.com, a site apparently dedicated to the tracking of “UFOs, Conspiracy Theorists, [and the] Lunatic Fringe.” And yet, I’ll insist. I’m suggesting that Obama took a dive.
The President’s conscious choice was to not do any of what the newsroom chatter is today doing for him: pointing out Republican lies, reminding us of Romney’s contempt for the 47%, noting that attempting bipartisanship with today’s neo-Goldwaterites is the path to perdition, etc.
This may seem, I realize, a rather odd move. After all, Obama’s display of apparent weakness and incompetence in this first televised smackdown was certainly hard to watch, at least for anyone not drinking the Fox News Kool-Aid. But we live in a brave new media world these days, where controlling the after-debate debate is far more important than anything one can possibly say on stage. Getting the media to sing a united chorus that fills in every blank left by his non-performance is rather smooth. And getting your supporters nervous about their candidate’s chances in the election is essential.
It appears that the Obama campaign has at last decided not to fight for those mythical undecided voters we hear so much about. All three of them—and they aren’t going to the polls anyway. Instead, they realize what we all know already: the election will turn on turnout, and nothing else. Perhaps panic about losing is the only thing that can possibly unite, and motivate, the Democratic elector.
Jack Beatty, on “On Point” this morning, recalled Robert Frost’s immortal observation: “A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.” Obama certainly did appear to fit that bill. And yet his gamble may be another: that such spectacular weakness will motivate his side on election day.
After all, we shouldn’t forget the response from the crowd in Blazing Saddles. Down below the podium, an elderly woman looks up and exclaims,“Isn’t anybody going to help that poor man?”
