Fainting shills and rhetorical thrills mark obama rallies

Remember the disdain heaped on Hillary when a softball question she was asked in an Iowa townhall meeting turned to be from a staffer posing as an Iowan?

In such smug Obama strongholds as MSNBC, and right-wing Hate Hillary haunts as Fox & Friends, and Hannity & Colmes, she was accused of being disingenuous and manipulating, and the incident offered as proof that she and her evil husband would do anything to get elected.

(It's hard to distinguish between Fox News and MSNBC when the subject of Hillary Clinton comes up).

Meanwhile, Sri Barack was levitating over the grit and the grime of the material world like a Bodhisatva.

He's a different kind of politician, doncha know.

But on Friday, Dori Monson (KIRO, m-f, 12-3p) offered videos of rallies in LA, Santa Barbara, Iowa, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and one in Seattle where Obama stopped his speech to help a girl who was swooninging in the audience.

In each incident, Obama gave identical instructions ("Make her some space!" to those assisting her; uttered exactly the same comforting words, and proffered the same bottle of water from the podium. He's sweet, calmly reassuring, and obviously his caring for the ailing girl trumps the grubby politics of the moment.

(The right is already calling him "the woman candidate," and a "metrosexual.")

Seems the victim is always a young woman sitting in a same row near the front; in the same center seat  affording the TV cameras a perfect shot. The crowd cheers as he gives mellifluous triage into the microphone.

See the videos on Dori's page here. And here's a compilation that catches the spirit. 

Of course it's not coincidence, it's good political theater, and reminiscent of Peter Popoff or one of those Baptist healers who use trite theatrics to carry The Word. (in America, trite works like a Mack truck!) To think otherwise -- that it's just a collection of amazing coincidences -- is naivete, denial or intentional blindness by the True Believers.

We honestly don't care; we consider such a tactic as effective and fair; but we wonder when those who think that St. Barack is somehow spiritually above politics will ever realize that not even he can take the politics out of politics.

Funny it took all these months for someone to notice. The press is so smitten with Barack they aren't watching for such things... not yet. It took a Wall Street reporter and Dori Monson to put it together after months of repeating it nationwide. Medved made note of it too on his national show.

We're glad Barack's campaign is showing wiliness, we were worried that his above-it-all strategy would leave him out of the fray. He has the same professionals running his campaign as everyone else; and they know if he doesn't say it: he must go negative and play hardball or he will fail.

Comments

[joanie]

Some interesting observations, Tommy. Maybe it is based on sex. That all the people you named were male(appropriate for the time, I guess), younger, and brought with them a touch of glamour (money, physical attractiveness = sex appeal), perhaps that's what Americans - esp. women - are the qualities that lure women.

I remember my mother's decision to vote for Kennedy. It was based on more than political issues. I remember that very well.

Just a thought.

[Gay Gary]

That's because desecrating the name of H.D.G. JFK is the ultimate taboo. And, in that taboo, is the very evidence of personality cult unrivaled by even Enver Hoxha.

Obama supporters remind me of Mildred Montag in Fahrenheit 451 when she wonders how anyone could have the audacity to vote for the presidential challenger, noting he's not young and good-looking like the incumbent. He also drones on about boring topics that no one cares about. The thing that unites BO supporters is that they'd rather be voting for Will Smith or Rachel Bilson but they're having to settle for BO.

The Reign of Quantity. Signs of the Times.

[joanie]

gg:The thing that unites BO supporters is that they'd rather be voting for Will Smith or Rachel Bilson but they're having to settle for BO.

Not sure I'd go that far. I think he brings some substance to the table as well. Note the "I think..." I'm not sure what he's going to do. I know Mrs. Wall Street's history . . . . just how far to the right or left is Obamagon, Howie?

However, Reagan and Bush the younger were both candidates with charisma that overshadowed their intentions and resumes (which were out there for all to see) and people voted for them.

Look what we got.

[joanie]

Heard on Seder that Donna Edwards (I sent her $$$ through Act Blue) beat Al Wynne in Maryland 64%-37% (or something like that!)

Four years ago she lost to him 46%-50%.

That's the one thing I think Obama brings to the Dems that Hillary doesn't. Long coattails. Edwards is black.

We could make real gains in Congress with those coattails.

[joani]

Also, she's a progressive - not left center.

[wutitiz]

I'm listening to Cunningham on KVI, and a caller mentioned the proposal re world poverty that is supported by Obama. I know little about it, but as I understand it is a .7% tax on GDP that presumably would go to the UN to 'fight poverty.'

But significantly, the proposal also contains a gun ban ('small arms') provision. The NRA has been bird-dogging the UN gun ban proposals for years. This could come back to really bite Obama in the general.

Al Gore & John Kerry learned the lesson the hard way: don't mess with the NRA.

[jeff in ohio]

These people aren't fainting because of Obama-mania, but because with prolonged standing, such as one might do at a crowded political rally, blood is pooling in their legs, leading to an exaggerated nerve response called vasovagal syncope. I am a medical student in training to be a pediatric cardiologist. I was 10 feet from a woman who fainted at an Obama event in Youngstown this week, and I can tell you she was not reacting to overwhelming love for the candidate but to simple physiology.